Drag Race All Stars 5 new lip-synch format, secrets ru-vealed

“All Star rules have been suspended…FOREVER!”

VH1 revealed today, or ruvealed, the big shakeup for season 5 of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars and frankly, we’re gagging.

In seasons past of All Stars, the top 2 queens would lip synch against each other in a ‘Lip Synch for Your Legacy’ (the opposite from the regular season where the bottom two queens lip synch for their life, with the losing queen sashaying away) against what Drag Race fans and alumni have always called ‘a lip synch assassin.’ Different from previous editions, RuPaul will select only one top queen per week to battle with the mysterious former queen (to be revealed week to week). If the competing queen wins the lip sync, she wins a cash tip of $10,000 dollars (or “dawlas,” in Ruparlance) and is given the power to eliminate the bottom queen of her choice. But, if she loses to the assassin, a bottom queen selected from a secret group vote will be sent home, and the money will roll over, lottery-style, raising the cash prize for the top queen that does win.

The competing queens on this season include Alexis Mateo, Blair St. Clair, Derrick Barry, India Ferrah, Jujubee, Mariah Paris Balenciaga, Mayhem Miller, Miz Cracker, Ongina and Shea Couleé, none of whom won in their season.

Also revealed today was that Ricky Martin will be the season premiere guest judge, much to the delight of Alexis “Bam!” Matteo. Other judges this season include Tessa Thompson, Martyn Lawrence Bullard, Nicole Byer, Sarah Hyland, Tommy Dorfman, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Bebe Rexha, Jane Krakowski, Sam Richardson, Todrick Hall and Madison Beer, who recently competed on last episode of RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race.

Michelle Visage, Carson Kressley and Ross Mathews return as permanent judges.

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 5 premieres June 5 on VH1.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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