EXCLUSIVE: After nearly two seasons heavily struck by the pandemic, RuPaul’s Drag Race concluded its fourteenth season with an in-person finale extravaganza held at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. Despite the return to the showy Drag Race pomp and circumstance, the Season 14 finale couldn’t quite match up to Season 13’s ratings.
Friday’s finale, which crowned Willow Pill America’s Next Drag Superstar, delivered 697,000 total viewers in Live+SD. For comparison, the Season 13 ender in 2021 brought in 772,000 total viewers and marked the most-watched episode for the franchise since the Season 10 finale in 2018.
Willow Pill bested runner-up Lady Camden and fellow finalists Angeria Paris VanMichaels, Bosco and Daya Betty. Also walking away a winner was Kornbread “The Snack” Jeté, who won Miss Congeniality. To make victory even sweeter, Willow Pill took home a franchise-high cash prize of $150,000 while Lady Camden won $50,000. Read the full recap here.
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When it comes to other stats, the finale marked Friday’s #1 telecast among P18-34 and @18-34, surpassed the season average in rating for the P18-34 demo and total viewers. The Season 14 finale also posted a series high for the W18-34 share, besting season-to-date performance by +48%.
Season 14 as a whole also had some victories in the ratings, boasting an 8% increase in the P18-34 demo from Season 13 (0.46 vs. 0.42M) and scoring a 23% increase in the P18-34 share from the previous season. Average total viewer count for Season 14 pretty much matched Season 13 (609K vs. 607K). Drag Race also ranked as the #1 most engaging cable reality franchise this year.
The latest season of Drag Race touted a number of milestones, including the most transgender contestants of any cast, the first straight contest, the first from Michigan and more.
Lizzo, Alicia Keys, Dove Cameron, Taraji P. Henson, Andra Day, Loni Love, Christine Chiu, Ava Max, Nicole Byer, Ts Madison, Alec Mapa and Dulce Sloan were among the guest judges joining RuPaul, Michelle Vissage, Carson Kressley and Ross Matthews.
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