The runaway success of RuPaul’s Drag Race is propelling a wave of drag-themed shows on to the international market. But are they sick’ning or just crusty?

Make Up Your Mind was created by Dutch outfit Herriemakers for RTL

The last time the TV industry descended upon Cannes, back in October 2019, one of the key trends at that year’s market was the rise of unscripted formats incorporating drag.

Drag SOS, Drag Kids and Queens of Love were just some of the shows on offer two years ago in the same month the long-awaited UK version of the show that almost singlehandedly brought drag into the mainstream – reality competition series RuPaul’s Drag Race – made its debut on the BBC.

Since then the visibility of drag culture around the world has only increased, be it on huge billboards featuring the cast of local adaptations of Drag Race in countries such as the UK and New Zealand, or the continued infiltration of drag and LGBTQ slang into everyday language. Drag has always existed but it has rarely been so prominent on TV screens – in the case of the UK, not since the 1990s, when Lily Savage presented Blankety Blank on the BBC and ITV.

Next week’s Mipcom will see the latest wave of international drag-themed formats hit the market, with the likes of Fremantle, NBCUniversal and Banijay all touting at least one show with drag at its core that they hope will have buyers saying “shantay, you stay.”

And with inclusive programming featuring people from diverse backgrounds top of many buyers’ shopping lists, there’s never been a better time for production and distribution giants to zero in on drag.

This follows a few broadcasters in Europe getting the ball rolling by commissioning drag-themed shows, usually as one-offs, before pledging to do more after positive audience reaction. Unsurprisingly, distributors have picked up on the trend and are now targeting them at international buyers.

That’s what happened with Make Up Your Mind, a format originally produced by Amsterdam-based Herriemakers for RTL Nederland before being picked up by RTL Group-owned Fremantle earlier this year.

More than 1.2 million viewers tuned in to RTL4 to watch the show, in which eight well-known Dutch men surprised the audience by transforming themselves into drag queens.

They performed in full drag in front of a panel of judges that included professional drag artists, who tried to guess who the celebrities were behind the glamorous costumes and make-up, which handily also incorporates the current ‘guessing game’ trend in formats, as popularised by The Masked Singer.

Peter van der Vorst, director of content at RTL Nederland, emphasised the young viewers it brought to the country’s biggest free-to-air channel when announcing it would be returning in 2022 as more than just a one-off episode.

Mads Ulrick Holmstrup

For Rob Clark, director of global entertainment at Fremantle, the fact Make Up Your Mind aired in a primetime slot on a flagship channel represents another great step forward in drag’s journey into the mainstream.

“This is not on RTL5 or NPO3. This is RTL4 on a Saturday night in primetime. This is not a show that’s appearing on a cable channel or post-watershed, or a show that’s aimed at younger or specific demos. It’s a big, broad RTL4 show that plays in the same slot as Got Talent, The Voice or The Masked Singer,” says Clark.

“The broadcasters need to be open-minded. It had huge numbers in the Netherlands and the audiences flocked to it. The audience is open-minded and ready for it; we don’t need to fear the audience. Broadcasters need to understand that the world has changed and I’m hoping they’ll accept that and follow RTL Netherlands’ lead.”

There’s no doubt the biggest factor in the success of RuPaul’s Drag Race has been its authenticity. It retains many of the elements of drag culture that are inherently subversive, particularly the sense of humour and the propensity for double entendre.

But despite all of its glamour and flamboyance, it is not a primetime show on a major free-to-air network. So does the shifting of a subculture accustomed to operating on the fringes of society further into the mainstream risk losing its edges?

Producers and distributors looking to bring drag further into the mainstream face a delicate balance between keeping the filthy humour that makes some drag acts so hilarious and avoiding a telling off from the local media regulator.

“If you take anything from the street to primetime you have to tone down some of the language that might be used. But you’re not toning down the content. It’s still got an edge to it,” says Clark. “It’s not soapbox television but there is a subtle message there. It is really quite emotional in parts.”

Another broadcaster to have dipped its toe with a drag-themed show this year has been Danish commercial broadcaster TV2 Zulu, with Drag Me Out, which is being distributed by Banijay and was produced by Banijay-owned Mastiff Denmark.

TV2 Zulu’s Drag Me Out features mystery celebrities

The two-episode show saw a recurring posse of legendary drag artists compete to create fabulous personas for well-known celebrities. To win, the drag mentors work to create the celebrities’ alter-egos, bringing out their natural performer and help them to push their personal boundaries, including introducing them to ‘tucking.’

Mads Ulrick Holmstrup, CEO at Mastiff Denmark, says a major factor in the show getting commissioned was Jakob Fauerby and Silas Holst being crowned the Danish champions of Strictly Come Dancing in late 2019, making them the first ever male couple to win the competition.

This highlighted the open-mindedness of the audience and the hunt for a similarly broad show began, resulting in a format that Ulrick Holmstrup says ultimately encourages people to be whoever they want to be.

Anyone who has watched an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race will be well aware that while the show has a sharp edge to its humour, it also has a lot of heart, with many of the participants sharing stories of their often difficult life experiences as part of the LGBTQ community.

For that reason, distributors are mindful that bringing drag culture further into the mainstream requires a degree of sensitivity, with the involvement of the local drag community paramount.

“What’s really important, whenever you’re developing or adapting a drag format, is that you respect the art and the craft that is the drag world,” says Ana Langenberg, senior VP of format distribution and production at NBCUniversal.

“What we need to do, and what Monkey has done, is have the relationships with drag queens in the business, who will help you with the casting and make sure you navigate a world that, for the rest of us, we’re still learning the nuances of.

“Like with everything when you’re trying to be inclusive, you have to work closely with people who are part of that world and can help you find the right tone to entertain audiences while being respectful to the world that you’re portraying.”

ITV2’s Celebrity Karaoke Club spin-off Karaoke Club: Drag Edition

The Comcast-owned studio has shows such as The Diva In Me, originally produced by Latin American outfit Movioca and sold to NPO3 in the Netherlands, and Karaoke Club: Drag Edition, UK broadcaster ITV2’s spin-off from Celebrity Karaoke Club, on its slate.

Clark, Ulrick Holmstrup and Langenberg all emphasise the extent to which they consulted with the LGBTQ community to ensure their formats struck the right tone.

One of the ways NBCUniversal International Studios-owned Monkey, the producer of NCBUniversal’s Celebrity Karaoke Club, looked to respect the nuances of drag was to enlist experienced producer Chris Weller, who is also a drag performer.

“What these latest formats are not is exploitative. It’s about embracing that world, not looking down on it or looking at it like it’s a freak show. It’s about understanding a world that has been there for centuries yet we don’t know much about. But that can be so much fun and so touching,” says Langenberg.

“All these stories are very human stories. It’s not about exploiting and showing it as something to laugh at. It is about bringing it into the mainstream and saying, ‘Look, this is a world that is there, let’s embrace it, let’s be part of it, let’s find this symbiosis where we all live together, learn from each other and grow.'”

Ulrick Holmstrup agrees that having the support of the LGBTQ community is crucial to shows such as Drag Me Out, while Clark says he has been hugely vocal when it comes to communicating within Fremantle the care with which Make Up Your Mind should be adapted to ensure there can be no cries of cultural appropriation.

A key part of what ensures Make Up Your Mind empowers the LGBTQ community is the fact the judges on the show are drag queens, adds Clark, who says he is no stranger to a drag bar and sees the show as a celebration of drag culture on mainstream TV.

“It’s like putting Pride in the middle of Saturday night. It’s taking something that is in my culture and putting it slap bang in the middle of everyone else’s. I’m very proud of it. This is us entering the drag world, not us using drag. Honestly, if this was about cultural appropriation of something gay, I would be the first person banging the drum and not buying it. You can trust me on that. It’s not about appropriation, it’s about celebration,” says Clark.

Ana Langenberg

Clark says the three tenets of a global format are transferability, scalability and returnability. He believes Make Up Your Mind has the latter two in abundance but admits there could be an issue with transferability, given some territories simply won’t have drag shows.

Langenberg is similarly up front about the fact some countries, be they in Asia or parts of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), are not yet ready to LGBTQ culture so overtly on screen, but agrees there are still more than enough buyers looking for drag-themed shows.

“It’s not something Asian buyers are after and I can’t say CEE territories have directly enquired. But Latin America is very keen and, for example, Mexico and Brazil are open to drag, and possibly Argentina. A big SVoD in Brazil has asked for drag formats specifically and is evaluating the drag edition of Karaoke Club,” says Langenberg.

“We know Netflix and Amazon in Brazil are looking for formats in this space. But the more traditional, conservative markets, like Colombia and Chile, are perhaps less open at the moment.”

James Townley, Banijay’s global head of content development, says the company has discussed drag’s move into the mainstream internally during the process of adding Drag Me Out to its slate.

“As with all our programming, Banijay producers around the world are armed with deep knowledge to pitch to local broadcasters and platforms. We always share key format beats with our international creative community, but to give extra colour to this show we had one of the iconic drag queens from the Danish series talk internally on International Day of Drag about their artform becoming more mainstream, attracting big audiences,” he says.

So how widespread does he think its appeal could be?

“Drag Me Out is packed with incredible transformations, surprising friendships and fantastic performances across the series, all perfect for entertaining global audiences,” Townley says.

“Drag is an important part of LGBTQ+ life. With diversity and inclusion being of paramount importance, we’re keen to celebrate this culture across the world. Having said that, this is first and foremost a shiny-floor format, entertaining, educational and overall very joyful to watch.

Canadian LGBTQ2+ network OUTtv’s Call Me Mother

“We saw with the Danish launch that Drag Me Out has universal appeal across a wide spectrum of demographics. It always helps when you can back up a new, exciting format with great launch ratings. This show could definitely work in any market as, most importantly, we can guarantee to broadcasters that audiences will always be left with a huge smile on their face.”

Meanwhile, the genre itself is evolving to reflect trends being seen in the formats industry in general. Ulrick Holmstrup mentions there was a desire with Drag Me Out to focus less on conflict between competing celebrity drag queens and instead concentrate on the support between the drag artists and the celebrities.

This is also one of the key parts of Call Me Mother, a new unscripted reality series from Canada’s OUTtv, the world’s first LGBTQ2+ TV network, which premieres on October 25 and will sit alongside a host of drag-themed programming on the channel and streamer.

Produced by Go Button Media and based on a format by RedFlame TV, Call Me Mother will see 10 diverse drag artists vie for a place in one of three new drag houses, and for the opportunity to be mentored by a drag legend.

Comparisons to RuPaul’s Drag Race, which OUTtv airs as an acquisition, and its various spin-offs are inevitable. But Anthony Jiwa, chief marketing officer at OUTtv, says there are a couple of elements to it that make it stand apart from the behemoth of the genre, which is often cutthroat and ultra-competitive.

“One is its focus on the nurturing and development of the talent in the show to be more reflective of a drag community that is supportive and uplifts people. Competition is obviously a theme of the programme but a bigger part of it is development and mentorship,” says Jiwa.

“Also, people are demanding greater representation of forms of drag and types of drag performers that is a lot broader than the very narrow definition that people have seen. We want to show that other types of drag are valid and bring in other performers who are not just cis [cisgender, a person whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth] male artists who also represent different types of drag excellence.”

Jiwa welcomes drag’s move into the mainstream, saying greater visibility of LGBTQ culture can only be a positive thing, while emphasising that, for the queer community, drag is not just an artistic expression, it is also political and personal. Moreover, as many forms of drag originated with performers of colour, Jiwa is also aware programme makers have a responsibility to honour and acknowledge the culture’s roots.

And given a big element of drag is to challenge the mainstream, drag-themed programming produced by more niche outlets like OUTtv will always have more authenticity than those made by non-LGBTQ broadcasters.

NPO3 in the Netherlands picked up The Diva In Me

“Unlike traditional broadcast TV, who has to keep in mind how well their core audience will respond to the show, we approach it thinking, ‘How will a queer audience respond to this? Are they reflected in it? Are they represented in it?’ That’s what drives us. And if a mainstream audience does happen to come along, that’s great. But we don’t really edit or change for that. CBC or CTV would do the inverse of that, because of who their audience is, which is logical,” says Jiwa.

“We’re authentic to that one core audience and anyone else who comes along is great to have. But we’re not necessarily developing it for them explicitly. In shows like Call Me Mother, there are more references that are signalling this is by and for the LGBTQ community.”

As a result, non-LGBTQ broadcasters can learn from the likes of OUTtv when they decide to commission their own drag-themed programming. Jiwa recommends the use of Out On Set, a database of Canadian and US-based LGBTQ2 talent set up by OUTtv alongside the charity Inside Out, to help ensure those involved in the making of a drag-themed show understand the culture.

“It’s about representation not just in front of the screen but also below the line as well. It’s in everyone’s best interests – the audience, the LGBTQ community and the broadcasters – to have authentic representation of people, which translates into a much more authentic show,” says Jiwa.

Meanwhile, you can bet that drag will keep challenging the norm, just as it always has, while it continues its journey into the mainstream.