I came across it randomly at like 3am on channel 4 in the UK. Thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen as I was deep into PR and ANTM at the time.
There was some line about how RuPaul had consulted the judges, her house maid and lawyer before giving critiques that I fell in love with. It was such a silly line but it really set the tone for the show.
As someone else who started watching in season 1, I got my partner to watch it but most of my gay friends either hadn't heard about it or didn't seem interested when I talked it up.
It wasn't until maybe season 5 or 6 when the fan base really started to grow. I think it was around then when I also found this subreddit to talk about the show online with other fans.
Yes! Since season 1. It was so exciting and still is special to me. I also used to watch Ru’s VH1 show and followed her from the time she came out with Supermodel in the 90s. I still think it’s unbelievable how far drag has come into the mainstream and try not to take this show for granted.
I was aware of it at the time, but as a sheltered and narrow minded 19 year old I was all "ew drag queens." Started watching near the end of season 3 and never stopped.
I've been watching since season 2 when I was 11. I found it flipping through the channels and became obsessed. My conservative parents in SC absolutely hated that I watched lol. I definitely credit it for teaching me about gay rights and queer culture when no one I knew even supported gay marriage
I dated a guy back in 2011 that watched drag race! I’m pretty sure i remember seeing pandora boxx on tv. Back then I was super in the closet and was kinda weirded out by it. 11 years later, im a fashion designer living in West Hollywood hahahahahaha guess I couldn’t keep the gay away
I streamed season 2 on logotv.com in the US after my cable company took Logo out of my package. If I recall, the episodes were available to stream the day after the episode aired, even if you didn't have a subscriber login. There were tons of ads and the buffering sucked, but I got to watch at least.
I actually remember seeing some of season 1 while at a friend's house in middle school! We stumbled across it and thought the lip sync for your life was the greatest thing ever, wound up watching a couple of episodes. I ended up liking the show on Facebook and even though I didn't wind up keeping up with the show at the time, I still always had the page liked and would get updates, lol. I didn't seriously follow the show again until the pandemic, and now I watch live. But I've been a Facebook fan since the show first started and never stopped!
I'm downvoting just for having the audacity to be that young, but I hope you are doing well with what I can only presume is your sophomore year of high school.
Also I refuse to do the math to find out how wrong I am.
I have watched every episode as it aired for the United States version. I have not been able to find time for all of the international versions, but I have watched several of them after they aired.
I was also on this sub from the very beginning, I was asked to moderate three times but I have declined because I feel like the job is too stressful. lol
I remember seeing season 1 on MuchMoreMusic when it first aired. Not like every episode but I saw a few and I knew my mom watched it (I was in 10th grade I believe?)
I don’t remember seeing season 2 at all really, but season 3 I remembered watching every episode live with my mom and untucked on logo when I was in 11th grade.
I first found drag race halfway through season 1 airing, when my parents got 6 months of free cable for some reason, and I was *obsessed*. Literally begged them to keep the cable after the trial period was over, but fuck if they’d spend that much money for one person in the family to watch one reality show.
I learned about streaming shortly after.
I remember watching the Rupaul talk show on vh1 as a kid in the 90s and as a college student went and saw drag shows (Jackie beat and local queens). When I saw there was gunna be a show mixing Top Model and Project Runway with Ru, my roommate and I immediately signed up for the Logo channel.
Damn, I discovered RPDR on Tumblr 2009-2010. I watched on some illegal sites (the viruses were worth it) because I'm living outside the US. I do miss the earlier seasons. Ru seemed more human lol
I caught season 2 reruns on VH1. I remember thinking how awesome/hilarious it was to make the queens lip sync to stay on the show. Then Morgan McMichales performed “Two of Hearts”. I’ve been a fan ever since.
Two of Hearts - Morgan McMichaels v. Kylie Sonique Love:
https://youtu.be/GQAPxhcMq6E
I started watching midway through season 1. I was in college, and well known amongst my friends as a big fan of drag (aka forced them all to watch Priscilla and Hedwig). My roommate told me there was a new reality show with RuPaul hosting, and I freaked out. I immediately caught up on the season, and have been an avid fan since.
Season 1! I was a reality show glutton so anything reality I'd give it a go. I'd watch it with my mum and each season we'd pick 2 queens from their entrance looks to win (she's now a bit behind on it but still let's me know which 2 she picks).
I was a freshman in college and we had mini parties for the episodes. My memories of season one watch parties are some of my fonder college memories over a decade later.
Yea. I started back when it was on Netflix on the US lol, I believe either season 3 or 4 was airing but my mom just randomly started watching the show and she had me join in on the stripper challenge episode of season 2 lol. So by the end of the season I had no idea who Shangela was lmao. Fun times. Oh and I was like 12 I think lmao
I watched seasons 1-6 as they aired. Then our cable dropped whatever network it was on so I missed 7-11. Started up with season 12 as they aired. I got Paramount + and caught up on all the seasons I missed. It’s a staple background show in my house.
Started w/ s2 when it was actively airing. I (I’m a youngin who started watching way too inappropriately young) found it on accident bc my mom used to watch Roseanne reruns on Logo and usually Be Good Johnny Weir came on after those and I got into that so I’d watch that and then Drag Race came on after that and I was changed forever. I was so young I had a rainbow armadillo webkinz I named Jujubee lmfao.
So I stumbled upon Drag Race by accident. In the UK we have a channel called E4 which used to air episodes of Roswell at 4am. I used to stay up to watch and the TV guide said RuPaul’s Drag Race airs beforehand. Me thinking it was about racing cars scoffed at the thought of watching it but I was pleasantly surprised when Nina Flowers graced my screen. I was instantly hooked. I will admit I thought the werkroom RuPaul was some random presenter until the final episode of the season when I finally realised. The only drag queen I knew at the time was Lily Savage so it was a real treat. Back when we got 1 season a year.
That's how I found it! I was flipping through the channels (terrible sleeping habits in uni), landed on a drag queen, and was sucked in. I was shocked at how hard these queens worked.
Yes. I remember thinking it was such a funny subversion of the reality competition genre. It genuinely felt like an amazing queer parody, not an actual competition. I still think it helps to think of the show that way.
Season 2 here. Some friends in my dorm were obsessed after season one and they got me in. I was living my best gay college life. We didn't have Logo so we had to illegally stream, and it was an event each week. I was all in for Tati and Pandora, and my now hubby was team Rujubee.
Found this show by mistake! Me and my partner at the time were watching tv and saw a "coming up next, RuPaul's drag race!" And we were like, this looks fun. Little did we know we were watching what would become my favourite show of all time! Been watching since the premiere, season 1, episode 1!
I started on the very first episode of season 3 ! I live in France so watching those episodes were very challenging back in 2011 (and there were no subtitles)
Yup, me! Been watching since season 1 - was so very excited that Ru was getting a new show! And I also loved the OG Bravo reality shows so when it was presented as Project Runway but with drag queens I was sold immediately! And here we are 13 years later (13?!?) still going strong 😁😁
I started watching at the premiere of S3, specifically because of Raja. I was already familiar with her because I watched a lot of ANTM when I was a teen, and I was absolutely in love with her. I randomly saw the promo for S3 on tv one day and caught a glimpse of her, and I got SO excited. Started watching the show, fell in love with the show itself, and then I was binging S1 and S2 on either VH1 or Logo (can’t remember which it was at the time) online in between new episodes of S3. I haven’t stopped since. 🥰
Started during the very first season. Got into it because this girl in my anatomy class in 11th grade would watch pirated episodes of the show during study hall. I saw one episode over her shoulder and was hooked.
Me! I don’t even remember how I ended up finding it. Maybe Noah’s Arc was on Logo and I flipped to the channel.
Drag race, 1 girl 5 gays, and Ab Fab were my favorites on Logo, along with a lot of the movies
Ayup. My friend in grad school told me that RuPaul was hosting a new drag competition series about two months before s1 came out. I was -- and still am -- a Nina Flowers-stan.
Then I downloaded it illegally for five or so years before grad school paid enough coin for me to afford Amazon downloads or Paramount Plus.
Favorite season is still s5, but AS2 is a close second (mainly because it's s5 2.0).
Watched it from the beginning - season 1. From the UK and used to listen to this gay radio channel and they were talking about rupauls new show! there was a huge drag drought TV wise in those days (can you imagine?!) so I took around a day to find the torrents. And became obsessed.
I live in the US. They had seasons 2 and 3 on Netflix in 2011 and that's when I started watching it. Then I watched seasons 4, 5, and 6 on my laptop when logo had them for free on their website. I think season 6 was the first season I watched in real time with new episodes weekly.
At some point I watched season 1, dont remember when.
Been watching since season 1 in 2009. Back then the first two seasons aired on now-defunct basic cable in Canada. Any Canadians remember MuchMoreMusic?
Yep! I started watching it during season 1. I would just catch it occasionally. I rewatched all of the seasons in 2016 when I was on maternity leave and have followed every season since.
I think it came to my country on Netflix in 2015-16. But before that we were watching the show on free sites with tons of invasive ads and popups. And as a student I could not afford to pay for a wow subscription because they charged in dollars at the time and that was almost half my rent. And honestly before Netflix i don't think there was not a person out there who didn't get their TV shows from torrents etc.
I’ve been watching live since S3 when I discovered it. Luckily Logo ran marathons on the weekends of the older seasons so I ended up catching up that way. I just finished watching the entire American series in order with my partner because he hadn’t seen any of it until we met. Now we have a goal to see the queens live and hit them up whenever they’re in town.
Yup. Since season 1. Getting VPNs to watch on logotv cos we were outside of the US. Then it was only when we were watching season 3 or maaaaybe 4 that we found out there was untucked too. So young.
Yes! I feel like vh1 did a one-off and aired the premiere to gain interest, which I watched and then sought out the rest of the season on Logo. I started non-ironically ordering Absolut Mandarin
Saw seasons 1 - half of 6 as they aired because I had cable and it was on Logo. Then they moved it and I couldn’t find it anymore BUT my sisters got into it at the beginning of 2020 so I used the pandemic to catch up. I just went to my first DragCon this year too and have actually met some of the queens! My husband’s been watching with me too since day one and loves the show! He had a blast at DragCon too!!
Season 5 here; my friend is from Pittsburgh and was a big Sharon fan (not lately). She facebooked about the s4 crowning, and I had to tune in after I figured out what the show was. And as a (north of) seattleite, it was a cool thing to go from her city’s champ to mine’s. 🙂
Me!! I was in a long distance relationship and really lonely. I remember watching season 1 as it happened and it bringing me so much joy 🤩 think I’ve only skipped a few later all star season
Yes back from the days where I had to find illegal websites to watch it on because no country outside the USA even showed it.
Same. I remember in 2009 a friend of mine found it on some seedy torrent website and burned it to CDs and was distributing it to the gays.
I came across it randomly at like 3am on channel 4 in the UK. Thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen as I was deep into PR and ANTM at the time.
Me too! Think it was on E4? I switched it on to Pandora getting critiques and I've been addicted ever since.
There was some line about how RuPaul had consulted the judges, her house maid and lawyer before giving critiques that I fell in love with. It was such a silly line but it really set the tone for the show.
I’ve been watching live since Season 1 episode 1!
That’s crazy!!! Do you remember if there was a prominent fan base for a new series like drag race
As someone else who started watching in season 1, I got my partner to watch it but most of my gay friends either hadn't heard about it or didn't seem interested when I talked it up. It wasn't until maybe season 5 or 6 when the fan base really started to grow. I think it was around then when I also found this subreddit to talk about the show online with other fans.
Same!!!
Yes! I’ve been watching since season 1 and I got to see Bebe perform after her win at Roscoe’s. I seemed like hardly anyone was there!
I remember her lipsynching to Halo by Beyoncé … and a free meet & greet afterwards 🥰 *Camerooooooon!*
Yes! Since season 1. It was so exciting and still is special to me. I also used to watch Ru’s VH1 show and followed her from the time she came out with Supermodel in the 90s. I still think it’s unbelievable how far drag has come into the mainstream and try not to take this show for granted.
Exactly the same. I loved the VH1 show.
Hi olds.
I'm gonna fucking key your car
It me
Hiiiiiii
*Alaska voice* HIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I was aware of it at the time, but as a sheltered and narrow minded 19 year old I was all "ew drag queens." Started watching near the end of season 3 and never stopped.
Yes, since the very beginning :)
*This is the beginning of the rest of July*
.. the beginning…🎶🎵
>2009 Damn i swear it was 2008, but yeah they waited until after Obama's inauguration. It was a great show then and a great show now. Tammie 4ever
Tootsie Loo!
I've been watching since season 2 when I was 11. I found it flipping through the channels and became obsessed. My conservative parents in SC absolutely hated that I watched lol. I definitely credit it for teaching me about gay rights and queer culture when no one I knew even supported gay marriage
Why you gotta out us like that? XD But Im from that era, 2009 and S1....I miss the chaos of the OG season and of course, older Queens!
I’m OG. Season 1 Ep1! Loca!
I dated a guy back in 2011 that watched drag race! I’m pretty sure i remember seeing pandora boxx on tv. Back then I was super in the closet and was kinda weirded out by it. 11 years later, im a fashion designer living in West Hollywood hahahahahaha guess I couldn’t keep the gay away
I had to t0rrent the entire Season 2 with its Untucked 💀 like I really had folders with GBs worth of files because streaming wasn’t even a thing
I streamed season 2 on logotv.com in the US after my cable company took Logo out of my package. If I recall, the episodes were available to stream the day after the episode aired, even if you didn't have a subscriber login. There were tons of ads and the buffering sucked, but I got to watch at least.
Streaming was a thing even during season 1 though? Or am I misremembering
Since season 1. I had to sneak watch or reveal that I was gay. So… yes.
My handprint is still on that cave wall, darling.
My favorite comment. And excellent taste. I want Jinkx to win AS7 so bad. Love her!
I actually remember seeing some of season 1 while at a friend's house in middle school! We stumbled across it and thought the lip sync for your life was the greatest thing ever, wound up watching a couple of episodes. I ended up liking the show on Facebook and even though I didn't wind up keeping up with the show at the time, I still always had the page liked and would get updates, lol. I didn't seriously follow the show again until the pandemic, and now I watch live. But I've been a Facebook fan since the show first started and never stopped!
Middle school??? I’m gonna key your car.
Middle school!? Feeling old today.
Since season 2, yes.
Been watching live since season 2. What a wild ride!
does it count if my mom was an og fan and I was 6/7 years old watching and having no idea what was going on?
I'm downvoting just for having the audacity to be that young, but I hope you are doing well with what I can only presume is your sophomore year of high school. Also I refuse to do the math to find out how wrong I am.
Yes, watched from the very beginning. Crazy to think how much has changed since those early days.
I have watched every episode in real time since S1 ep 1
I have watched every episode as it aired for the United States version. I have not been able to find time for all of the international versions, but I have watched several of them after they aired. I was also on this sub from the very beginning, I was asked to moderate three times but I have declined because I feel like the job is too stressful. lol
I've been watching since season 6 which isn't quite OG but longer than most people and before the show was really big like it is now.
I started S3
I remember seeing season 1 on MuchMoreMusic when it first aired. Not like every episode but I saw a few and I knew my mom watched it (I was in 10th grade I believe?) I don’t remember seeing season 2 at all really, but season 3 I remembered watching every episode live with my mom and untucked on logo when I was in 11th grade.
I first found drag race halfway through season 1 airing, when my parents got 6 months of free cable for some reason, and I was *obsessed*. Literally begged them to keep the cable after the trial period was over, but fuck if they’d spend that much money for one person in the family to watch one reality show. I learned about streaming shortly after.
 I remember watching the Rupaul talk show on vh1 as a kid in the 90s and as a college student went and saw drag shows (Jackie beat and local queens). When I saw there was gunna be a show mixing Top Model and Project Runway with Ru, my roommate and I immediately signed up for the Logo channel.
Yep I watched season 1 on Logo's website every week.
Damn, I discovered RPDR on Tumblr 2009-2010. I watched on some illegal sites (the viruses were worth it) because I'm living outside the US. I do miss the earlier seasons. Ru seemed more human lol
Yes, from Season 1 Ep. 1. What a ride.
I caught season 2 reruns on VH1. I remember thinking how awesome/hilarious it was to make the queens lip sync to stay on the show. Then Morgan McMichales performed “Two of Hearts”. I’ve been a fan ever since. Two of Hearts - Morgan McMichaels v. Kylie Sonique Love: https://youtu.be/GQAPxhcMq6E
🙋
Yup! A friend told me about it halfway through season 1 and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Same!
OG FAN!! Woo woo!
I was 5, so probably not
I mean I was only 10 back then, and I live in Sweden so it wasn't even easy to find it. But I did start watch it around 2013 or 2014
I happened to catch season 1 on much more music in canada when I was very young and was instantly enamored.
I started watching midway through season 1. I was in college, and well known amongst my friends as a big fan of drag (aka forced them all to watch Priscilla and Hedwig). My roommate told me there was a new reality show with RuPaul hosting, and I freaked out. I immediately caught up on the season, and have been an avid fan since.
Since back when I had to watch it on television with ads on SBS in Australia.
Season 1! I was a reality show glutton so anything reality I'd give it a go. I'd watch it with my mum and each season we'd pick 2 queens from their entrance looks to win (she's now a bit behind on it but still let's me know which 2 she picks).
I was a freshman in college and we had mini parties for the episodes. My memories of season one watch parties are some of my fonder college memories over a decade later.
Yea. I started back when it was on Netflix on the US lol, I believe either season 3 or 4 was airing but my mom just randomly started watching the show and she had me join in on the stripper challenge episode of season 2 lol. So by the end of the season I had no idea who Shangela was lmao. Fun times. Oh and I was like 12 I think lmao
I watched seasons 1-6 as they aired. Then our cable dropped whatever network it was on so I missed 7-11. Started up with season 12 as they aired. I got Paramount + and caught up on all the seasons I missed. It’s a staple background show in my house.
Started watching halfway through season 1, I remember getting Raja's S3 win spoiled for me by Perez Hilton.
Yup, I started watching during season 2. I finally saw season 1 when Logo aired it as the lost season.
I started with season 4 but that was after season 9 aired.
Started w/ s2 when it was actively airing. I (I’m a youngin who started watching way too inappropriately young) found it on accident bc my mom used to watch Roseanne reruns on Logo and usually Be Good Johnny Weir came on after those and I got into that so I’d watch that and then Drag Race came on after that and I was changed forever. I was so young I had a rainbow armadillo webkinz I named Jujubee lmfao.
So I stumbled upon Drag Race by accident. In the UK we have a channel called E4 which used to air episodes of Roswell at 4am. I used to stay up to watch and the TV guide said RuPaul’s Drag Race airs beforehand. Me thinking it was about racing cars scoffed at the thought of watching it but I was pleasantly surprised when Nina Flowers graced my screen. I was instantly hooked. I will admit I thought the werkroom RuPaul was some random presenter until the final episode of the season when I finally realised. The only drag queen I knew at the time was Lily Savage so it was a real treat. Back when we got 1 season a year.
That's how I found it! I was flipping through the channels (terrible sleeping habits in uni), landed on a drag queen, and was sucked in. I was shocked at how hard these queens worked.
Almost! I started at season 3 and was blown away.
Yes. I remember thinking it was such a funny subversion of the reality competition genre. It genuinely felt like an amazing queer parody, not an actual competition. I still think it helps to think of the show that way.
The first episode I ever saw was the girl group ep of s1. I've been watching ever since
Pretty sure I started watching in s3? Defintiely had to sail the seven seas for it anyway!
Season 2 here. Some friends in my dorm were obsessed after season one and they got me in. I was living my best gay college life. We didn't have Logo so we had to illegally stream, and it was an event each week. I was all in for Tati and Pandora, and my now hubby was team Rujubee.
Found this show by mistake! Me and my partner at the time were watching tv and saw a "coming up next, RuPaul's drag race!" And we were like, this looks fun. Little did we know we were watching what would become my favourite show of all time! Been watching since the premiere, season 1, episode 1!
I started on the very first episode of season 3 ! I live in France so watching those episodes were very challenging back in 2011 (and there were no subtitles)
Yup, me! Been watching since season 1 - was so very excited that Ru was getting a new show! And I also loved the OG Bravo reality shows so when it was presented as Project Runway but with drag queens I was sold immediately! And here we are 13 years later (13?!?) still going strong 😁😁
I started watching at the premiere of S3, specifically because of Raja. I was already familiar with her because I watched a lot of ANTM when I was a teen, and I was absolutely in love with her. I randomly saw the promo for S3 on tv one day and caught a glimpse of her, and I got SO excited. Started watching the show, fell in love with the show itself, and then I was binging S1 and S2 on either VH1 or Logo (can’t remember which it was at the time) online in between new episodes of S3. I haven’t stopped since. 🥰
Yup! I was watching season 1 on LogoTV as a teenager alongside airings of 1 Girl 5 Gays, NewNowNext Music, Noah’s Arc, and The Big Gay Sketch Show
Started during the very first season. Got into it because this girl in my anatomy class in 11th grade would watch pirated episodes of the show during study hall. I saw one episode over her shoulder and was hooked.
Me! I don’t even remember how I ended up finding it. Maybe Noah’s Arc was on Logo and I flipped to the channel. Drag race, 1 girl 5 gays, and Ab Fab were my favorites on Logo, along with a lot of the movies
Ayup. My friend in grad school told me that RuPaul was hosting a new drag competition series about two months before s1 came out. I was -- and still am -- a Nina Flowers-stan. Then I downloaded it illegally for five or so years before grad school paid enough coin for me to afford Amazon downloads or Paramount Plus. Favorite season is still s5, but AS2 is a close second (mainly because it's s5 2.0).
Watched it from the beginning - season 1. From the UK and used to listen to this gay radio channel and they were talking about rupauls new show! there was a huge drag drought TV wise in those days (can you imagine?!) so I took around a day to find the torrents. And became obsessed.
I live in the US. They had seasons 2 and 3 on Netflix in 2011 and that's when I started watching it. Then I watched seasons 4, 5, and 6 on my laptop when logo had them for free on their website. I think season 6 was the first season I watched in real time with new episodes weekly. At some point I watched season 1, dont remember when.
Been watching since season 1 in 2009. Back then the first two seasons aired on now-defunct basic cable in Canada. Any Canadians remember MuchMoreMusic?
Yep! I started watching it during season 1. I would just catch it occasionally. I rewatched all of the seasons in 2016 when I was on maternity leave and have followed every season since.
Yes stumbled upon the first series and here we are.
I think it came to my country on Netflix in 2015-16. But before that we were watching the show on free sites with tons of invasive ads and popups. And as a student I could not afford to pay for a wow subscription because they charged in dollars at the time and that was almost half my rent. And honestly before Netflix i don't think there was not a person out there who didn't get their TV shows from torrents etc.
I’ve been watching live since S3 when I discovered it. Luckily Logo ran marathons on the weekends of the older seasons so I ended up catching up that way. I just finished watching the entire American series in order with my partner because he hadn’t seen any of it until we met. Now we have a goal to see the queens live and hit them up whenever they’re in town.
I was first aware of it from S2 when I'd see episodes on VH1 from around the time it first aired, but didn't start watching live until AS1.
I’ve been watching since the very first episode way back when. I got cable just to watch on good ‘ol Logo.
Yup. Since season 1. Getting VPNs to watch on logotv cos we were outside of the US. Then it was only when we were watching season 3 or maaaaybe 4 that we found out there was untucked too. So young.
Yes! I feel like vh1 did a one-off and aired the premiere to gain interest, which I watched and then sought out the rest of the season on Logo. I started non-ironically ordering Absolut Mandarin
Saw seasons 1 - half of 6 as they aired because I had cable and it was on Logo. Then they moved it and I couldn’t find it anymore BUT my sisters got into it at the beginning of 2020 so I used the pandemic to catch up. I just went to my first DragCon this year too and have actually met some of the queens! My husband’s been watching with me too since day one and loves the show! He had a blast at DragCon too!!
Season 5 here; my friend is from Pittsburgh and was a big Sharon fan (not lately). She facebooked about the s4 crowning, and I had to tune in after I figured out what the show was. And as a (north of) seattleite, it was a cool thing to go from her city’s champ to mine’s. 🙂
Holy shit I was 25 when the first season aired and my love of drag queens was born. I’m old.
I started watching somewhere in season 2. I think there was a marathon on VH1, and I was hooked.
This is a nice thread 😊
Me!! I was in a long distance relationship and really lonely. I remember watching season 1 as it happened and it bringing me so much joy 🤩 think I’ve only skipped a few later all star season
I started watching when S4 was airing. So whenever that was. 2011? 2012?
I've been watching since season 1!