''Slag Wars: The Next Destroyer'' is a British

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

competition series that premiered online on 27 November 2020. The show features Rebecca More and

Matthew Camp Matthew Camp (born March 15, 1984) is an American gay pornographic film actor and social media personality. Camp came to prominence in 2013 with '' Getting Go: The Go Doc Project''. In 2020, Camp was co-host of the reality television competition ...

and either Sophie Anderson or

Fantasia Royale Gaga Fantasia Royale Gaga is the stage name of Latavia Goldson, an American showgirl, drag performer, and entertainer. She is best known for winning the first season of '' Hot Haus'' and for competing on the fifth season of ''The Boulet Brothers' Drag ...

on their hunt to discover the next LGBTQ+ icon. The first series, broadcast in 2020 on Men.com and SlagWars.com, lasted four episodes. The second series was delayed by Anderson and More splitting up and was not produced until 2023. Anderson died in November 2023; the first episode of the second series, broadcast in September 2024, was dedicated to Anderson and aired alongside a documentary about the Cock Destroyers.

Synopsis

The show was intended as a celebration of sex work and as a safe space for people to be themselves. Contestants were described on the programme as "slags", a term in British English equivalent to

slut ''Slut (archaic: slattern)'' is an English-language term for a person, usually a woman, who is sexually promiscuous or considered to have loose sexual morals. It is predominately used as an insult, sexual slur or offensive term of disparageme ...

, in order to reclaim the word as sex-positive. The programme's

confessionals A confessional is a box, cabinet, booth, or stall where the priest from some Christian denominations sits to hear the confessions of a penitent's sins. It is the traditional venue for the sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran ...

were annotated with both names and pronouns. Each episode features a foreplay and a passion challenge, each of which explores a facet of the sex industry. One challenge featured contestants trying to steal

payment card number A payment card number, primary account number (PAN), or simply a card number, is the card identifier found on payment cards, such as credit cards and debit cards, as well as stored-value cards, gift cards and other similar cards. In some situat ...

s during

ASMR An autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR)Marsden, Rhodri (20 July 2012), ''The Independent''. is a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. A pleasant form of paresthesia, it ...

sex talk sessions and another featured

rope bondage Rope bondage, also referred to as rope play, kinbaku, shibari or fesselspiele, is bondage (BDSM), bondage involving the use of rope to restrict movement, wrap, suspend, or restrain a person, as part of BDSM activities. Japanese bondage is the mo ...

. The series also featured conversations about

tokenism In sociology, tokenism is the social practice of making a perfunctory and symbolic effort towards the equitable inclusion of members of a minority group, especially by recruiting people from under-represented social-minority groups in order for th ...

fetishism A fetish is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular, a human-made object that has power over others. Essentially, fetishism is the attribution of inherent non-material value, or powers, to an object. Talismans and amulet ...

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

violence against transgender people Violence against transgender people includes both physical and sexual violence targeted towards transgender people. Some believe the term should also apply to hate speech directed at transgender people and at depictions of transgender people in ...

, and

sexual consent Sexual consent is consent to engage in sexual activity. In many jurisdictions, sexual activity without consent is considered rape or other forms of sexual assault. Academic discussion of consent In the late 1980s, academic Lois Pineau argued tha ...

Production

Season one

''Slag Wars'' was conceived several years before broadcast by Sophie Anderson and Rebecca More, who had become famous as two halves of

The Cock Destroyers The Cock Destroyers were a pornographic double act comprising Rebecca More and Sophie Anderson. After meeting at a British porn awards show, the pair set up a joint OnlyFans account featuring niche porn films. In October 2018, the pair uploade ...

. The show used the working title "Slag Wars: Finding the Next Cock Destroyer" but was later

bowdlerised An expurgation of a work, also known as a bowdlerization, is a form of censorship that involves purging anything deemed noxious or offensive from an artistic work or other type of writing or media. The term ''bowdlerization'' is often used in th ...

. The show was produced over four days after a friend of More offered her large countryside house for a shoot. Contestants on the show comprised seven sex workers and

OnlyFans OnlyFans is an Internet content subscription service based in London, England. The service is widely known for being popular with sex workers who produce pornography, and also hosts other content creators including athletes, musicians, and com ...

creators including Nicky Monet, a transgender woman; Tyreece Nye, a Black non-binary person; and five contestants who used "he/him" pronouns. Four contestants were from England, with one each from Scotland, Mexico, and the United States. Camp and the programme's non-UK slags had to

quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals, and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have bee ...

for two weeks before filming, as the show was filmed during the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the United Kingdom, it has resulted in confirm ...

. The series was produced by the queer production company DaddyTV on a tight budget and ran for four episodes. Anderson was due to have

buttock augmentation Gluteoplasty (from Greek: , 'rump' + , 'shaped, formed, moulded') denotes the plastic surgery and the liposuction procedures for the correction of congenital, traumatic, and acquired defects/deformities of the buttocks and the anatomy of th ...

just before filming, but delayed it as she felt it would interfere with wearing the lycra suits they had ordered for the show. The series was co-presented by

and used many personal friends of the Cock Destroyers as guests including its narrator Chase Icon. The soundtrack comprised specially composed tracks by Andrew Barret Cox. The show was announced in October 2020 by ''AVN'' and marketed on its inclusivity. The series was streamed on Men.com and SlagWars.com, the latter of which had been created for those wanting a

safe for work Not safe for work, also called not suitable for work (NSFW), is Internet slang or shorthand used to mark links to content, videos, or website pages the viewer may not wish to be seen viewing in a public, formal, or controlled environment. The ...

experience. Tyreece Nye won the series.

Season two

In May 2021, More announced that the pair had split up following her receipt of a "viscous email"; the following month, DaddyTV announced '' Hot Haus'', a show judged by Camp and Monet and won by

. More kept abreast of Anderson's life after the breakup and the pair later reconciled. In late 2023, a second series of ''Slag Wars'' was produced and was due to be hosted by More, Anderson, and Camp, but Anderson dropped out after no-showing on the first day of production as she was not well enough to film and was replaced by Royale Gaga. Cain, one of the slags from the first series, returned as a producer and casting director, having previously worked with some of the slags he cast including Mama Mamba and Cocoa Kink. This series featured the same theme song as the first series. Originally, the slags were supposed to be in teams, with Anderson and More having four slags each. Anderson's illness meant that this was aborted and replaced by a points-based system, with eliminations removed; the first episode featured Royale Gaga giving a distracted More a pep talk. In November 2023, shortly after filming, Anderson died; More announced her death in December 2023. The second series aired on the

LGBTQ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...

streaming service Outflix and ran for seven episodes; its first episode featured a tribute to Anderson and was released alongside a documentary on how the Cock Destroyers became famous. Mama Mamba won the series.

Cast

* Rebecca More (2020–present) * Sophie Anderson (2020) *

(2020–present) *

(2024–present)

Series 1 (2020)

Contestants

Contestant progress

: The contestant won ''Slag Wars''. : The contestant was a runner-up. : The contestant left the competition voluntarily. : The contestant won the challenge. : The contestant was declared safe. : The contestant was in the bottom two. : The contestant was eliminated.

Episodes

Series 2 (2024)

Contestants

Contestant progress

: The contestant won ''Slag Wars''. : The contestant was a runner-up. : The contestant advanced to the final four. : The contestant won the passion project challenge. : The contestant won the foreplay challenge. : The contestant was declared safe. : The contestant was in the bottom two. : The contestant was eliminated. : The contestant left the competition voluntarily. : The contestant returned as a guest.

Episodes

Reception

The show became a minor cult hit. Writing between broadcast of the first and second episode, Emma Kelly of ''

i-D ''i-D'' is a British biannual magazine dedicated to fashion, music, art, film and youth culture. The magazine was launched in 1980 by Terry Jones, originally as a hand-stapled fanzine it has since evolved into a glossy publication. In 2023 the ...

'' described the show as "one of the most genuine representations of sex workers and queer, trans and non-binary people ever seen on TV". Reviewing the first series, Tim Forster of ''Vulture'' described the show as "good, dirty fun, with a healthy dose of camp" and complimented the show for its queer representation, though wrote that Daddy Couture was "heavily product-placed" and that having five contestants out of seven who identified as "he/him" demonstrated an "imperfect approach to diversity". Barry Pierce of ''

Dazed ''Dazed'' (''Dazed & Confused'' until February 2014) is a quarterly British lifestyle magazine founded in 1991. It covers music, fashion, film, art, and literature. ''Dazed'' is published by Dazed Media, an independent media group known for produ ...

'' wrote that the series was "a truly glorious celebration of the self with positivity and inclusivity as its central tenets" and stated that one scene, in which Anderson unsuccessfully tried to storm off set in high heels following an inability to send anybody home and ended up crawling off set, was a contender for his "television moment of the year". Writing in September 2024, Joel Medina of ''Collider'' described the show as "a raucous display of LGBTQ+ joy like viewers have never seen".

References

{{reflist

External links

Slag Wars
on

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

2020s British LGBTQ-related reality television series 2020 British television series debuts 2020 British television series endings British LGBTQ-related web series Reality web series Works about pornography British non-fiction web series Reality competition television series 2020 LGBTQ-related television 2024 LGBTQ-related television