Host RuPaul Origin Los Angeles | Air date January 24, 2011 Competitors 13 | |
Broadcast from January 24 (2011-01-24) – May 2, 2011 (2011-05-02) Winner Sutan Amrull | ||
The third season of RuPaul's Drag Race began airing on January 24, 2011. Thirteen drag queens competed for the title of "America's Next Drag Superstar", a headlining spot on the Absolut Tour, a lifetime supply of Kryolan makeup, and a cash prize of $75,000, won by Raja on the fifteenth episode.
Contents
This season had Michelle Visage replacing Merle Ginsberg at the judge's table and Billy Brasfield (better known as Billy B), Mike Ruiz, and Jeffrey Moran filling in for Santino Rice's absence during several episodes. Billy B, celebrity makeup artist and star of the HGTV mini-series Hometown Renovation, appeared as a judge in five episodes. Whereas Mike Ruiz only judged for two episodes, and Jeffrey Moran for one, Moran only appearing for promotional reasons. Due to Billy B's continued appearances, he and Rice are now considered to have been alternate judges for the same seat at the judges table, both appearing side-by-side in the reunion special to announce Yara Sofia as the season's Miss Congeniality.
Other changes made included the introduction of a wildcard contestant from the past season, Shangela Laquifa Wadley; an episode with no elimination; and a contestant, Carmen Carrera, being brought back into the competition after having been eliminated a few episodes prior. A new pit crew was also introduced consisting of Jason Carter and Shawn Morales. The theme song playing during the runway every episode was changed to "Champion" while the song playing during the credits is "Main Event", both from RuPaul's album Champion. As with the previous season, each week's episode was followed by a behind-the-scenes show, RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked.
Alexis Mateo, Manila Luzon, Mimi Imfurst and Yara Sofia competed on the first season of All Stars.
On December 6, 2011 Amazon.com released this season on DVD via their CreateSpace program.
Contestants
The drag queens who competed to be "America's Next Drag Superstar" for season three of RuPaul's Drag Race are:
(Ages and names stated are at time of contest)
Contestant Progress
Lip-syncs
The contestant was eliminated after their first time in the bottom two. The contestant was eliminated after their second time in the bottom two. The contestant was eliminated after their third time in the bottom two.Guest judges
(In alphabetic order by stage name and/or last name)
U.S. television ratings
1Based upon point/share system for Nielsen ratings. The first number represents the percentage of households within the population viewing the program (known as points). The second number (known as shares) is how many households were expected to view the program, within the population. For example, Episode 8 has a point/share of "0.3/1". This means .3% of households viewed the program from the expected 1%, showing .7% of the show's audience were watching a different program.