''Drag Den'' (subtitled ''with Manila Luzon'') is a Philippine

drag pageantry Drag pageantry is a developed form of pageantry for female impersonators, drag queens, and trans women, styled after traditional beauty pageants or contests for cisgender women. It has also evolved into a pageantry for male impersonators, dr ...

reality competition Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

television series that premiered on 8 December 2022, through

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service p ...

Manila Luzon Karl Philip Michael Westerberg, better known by the stage name Manila Luzon (born August 10, 1981), is an American drag queen, recording artist, comedian and reality television personality. Luzon came to international attention as a contestant on ...

acts as the host, head judge, and executive producer of the series. Cornerstone Studios and Project 8 Projects produce the series; with Rod Singh as the series creator, director, and a producer with

Antoinette Jadaone Antoinette Hilario Jadaone (born April 3, 1984) is a Filipina filmmaker and podcaster, best known for directing '' That Thing Called Tadhana'' (2014), ''Love You to the Stars and Back'' (2017), '' Never Not Love You'' (2018), ''Alone/Together'' ( ...

. The first season's contestants and judges were revealed on 17 November 2022. The eight drag queens competed for the title as the "

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

's First Drag Supreme". The first season premiered on 8 December 2022, and it concluded on 19 January 2023. Naia won the first season, with Shewarma and Maria Cristina as the runners-up.

Production

Format

The contestants are instructed to participate in two challenges in the series. The first challenge, the Themewear Drag Test, where they are judged based on the series-chosen theme attire. After the first challenge, the contestants participate in the Main Drag Showdown. The judges will critique based on both challenges and chooses their winner. The winner of the episode will be entered a battle called the Dragdagulan. The winner must choose their opponent to either battle in a lip-sync, roasting each other, or hit their opponent with a wrecking ball. The winner of the Dragdagulan will gain an advantage for the next episode, and the opponent will not be eliminated and will continue in the competition.

Judges

The competition series is hosted and judged primarily by drag queen,

, also known as the "Drag Lord". Philippine model

Nicole Cordoves Nicole Ignacio Cordoves (; born April 15, 1992) is a Filipino model, host, and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Binibining Pilipinas Grand International 2016. She represented the Philippines at the Miss Grand International 2016 pagea ...

and comedienne Sassa Gurl, made appearances as the competition's prominent judges. The three judges are known as the "Drag Cartel" in the series. In every episode, a guest judge appears for the series, known as the "Drag Enforcer".

Contestants

Currently, there has been a total of eight contestants that competed in ''Drag Den''.

Series overview

Season 1 (2022–2023)

In July 2021, ''

RuPaul's Drag Race ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, VH1 (season 9–14) and, beginning with the f ...

'' alumna Manila Luzon exclusively told ''

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'' about an upcoming project she is up to host and judge. The upcoming series is not affiliated with the ''Drag Race'' franchise or its production company, World of Wonder. The production companies for the Philippine series are Cornerstone Studios and Project 8 Projects. On 16 August 2021, Luzon partnered with

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and announced a casting call for the reality competition series. The deadline for the casting call ended on 31 August 2021. On 17 November 2022, eight contestants were shown in the new trailer heading down the runway. Additionally, it revealed the official premiere date, which is slated for 8 December 2022, and will be available through

. The series also welcomed its first openly

trans woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may Gender transitioning, transition; this process commonly includes Feminizing horm ...

contestant, Barbie-Q. Luzon was recently signed with

Warner Music Philippines Warner Music Philippines (WMP) is a record label in the Philippines. It is a regional branch of the multinational music conglomerate Warner Music Group. Founded in 1977, the company gained its self-distributed status and has since began release ...

, where she announced and released her theme song for the series on 2 December 2022. The first season premiered on 8 December 2022. The contestants in the series competed to become "Filipino's First Drag Supreme" and win

₱ The Philippine peso sign (₱) is the currency symbol used for the Philippine peso, the official currency of the Philippines. The symbol resembles a Roman letter P with two horizontal strokes. It differs from the currency symbol used for the pe ...

1,000,000. On the sixth episode, it announced the top three finalists of the series, consisting of Shewarma, Naia, and Maria Cristina. The season ran for eight episodes and concluded on 26 January 2023. Shewarma and Maria Cristina are the runners-up, and Naia was crowned the first season's winner.

Season 2 (TBA)

Throughout social media,

joined the trend involving promotional material from the film, ''

Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiratio ...

'' (2023). They posted an image of Manila Luzon's doll, with the tagline: "May pasabog na announcement ang doll na 'to very soon." Fans speculated that the show is yet to announce a season two. On 14 April 2023, the streaming service announced the renewal of the reality competition series. Manila Luzon and Rod Singh announced a casting call for season two on social media. The casting call was open until 30 April 2023.

Discography

References

External links

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''Drag Den''
at

{{Portal bar, LGBT, Philippines, Television 2020s LGBT-related reality television series 2020s Philippine television series 2022 in LGBT history 2022 Philippine television series debuts Amazon Prime Video original programming English-language television shows Filipino-language television shows Philippine LGBT-related television shows Philippine reality television series Television shows filmed in the Philippines Television shows set in the Philippines