TV

It’s Time We Discuss What The Hell Is Going On With The Guest Judges On ‘Drag Race Down Under’

Sorry, but I am convinced all the celebrity guests were booked via Cameo.

by Michelle Rennex  18 May 2021
Drag Race Down Under Guest Judges Taika Watiti Kylie Minogue Danni Minogue

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When RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under was announced at the start of the year, speculation around the series’ potential choices for guest judges, lip-sync songs and Snatch Game characters seemed abundant and endless.

After all, Australia and New Zealand have a very specific type of humour and a rich culture. But with just three episodes of Drag Race Down Under airing so far, we’ve quickly learned that those three areas have been underwhelming to say the least.

Take Episode 2’s Snatch Game for example, which some online are calling the worst of all seasons ever. Despite there being so much source material available for the Down Under queens, we were given Art Simone’s crass take on Bindi Irwin, Kita Mean’s terribly unfunny version of Dr Seuss, a highly questionable interpretation of Lindy Chamberlain thanks to Etcetera Etcetera, and a Maxi Shield-style Magda Szubanksi with absolutely no pizzazz.

There haven’t been any standout lip-sync songs yet, either. One Bee Gees track, ‘Shake Your Groove Thing’, and an anti-climatic RuPaul song in what was one of the most important episodes of the series. Yet somehow the most disappointing part of the Australian version of Drag Race has actually been the piss-poor attempt at incorporating celebrity “guest judges” who do no judging.

Hell, they’re barely even there at all.

Bring Back My Girls Celebrity Judges

Before Drag Race Down Under hit screens this month, a few celebrity guests were teased to drum up interest in the local production — and it worked. The idea of Down Under icons like Taika Waititi and Kylie Minogue finally gracing our screens was exciting!

But unlike normal seasons, Drag Race producers were very smart to not introduce these celebrities as guest judges. Instead, they were simply called “extra special guest stars” which makes sense considering there has been no judging in sight.

Instead of critiques or adorable convos with excited queens in the workroom, we’ve been given pre-recorded bits shoddily spliced with footage of the girls. Or Zoom calls that lack any of the joy we’ve seen in other pandemic seasons.

Take the first “celebrity guest star” of the series, Taika Waititi, for example.

Given the job of “overseeing the auditions” of the queens during the acting mini-challenge, clips of Waititi from the Thor set were simply edited around footage of the contestants. No real judging. No actual interactions. Just a compilation of stock faces and one-liners that are sure to become a bunch of generic reaction gifs in the future.

Really, the only time there was any evidence that Waititi even knew what show he was filming for was when he announced the mini-challenge winner to be Elektra Shock. And even then, it’s clear that the producers had him film a winner reveal with the names of all 10 competitors. Super personal stuff!

Then there was Kylie Minogue’s unbelievably disappointing “appearance” on the show, which literally only lasted 25 seconds in total.

Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with a Zoom call to virtually join the queens in the workroom. Anne Hathaway and Scarlett Johansson’s iconic video calls during Season 13 proved they can work, and work well.

The problem is that Kylie didn’t actually join the queens at all. Her strange pink feather “video call” was clearly pre-recorded, too. The only difference is that Kylie use a camera with worse quality to help producers give off the illusion that the singer was actually talking to the queens.

This was also the case in Episode 3 when producers tried to make the viewers believe that Troye Sivan and Leland actually Zoomed in to give some songwriting tips. But to anyone with eyes and ears, it was painfully clear this was, yet again, a pre-recorded video cut in with reactions from the contestants.

In fact, the only “celebrity guest” who looks like they actually had a real interaction with the queens was Dannii Minogue.

After her sisters questionable appearance earlier in the episode, producers threw the contestants a bone by having Dannii virtually stop by as the queens untucked backstage. While the topics of conversation were pretty empty, it at least felt like a genuine chat where there was some information exchanged.

During the conversation, Dannii was able to give some special “Minogue Magic Tips” and share her go-to dance move with those who were ready to lip sync. It was light-hearted, fun and quick, which really just begs the question of why the other celebrity guests couldn’t just do the same for their Drag Race appearances.

So, Why It Gotta Be… Shit?

While making memes about the obvious lack of any real celebrity judges is funny, it’s quite sad that the Australian and New Zealand contestants haven’t been given the same experience as their sisters from other countries. It’s actually also a little embarrassing that producers ever thought that the Drag Race audience wouldn’t notice that most of the Down Under celebrity interactions weren’t real.

The real joy of Drag Race is in the interactions we see and the relationships that are formed. And being able to see contestants get excited by advice from their idols, and, on the flip side, seeing these celebrities be so delighted by certain looks or performances by the queens, is refreshing television. Plus, having these different celebrity opinions are a necessary addition to combat the biases the regular panel have.

But beyond this lack of fresh perspective, we also lose the foundation that Drag Race is built on when we remove guest judges.

For example, Kylie Minogue’s “guest star” spot could’ve perfectly doubled as a Kylie-dedicated Rusical episode or, at the very least, an iconic Kylie lip sync. Yet, we had neither. We had ‘I’m That Bitch’ by RuPaul in the most disappointing turn of events ever.

Honestly, if this is how celebrity “guest judges” were going to be used in Drag Race Down Under, the producers should’ve just decided to skip it all together.

Sadly, the decision to include these guests in the way they have been utilised so far is a missed opportunity that just makes the season feel lacklustre and disconnected to the wider franchise.

And in the words of the icon that is Tatianna: Choices.

Junkee reached out to Stan for comment. They didn’t respond. Drag Race Down Under streams exclusively on Stan every Saturday.

 

Michelle Rennex is a senior writer at Junkee who is desperately waiting for a ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ lipsync. She tweets at @michellerennex.