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RuPaul's Drag Race: Here's The Initial Rankings
Rankings by RTVC Senior Staff Writer Jacob D.
February 2, 2010
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This week's episode of RuPaul's Drag Race saw the beginning of a new season, the arrival of 12 new queens, a fresh set of new challenges.
The 12 finalists selected to compete for the honor of being the next drag superstar arrived in style and got to know each other. Although, six queens were already familiar with some people as three pairs of friends were excited to discover the other in each pair as part of the show.
For their first challenge, RuPaul assigned the queens a photo shoot based on one of her favorite movies, "Gone With The Wind." The queens straddled Civil War cannons in between two soldiers with a giant fan blowing them away. Ru and guest photographer Mike Ruiz declared Raven the winner.
For their main challenge, the queens were then told to make a dress out of sets of curtains supplied by the show and after Raven chose first, as per her victory in the challenge, the other queens rushed and clawed and fought for their material.
On the runway, permanent judges RuPaul, Merle Ginsberg, and Santino Rice were joined by guest judges Mike Ruiz and famed comedian Kathy Griffin. The 12 queens modeled their new designs on the catwalk and the judges selected Tyra Sanchez, Pandora Boxx, and Morgan McMichaels as the top performers in the week's tasks, naming Morgan the overall winner.
Conversely, Mystique Summers Madison, Sahara Davenport, and Shangela LaQuifa Wadley were named the bottom group, with friends Sahara and Shangela falling into the bottom two. The pair had one last chance to battle it out for safety by lip syncing to RuPaul's song, "Cover Girl." In the end, RuPaul declared Sahara safe for the week and eliminated Shangela.
With one down and 11 to go, here are my rankings for the week:
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Morgan McMichaels
Current Ranking: 1 - Previous Ranking: n/a
Morgan is a 28 year old queen from Mira Loma, CA.
Morgan was a standout presence through this whole episode with her unique look/style, personality, and most importantly, her outfit in the main challenge. She made the best possible impact with the judges when RuPaul named her winner, meaning Morgan has set the bar for this competition and is on top for week one. Let's see if she can keep this up.
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Sonique
Current Ranking: 2 - Previous Ranking: n/a
Sonique is a 26 year old queen from Atlanta, GA.
At this point, Sonique is easily my favorite queen. Out of drag, Sonique is a lovely man, but in drag is where she really shines, which I guess is good when you're in a drag competition. Anyway, she has a stunning look and style about her which was quite evident on the runway during the queens' presentations for the main challenge. Her hair was perfect and fierce, her makeup was perfect and fierce, and that outfit was perfect and FIERCE! It was a shame she was not in the top group this week as I would've quickly handed he the win. Beyond that, Sonique seems to be a focused and level-headed individual, showing a steady hand that I think will serve her well in the competition. If this week is a sign of things to come, I am definitely rooting for Sonique to go far!
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Raven
Current Ranking: 3 - Previous Ranking: n/a
Raven is a 30 year old queen from Riverside, CA.
While Raven did not land in the top group for the main challenge this week, I've ranked her above two queens who did because I felt Raven made a big impact this week. She has a sharp, fierce look, a boatload of confidence, won the photo shoot challenge, and really brought her style to the runway in the main challenge. I think Raven is a queen who will be focused and out for the kill so I look to her to do some damage on this show.
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Pandora Boxx
Current Ranking: 4 - Previous Ranking: n/a
Pandora is a 37 year old queen from Rochester, NY.
I like Pandora. She's cute, funny, and quirky and brings some energetic spice to the show. Her personality worked well for her in the photo shoot and her outfit landed her in the top group for the main challenge. However, the judges felt the personality she exhibited in said photo was lacking in her runway presentation. I feel Pandora will be someone to watch and root for, so long as she remembers to have fun and not hold back.
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Tyra Sanchez
Current Ranking: 5 - Previous Ranking: n/a
Tyra is a 21 year old queen from Orlando, FL.
Tyra, while not a standout presence in this episode, landed in the top group at the runway judging for her strong outfit and photo. The judges noted that her outfit wasn't particularly innovative, but was still well made and made for a great visual. However, they also felt she had no personality and that's something she'll need to work on if she wishes to keep this high ranking.
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Jessica Wild
Current Ranking: 6 - Previous Ranking: n/a
Jessica is a 28 year old queen from San Juan, PR.
Jessica, like last season's Nina Flowers, is a Puerto Rican queen who made it onto the show via an online vote. While she didn't burst out of the gate the way Nina did, who won the first challenge in her season, I like Jessica's look, style, what personality I've seen so far, and her stunning outfit in the main challenge. She ranks towards the upper-middle for now.
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Jujubee
Current Ranking: 7 - Previous Ranking: n/a
Jujubee is a 25 year old queen from Boston, MA.
Jujubee, like Nicole, was not one of the star performers this week. However, I have ranked her above Nicole because I like her softer, more feminine look, and felt she did better in the main task with a more appealing outfit and style.
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Nicole Paige Brooks
Current Ranking: 8 - Previous Ranking: n/a
Nicole is a 36 year old queen from Atlanta, GA.
I liked Nicole, but she wasn't exactly a star performer this week. She did ok in the photo shoot, though Mike Ruiz felt she was too catalog, and she did ok on the runway. An "ok" week won't cut it in the end, but it keeps her out of the bottom group this time. Let's hope she can kick things up a notch next time.
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Tatianna
Current Ranking: 9 - Previous Ranking: n/a
Tatianna is a 21 year old queen from Falls Church, VA.
Being that this was the first episode and we don't yet have a lot of history to draw on for making these rankings, a lot of this week's placements will be based on my own personal tastes. The reason I ranked Tatianna this low is that, while she is a beautiful queen, when I tried to remember everyone's name in preparation for these rankings, Tatianna's was the only one I forgot. I had to look her up because I remembered 11 girls, but could not draw out that 12th name. While this was the first episode, I really hope this isn't a sign of things to come and Tatianna can do more to standout.
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Mystique Summers Madison
Current Ranking: 10 - Previous Ranking: n/a
Mystique is a 25 year old queen from Bedford, TX.
Mystique could've easily been eliminated this week. Though she came to represent for the big girls, she served up complaints in the challenge when she felt everything was undersized and didn't seem to do much to fix it. Her resulting outfit was deemed raggedy and she just barely made it through this challenge due to her strong runway presentation. She's got fierceness and presence, but will her attitude get in the way? It almost did this week.
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Sahara Davenport
Current Ranking: 11 - Previous Ranking: n/a
Sahara is a 29 year old queen from New York, NY
In this first episode, Sahara did not get started on the right foot when she fell into the bottom two. I was actually thinking Sahara would be the one going home since she neither made as much of a splash as many of the other queens or put together an interesting outfit. Usually, the quiet boring ones end up getting eliminated first on these shows, but Sahara's beauty and thrilling lip sync performance helped save her. If she wants to stay much longer though, she'll have to learn how to be more than just fabulous wallpaper.
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Shangela LaQuifa Wadley
Eliminated
Shangela is a 28 year old queen from Studio City, CA.
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Jacob D. is a twenty-something native of Austin Tx who spends his time
listening to music, posting on Austin based messageboards, playing
video games, and watching TV. Jacob also enjoys reading Shonen Jump,
Garfield and Calvin & Hobbes strips, playing Texas Hold 'em, drawing
cartoon chickens, and tending to his neopets. Though shy in real
life, he loves to sound off on his favorite shows and enjoys
interacting with other fans.
You can contact Jacob at Jacob@RealityTVCalendar.com
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