The sixteenth season of RuPaul's Drag Race premiered on January 5, 2024. The reality competition series, broadcast on MTV in the United States, showcases fourteen drag queens competing for the title of "America's Next Drag Superstar" and a cash prize of $200,000.
This season introduced a LaLaPaRuZa Lip-Sync Smackdown competition for the eliminated queens that took place before the finale. Morphine Love Dion, who placed 5th in the main competition, won the smackdown and the title of Queen of She Done Already Done Had Herses.
The winner of season 16 was Nymphia Wind, the first ever East Asian winner, with Sapphira Cristál as the runner up and the series' first tied winner of Miss Congeniality, shared with Xunami Muse.
Production
In August 2023, the competition series and its companion series, RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked, were officially renewed and would remain on MTV. RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars was also renewed for a ninth season by Paramount+.[1] In November, a teaser was released from MTV featuring RuPaul in various promos from past seasons.[2]Sasha Colby, the winner of season fifteen, presented the Meet the Queens via the series official YouTube channel on December 6, 2023. The Meet the Queens video included an 8-minute clip from the season premiere, where the fourteen contestants entered the Werk Room set.[3]
The first seven queens of the season enter the Werk Room. For this episode's main challenge, the queens must perform in the "MTV's Spring Break" talent show.
Amanda Tori Meating – Original song lip-sync
Dawn – Original song lip-sync
Mirage – Original song lip-sync
Morphine Love Dion – Lip-sync / Baile Folklorico
Q – Dance puppetry
Sapphira Cristál – Opera singing
Xunami Muse – Original song lip-sync
On the runway, category is RuVeal Yourself. Amanda Tori Meating, Dawn, Mirage Morphine Love Dion, Q, Sapphira Cristál and Xunami Muse receive the judges critiques. The queens rank each other using Rate-A-Queen. It is announced that Q and Sapphira Cristál received the highest placements, making them the top two queens of the week who will lip-sync for the win. They lip-sync to "Break My Soul" by Beyoncé. After the lip-sync, it is announced that Sapphira Cristál is the winner.
The next seven queens of the season enter the Werk Room. For this episode's main challenge, the queens must perform in the "Queen Choice Awards" talent show.
Geneva Karr – Original song lip-sync
Hershii LiqCour-Jeté – Original song Lip-sync
Megami – Sign holder/lip sync
Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige - Stunt / Flip Lip-sync
Nymphia Wind - Cultural Dance
Plane Jane – Original song Lip-sync
Plasma – Singing / Impressions
On the runway, category is Made You Look. Geneva Karr, Nymphia Wind, Plane Jane, Hershii LiqCour-Jeté, Megami, Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige and Plasma receive the judges critiques. The queens rank each other using Rate-A-Queen. It is announced that Geneva Karr and Plane Jane received the highest placements, making them the top two queens of the week who will lip-sync for the win. They lip-sync to "Shower" by Becky G. After the lip-sync, it is announced that Plane Jane is the winner.
At the beginning of the episode reveals the twist of the season: as the winners of the first two episodes, Plane Jane and Sapphira Cristál will hold the power of the Immunity Potions. This power can only be used once during the competition, the owner will be able to decide whether to use immunity to save themselves or another one of the queens. For the main challenge, the queens walk the Mother of All Ball, presenting two looks brought from home and one made in the work room. Categories are Mother Goose, Significant Mother, and Call Me Mother/Father Eleganza.
After the runway, the queens rank each other using Rate-A-Queen. Nymphia Wind, Q and Sapphira Cristál receive positive critiques, with Nymphia Wind winning the challenge. Geneva Karr, Hershii LiqCour-Jeté and Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige receive negative critiques, with Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige being declared safe. Geneva Karr and Hershii LiqCour-Jeté lip-sync to "Maybe You're the Problem" by Ava Max. Geneva Karr wins the lip-sync and Hershii LiqCour-Jeté is eliminated.
For this episode's main challenge, the queens put their sketch comedy skills to the test in "RDR Live!" comedy show filmed in one take, parodying Saturday Night Live in a challenge returning by “popular demand”, having first appeared in All Stars season 8.
On the runway, category is Everything Every-Cher All at Once. From this challenge onwards, the queens are judged by the judging panel rather than using Rate-A-Queen. Plane Jane, Plasma and Q receive positive critiques, with Plasma winning the challenge. Geneva Karr, Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige and Mirage receive negative critiques, with Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige being declared safe. Geneva Karr and Mirage lip-sync to "Dark Lady" by Cher. Geneva Karr wins the lip-sync and Mirage is eliminated.
For this episode's mini challenge, the queens are tasked with creating a front cover and author biography for a bestselling book. Sapphira Cristál wins the mini challenge. For this episode's main challenge, the queens are tasked to write and perform verses for RuPaul songs from his album Black Butta in groups of four. Geneva Karr, Plasma and Sapphira Cristál are the team captains.
Team Q.D.S.M. - Dawn, Q, Morphine Love Dion and Sapphira Cristál
Team Lovah Girlz - Amanda Tori Meating, Plane Jane, Plasma and Xunami Muse
Team Thicc & Stick - Geneva Karr, Megami, Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige and Nymphia Wind
On the runway, category is Faster Pussycat, Wig, Wig. Team Thicc & Stick is the winning team, with Geneva Karr, Megami, Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige and Nymphia Wind all winning the challenge. Team Q.D.S.M. and Team Lovah Girlz are the losing teams. Amanda Tori Meating and Q receive the negative critiques, and are announced as the bottom two, while the rest of the queens are declared safe. Amanda Tori Meating and Q lip-sync to "Emergency" by Icona Pop. Q wins the lip-sync and Amanda Tori Meating is eliminated.
Farewell Message: "You are all Fugly SKANKS and I hate every last one of you bitches. Most of all Q. LMAO but actually ily♡ Have Fun cleaning this mirror you bitch. You better Fucking win so I can at least say the winner sent me to the house."
For this episode's main challenge, the queens must design their own dolls based on their drag personas.
On the Runway category is Welcome to the DollHouse. Sapphira Cristál chooses to drink her immunity potion and is declared safe before critiques begin. Dawn, Plane Jane and Q receive positive critiques with Q winning the challenge. Geneva Karr, Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige and Plasma receive negative critiques with Plasma being declared safe. Geneva Karr and Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige then lip-sync to "Control" by Janet Jackson. Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige wins the lip-sync and Geneva Karr is eliminated.
For this week's main challenge, the queens must perform the rusicalThe Sound of Rusic, inspired by the musical The Sound of Music and its film adaptation. The queens' roles are as follows:
Dawn as Streudel
Megami as Schnitzel
Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige as a Sister Sister
Morphine Love Dion as a Sister Sister
Nymphia Wind as Diesel
Plane Jane as a Baronette
Plasma as Mariah
Q as The Baroness Braun
Sapphira Cristál as Mother Superior
Xunami Muse as a Baronette
On the runway, category is I Can Buy Myself Flowers. Plasma, Q, and Sapphira Cristál receive positive critiques, with Plasma winning the challenge. Megami, Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige, and Morphine Love Dion receive negative critiques, with Morphine Love Dion being declared safe. Megami and Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige lip-sync to "Flowers" by Miley Cyrus. Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige wins the lip-sync and Megami is eliminated.
On the runway, category is Dancing Queen. Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige, Plane Jane, and Sapphira Cristál receive positive critiques, with Plane Jane winning the challenge. Morphine Love Dion, Nymphia Wind, and Xunami Muse receive negative critiques, with Nymphia Wind being declared safe . Morphine Love Dion and Xunami Muse lip-sync to "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" by Whitney Houston. Morphine Love Dion wins the lip-sync and Xunami Muse is eliminated.
For this week's mini challenge, the queens perform spit-takes. Nymphia Wind wins the mini challenge. For this episode's main challenge, the queens must design and create a "neo-goth" look from scratch.
On the runway, category is See You Next Wednesday. Dawn, Nymphia Wind, Q and Sapphira Cristal receive positive critiques, with Q winning the challenge. Plane Jane receives mixed critiques. Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige, Morphine Love Dion, and Plasma receive negative critiques, with Morphine Love Dion declared safe. Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige and Plasma lip-sync to "Bloody Mary (Wednesday Dance TikTok Version)" by Lady Gaga. Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige wins the lip-sync and Plasma is eliminated.
For this week's main challenge the queens write and perform verses on the song "Power."
On the runway, category is True Colours. Plane Jane chooses to gift her immunity potion to Nymphia Wind; Nymphia is declared safe before critiques begin. Dawn, Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige, Morphine Love Dion and Sapphira Cristal receive positive critiques , with Morphine Love Dion and Sapphira Cristál being announced as the top 2. Plane Jane and Q receive mixed critiques but are ultimately announced as Safe. Morphine and Sapphira lip-sync to "Made You Look" by Meghan Trainor. Sapphira wins the lip sync and no one is eliminated.
For this week's mini challenge, the queens vote in rounds to assign superlatives to their fellow contestants. The queens voting with the majority in each round earn money. Sapphira Cristál earns the most money and wins the mini challenge. For this episode's main challenge, the queens must write and deliver a drag awareness employee seminar. The queens' assigned groups and topics are as follows:
Plane Jane and Q: "Do you know your drag herstory?"
Dawn and Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige: "Drag in the workplace"
Morphine Love Dion, Nymphia Wind and Sapphira Cristál: "Are you a drag queen? You might be surprised"
On the runway, category is Flashback: DragCon 1980. Nymphia Wind and Sapphira Cristál receive positive critiques, with Sapphira Cristál winning the challenge. Plane Jane and Q receive largely positive critiques and are declared safe. Dawn, Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige and Morphine Love Dion receive negative critiques, with Dawn declared safe. Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige and Morphine Love Dion lip-sync to "Dim All the Lights" by Donna Summer. Morphine Love Dion wins the lip-sync and Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige is eliminated.
For this week's mini challenge, the queens imprint a full beat of makeup onto a T-shirt using only their face. Plane Jane wins the mini challenge. For this week's main challenge, the queens must design a bathroom and present it on the spoof design show Bathroom Hunties. The queens' groups and design concepts are as follows:
Morphine Love Dion and Q: Naughty Potty (Hell theme)
Dawn and Nymphia Wind: F.ART Museum (Art Museum theme)
Plane Jane and Sapphira Cristál: Bootylickers Speakeasy (Speakeasy theme)
On the runway, category is Chain Reaction. Plane Jane and Sapphira Cristál receive positive critiques, and are both declared the winners of the challenge. Dawn, Morphine Love Dion, Nymphia Wind and Q receive largely negative critiques, with Nymphia Wind and Q declared safe. Dawn and Morphine Love Dion lip-sync to "Body" by Megan Thee Stallion. Morphine Love Dion wins the lip-sync and Dawn is eliminated.
For this week's main challenge, the queens must give drag makeovers to Pit Crew dancers from RuPaul's Drag Race Live!. The pairs must also choreograph and perform a dance to a remix of RuPaul's song "Super Queen".
On the runway, category is Drag Family Resemblance. Nymphia Wind, Plane Jane and Q receive positive critiques, with Plane Jane winning the challenge. Morphine Love Dion and Sapphira Cristál receive negative critiques and are the bottom two. Morphine Love Dion and Sapphira Cristál lip-sync to "Miss Me More" by Kelsea Ballerini. Sapphira Cristál wins the lip-sync and Morphine Love Dion is eliminated.
Farewell Message: "It's gonna be sooo boring without me. I'm rooting for all of you my top 4 queens here slaying and I can't wait to see you soon ♡ Morphine Love Dion 💋"
For this week's mini challenge, the queens must give a lip sync performance underwater to RuPaul's song "Kitty Girl". Sapphira Cristál wins the mini challenge. For this episode's main challenge, the queens must write a memoir, pose for the cover, and participate in a podcast interview.
Nymphia Wind - Breaking Wind - The Art of Letting Go
Plane Jane - Plane Crash! How I Walked Away from Disaster
Q - Alphabet Soup - Savor Every Bite
Sapphira Cristál - Slue Foot - Embracing All of Me
On the runway, category is Fandango. Nymphia Wind and Sapphira Cristál receive positive critiques, with Nymphia Wind winning the challenge. Plane Jane and Q receive negative critiques and are the bottom two. Plane Jane and Q lip-sync to "Better Be Good to Me" by Tina Turner. Plane Jane wins the lip-sync and Q is eliminated.
Farewell Message: "Not Gonna Lie, This one hurts... But I love you all so much! you're gonna kill it ♡ FROM NOW ON THERE'S ONLY ONE LETTER OF THE ALPHABET -Q"
This week, the eliminated queens participate in a Lip Sync LaLaPaRuza Smackdown, the winner of which will be crowned as "Queen of She Done Already Done Had Herses" with a $50,000 prize. For most of the lip-syncs a queen is chosen at random who gets to select their opponent. Their opponent then gets to choose the lip sync song.
First, Dawn chooses to lip sync against Amanda Tori Meating, who chooses "Damaged" by Danity Kane. Amanda Tori Meating wins the lip-sync and advances to round 2.
In the second lip-sync, Q chooses Megami as her opponent, who chooses "What About" by Janet Jackson. Megami wins and advances to round 2.
In the third lip-sync, Morphine Love Dion chooses Geneva Karr as her opponent, who chooses "Million Dollar Baby" by Ava Max. Morphine Love Dion wins and advances to round 2.
In the fourth lip-sync, Mirage chooses Hershii LiqCour-Jeté as her opponent, who chooses "Alone 2.0" by Kim Petras and Nicki Minaj. Mirage wins and advances to round 2.
As the last three remaining queens, Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige, Plasma and Xunami Muse must lip-sync. Mh'iya Iman Le'Paige is randomly selected to pick the song and chooses "Milkshake" by Kelis. Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige wins and advances directly to round 3.
In the first lip-sync of round 2, Amanda Tori Meating chooses Megami as her opponent, who chooses "The Shoop Shoop Song" by Cher. Megami wins and advances to round 3.
In the second lip-sync of round 2, the two remaining queens, Mirage and Morphine Love Dion, must lip-sync. Morphine Love Dion is randomly selected to pick the song and chooses "This Time I Know It's for Real" by Donna Summer. Morphine Love Dion wins and advances to round 3.
Before the third round, RuPaul reveals a twist: one of the remaining queens will be selected at random and that queen must choose their opponent. The queen who is not chosen will advance directly to the final round. Megami is selected, and she chooses to lip-sync against Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige. Thus, Megami and Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige lip sync to the remaining song "We Got the Beat" by The Go-Go's. Megami wins and advances to the final round.
Round 1 Lip-Sync Winners: Amanda Tori Meating, Megami, Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige, Mirage and Morphine Love Dion
Round 2 Lip-Sync Winners: Megami and Morphine Love Dion (Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige advanced directly to round 3)
Round 3 Lip-Sync Winner: Megami (Morphine Love Dion advanced directly to the final round)
Queen of She Done Already Done Had Herses: Morphine Love Dion
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"Grand Finale"
April 19, 2024 (2024-04-19)
In elimination order the eliminated queens and the finalists walk the runway on the finale stage. Each finalist – in order: Nymphia Wind, Plane Jane and Sapphira Cristál – perform an original solo number and get interviewed by RuPaul. After a video highlighting her life and appearances on Drag Race, RuPaul presents the "Giving Us Life-time Achievement Award" to Cassandra Peterson. RuPaul announces that Nymphia and Sapphira will move forward to the final lip sync; Plane Jane receives a tip of $25,000. In a video all contestants of the season celebrate their mothers. Last season's winner Sasha Colby performs "Her" by Megan Thee Stallion and gets interviewed by RuPaul. All eliminated queens perform together on stage. Last season's Miss Congeniality Malaysia Babydoll Foxx announces this year's Miss Congeniality - which for the first time in Drag Race herstory is a tie: Sapphira Cristál and Xunami Muse, who both receive $10,000. Nymphia Wind and Sapphira Cristál lipsync to "Padam Padam" by Kylie Minogue. RuPaul announces as the winner Nymphia Wind. She receives the crown and scepter from Sasha Colby and $200,000; Sapphira Cristál receives $25,000.
Final Three: Nymphia Wind, Plane Jane and Sapphira Cristál
Eliminated: Plane Jane
Miss Congeniality: Sapphira Cristál and Xunami Muse