‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 15 Fans Petition for 90-Minute Episodes and ‘The Real Friends of WeHo’ Cancelation
RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 made an epic move from VH1 to MTV, expanding its visibility in the market. However, that also came with other changes that divided longtime fans – a shorter runtime. They dropped from 90 to 60 minutes, not including the spinoff, Untucked. As a result, fans are banding together to sign a petition hoping that RuPaul’s Drag Race will return its longer runtime for the remainder of season 15 and beyond.
‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 15 cut down to 60-minute episodes to launch ‘The Real Friends of WeHo’
RuPaul’s Drag Race kicked off season 15 with a two-hour split premiere that divided its biggest cast of drag queens in herstory – 16 contestants. This became a popular format, allowing the judges and the audience to acquaint themselves better with each of the queens. This also provides them with more screen time than a packed premiere trying to give them all their time in the spotlight.
Starting with the following episode, the runtime went down to 60 minutes. However, it’s more in the 40-minute range after commercials are accounted for. MTV is using RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 as a launching pad for other programs, such as The Real Friends of WeHo.
The new reality series follows the lives of celebrity stylist Brad Goreski, choreographer Todrick Hall, actor Curtis Hamilton, Buttah Skincare CEO Dorión Renaud, actor Jaymes Vaughan, and entrepreneur Joey Zauzig.
‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 15 fans are signing a petition to return to 90-minute episodes
RuPaul’s Drag Race fan Brandon Wu started a petition via Change.org for MTV and WOWPresents to expand season 15 episodes back to the 90-minute length. In addition, he supported the cancelation of The Real Friends of WeHo to accommodate the drag reality television show. The petition far surpassed its initial goal of 1,500 and is now working toward 25,000.
The 90-minute format was unique to any other reality competition show where we actually have context for the content of episodes,” Wu wrote in the petition descriptions. “Also, we really don’t want The Real Friends of WeHo to air. Given Todrick Hall’s problematic behavior last year on Celebrity Big Brother, it’s irresponsible to give him a platform he doesn’t deserve, and he refuses to take accountability. So we ask politely and aggressively to allow Drag Race to have the 90 minutes fans deserve.
In 2022, Hall skipped all press interviews after his time on Celebrity Big Brother due to the intense audience backlash as a result of the way that he played the game. In particular, according to a clip shared on Twitter, he spoke about how he changed the rates for his Cameo without any reason. Many fans were turned off by the way that he spoke about others behind their backs while the cameras were rolling.
The girls deserve more airtime
The RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 petition comes at the same time that several contestants – past and present – spoke out regarding the undeservingly short runways. Season 14’s Kornbread Jeté shared the petition on Twitter, only giving it further exposure.
Season 15’s Salina EsTitties tweeted, “We worked too hard and invested too much money for a 45-minute edit.” Season 5 and All Stars Season 2’s Detox agreed, “I hate it.”
Meanwhile, season 9’s Peppermint wrote, “All these people complaining about 40 min episodes. After a 2 hour premier for s15, Where the heck were y’all when season 9 premiered on vh1 with a 40 [minute] episode? Y’all telling on yourselves.” Further, she added that, “S8 was 62 min without commercials. The show was cut down to 42 minutes when it moved to vh1 (season 9). S10-14 were 60min show PLUS 30 untucked. Which (90 min).”
