The Fame Games

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"The Fame Games"
RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars episode
Episode no.Season 8
Episode 1
Directed byNick Murray
Guest appearances
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"The Fame Games" is the first episode of the eighth season of the American television series RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars . [1] [2] [3] It originally aired on May 12, 2023. Idina Menzel is a guest judge and former contestant Aja makes a guest appearance.

Contents

Episode

Idina Menzel is a guest judge. Idina Menzel Defense.gov Crop.png
Idina Menzel is a guest judge.

For the mini-challenge, the contestants model two looks on the runway: one inspired by fame in the past and one inspired by fame of the present. For the main challenge, the contestants are tasked with writing and performing an original verse to a disco or glam-rock rendition of "Money, Success, Fame, Glamour" by The Fabulous Pop Tarts. Following are the teams:

Idina Menzel is a guest judge. The runway category is "Famous Forever: Your Timeless Signature Drag". Alexis Michelle, Jaymes Mansfield, Kahanna Montrese, and LaLa Ri receive positive critiques, and Kahanna Montrese is named the winner. Darienne Lake and Monica Beverly Hillz receive negative critiques and place in the bottom two.

Aja is revealed to be the lip-sync assassin. Aja and Kahanna Montrese face off in a lip-sync contest to "Freakum Dress" (2006) by Beyoncé. Aja wins the lip-sync and reveals that the group has chosen to eliminate Monica Beverly Hillz from the competition. RuPaul then reveals that all the eliminated contestants will partake in a new sub-contest, the online Fame Games, where fans will vote on their favorite outfit that an eliminated contestant was unable to use during the competition. The winning contestant will be crowned Queen of the Fame Games and win $50,000.

Production

The episode features renditions of a song by The Fabulous Pop Tarts, the former band of Fenton Bailey (left) and Randy Barbato (right), who are executive producers of Drag Race. Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato at MIFF (cropped).jpg
The episode features renditions of a song by The Fabulous Pop Tarts, the former band of Fenton Bailey (left) and Randy Barbato (right), who are executive producers of Drag Race.

The episode originally aired on May 12, 2023.

The Fabulous Pop Tarts is the former band of Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, who are executive producers of Drag Race. [1]

Reception

Bernardo Sim of Out magazine said Aja "demolished" Kahanna Montrese in the lip-sync contest. [4] Sim later ranked the contest ninth in a 2025 list of the 30 "best lip syncs of all time". He wrote, "This was a very special performance from Aja ... that followed a period of time when Aja had lost her passion for the art form of drag and was focusing on her gender journey as a trans woman. This moment not only solidified that Aja was so back, but it was also an absolutely bonkers lip sync that had fans losing their minds. Kahanna Montrese certainly held her own in this lip sync, though it felt impossible to compete with Aja's moves and stage presence during this lip sync". [5]

Marcus Wratten of PinkNews said the lip-sync was among the season's best. [6] Stephen Daw ranked the "Freakum Dress" performance second in Billboard 's 2023 list of Drag Race lip-syncs to date. Daw wrote, "We’re going to say this again: Aja is one of the best lip sync artists to appear on any season of Drag Race, and this ... performance is a testament to that fact. Timing her remarkable stunts to the actual words Beyoncé was singing (special shoutout to the immediate wig reveal on 'lemme fix my hair'), Aja owned every second of this phenomenal lip sync. That is not to say Kahanna did poorly — in fact, Kahanna was in rare form, pulling focus every now and then with her own energized antics. Yet it was still not enough to take away from this best-ever lip sync from Aja, who cemented herself even further as a lip sync legend over the course of two fateful minutes." [7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "'RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 8' premiere recap: Uninformed voting | Xtra Magazine". 2023-05-12. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  2. ↑ Frank, Jason P. (2023-05-12). "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Season-Premiere Recap: The B Tier… Wins!". Vulture. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  3. ↑ Guzzo, Bianca (2023-05-13). "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Season 8 Episode 1 Recap: The Fame Games". IN Magazine. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  4. ↑ Sim, Bernardo. "Aja spills on 'unhinged' All Stars 10 & lying to Olivia Lux | Out.com". www.out.com. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  5. ↑ Sim, Bernardo. "Drag Race All Stars: 30 best lip syncs of all time ranking | Out.com". www.out.com. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  6. ↑ Wratten, Marcus (2023-07-20). "Why Kahanna Montrese deserves to win Drag Race All Stars' first-ever Fame Games". PinkNews . Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  7. ↑ Daw, Stephen (2023-07-19). "'RuPaul's Drag Race': Every Lip Sync From All Stars 8, Ranked". Billboard. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
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