Why ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 1 Had the Infamous ‘Season 1 Filter’
When RuPaul’s Drag Race first premiered in 2009, even RuPaul himself was unaware that it would become a global phenomenon. The low-budget reality show aired its first eight seasons on Logo, and its first season was infamously low-definition thanks to its instantly-recognizable “Season 1 Filter.”
‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ season 1 premiered in 2009
RuPaul first rose to fame in the 1990s as a recording artist with his hit single “Supermodel (You Better Work).” He went on to host his own talk show, VH1’s The RuPaul Show, with his longtime squirrelfriend, Michelle Visage.
RuPaul’s popularity plateaued in the 2000s before the creation of a new reality competition show to find America’s Next Drag Superstar. RuPaul’s Drag Race premiered on Logo in 2009, and for its first few years, remained a cult show with a small but dedicated following.
‘Drag Race’ season 1’s infamous filter
Season 1 of RuPaul’s Drag Race featured many unforgettable things, not the least of which was the “filter” that made everything on screen appear blurry and over-lit. While some fans believed it to be Vaseline, Season 1 queens BeBe Zahara Benet and Ongina clarified what it actually was on a 2020 episode of Entertainment Weekly’s Binge podcast.
“It seems like every two seconds they had to change some lighting thing,” Benet said.
“[It was] that filter!” Ongina added. “They had to keep changing the plastic layer they kept adding to the camera! They had a man with different color cellophanes. We were just sitting there!”
Still, the queens had no idea how the cellophane panels would make them look on national television.
“We didn’t even know what it was,” Benet said. “When we looked at the final product we were like, ‘Oh, they sure blurred our faces, honey, we must not have been that cute!'”
Ongina shared about the “Season 1 Filter” on her Instagram in 2018. “It’s really quite interesting the filter used for RuPaul’s Drag Race S1,” she said. “I remember them adding these sheets of plastic or something … over the camera lenses while shooting. So despite popular beliefs, it was not Vaseline!”
‘Drag Race’ is broadcast in HD in several countries today
The “Season 1 Filter,” as it came to be known, was made fun of by fans, but has ultimately become one of the most beloved touches of the early days of Drag Race. The show was broadcast in standard definition for its first few years before making the switch to HD.
Since then, RuPaul’s Drag Race has become a worldwide phenomenon. To date, a whopping 24 Emmy Awards have been attributed to the show. And beyond the shores of the US, the show has made a splash overseas, with several international spin-offs, including RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under, Canada’s Drag Race, Drag Race Thailand, Drag Race España, Drag Race France, Drag Race Holland, Drag Race Italia, and Drag Race Philippines.
