Wednesday, April 24, 2024

RuPaul’s Ratings Are a Drag So Far This Season as Series Drops 38% Since January

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Maybe it’s because of its age — 15 seasons.

Or maybe all the trash talk about drag queens reading books to children has turned people off.

For some reason, “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” a show with a ton of awards, has taken a precipitous drop in the ratings.

The VH-1 show won Emmys for Best Reality Show in 2018, 2019, and 2020. But this year, Viacom moved the show from VH-1 to MTV, as they have done with other reality shows. Fans may be confused but at this rate, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” could be in trouble by the time its season ends.

Viacom, aka Paramount, announced last fall it was separating VH-1 from sister network MTV and moving it under BET Media Group. The idea is to spin off the latter– Tyler Perry and Byron Allen are those who’ve expressed interest — maybe taking VH-1 with them. Why? Because if you can screw something up, corporations will do it.

When MTV and VH-1 were in their heyday, the former played music videos for younger people. VH-1 was for an older generation. But as music has becoming increasingly bad, and videos are not in demand, the two networks have been programming a lot of reality TV and game shows. If VH-1 leaves with BET, Paramount will be down to just moribund channel instead of two.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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