When “RuPaul’s Drag Race” returns for Season 18 on Friday night, it’ll be up to the new crop of queens and premiere guest judge Cardi B to keep the lights on — intentionally so.
As executive producer Tom Campbell told TheWrap, the season’s theme of “In shady times, let there be light” came in response to some real-world darkness.
“We never want ‘Drag Race’ to be political, but Ru has also said that he makes a political statement every time he bats a false eyelash,” he shared. “These are very polarizing times. There’s a temptation to be political, but we are political just by being, so we wanted to double down on bringing not just queer joy but joy. Our show is escapism.”
“I’m an old gay man, I can remember back to the AIDS crisis and its really horrible stakes. But there was an expression that Dan Savage said, which was, ‘During the AIDS crisis, we went to funerals in the morning, we protested in the afternoon and we danced at night,’” Campbell paraphrased. “That’s part of queer joy, that’s part of what defines us — conquering fear, conquering darkness, conquering other people trying to label us, to put us down, and finding our joy and being unafraid in expressing that. I think now more than ever, the world can use as much joy as we can manufacture.”
A big portion of the premiere episode’s joy comes in the form of superstar Cardi B.
“I want to say she was one of our best judges ever. I don’t want to pay any disrespect to the other tremendous judges we’ve had, but Cardi B and ‘Drag Race’ were a match made in heaven,” the EP teased. “We shoot on these exact days. Is Cardi B, the busiest woman in the world, available? She was. Her team was incredible. What she wore was incredible. What she had to say. I’ve always liked her music and I think she’s fun, but spending that time with her up close and seeing not only how hard she works, but how effortless her personality and her joy is was really exciting to be around. She was the perfect, perfect premiere guest.”
“I don’t think there’s any casual ‘Drag Race’ fans. You either watch the show and stay in love with it or you don’t. That’s true with our guest judges, too,” Campbell added. “They don’t come on because they need the gig or they want to spend a day in Pacoima. They come on because they want to have that front-row seat.”
Cardi will be joined in 2026 by fellow guest judges Teyana Taylor, Zara Larsson, Dove Cameron, Brooke Shields, Iman, Annaleigh Ashford, Atsuko Okatsuka, Benny Blanco, Danielle Pinnock, Amyl, Sarah Sherman and Julianne Nicholson. Altogether, they’ll be judging a slightly older cast than usual.
“It is just this kind of magic, since the first season where we just try to find the perfect selection of people. We’re looking for people that break through, people that don’t feel like they’re saying it because they’ve heard it, but their real personality shines through. This time, I guess we skewed a little bit older,” Campbell explained. “But it’s a really intense process. So often, we’ll meet and it’ll be like so-and-so was stuck in my head, I cannot stop dreaming about this person. So they make the cut and that’s what we want around.”
And after a 17th season that featured multiple bring-backs and a Badonka Dunk Tank, don’t expect too many game-breaking twists this time around.
“Some years we go crazy with chocolate bars and dunk tanks, some years we’re just like, let’s get down to it, let’s just let the competition go,” Campbell said. “We’re lucky that a lot of us have worked with the show since the beginning. A lot of us have worked here for a long, long time and we’re always looking — like good cosmetic surgery, does the neck need a lift? Does the eye need a little tug? Do we need to do a hair transplant? We’re always looking for ways to spruce it up.”
Plus, “Drag Race” is one of only six shows to ever win the Emmy for Outstanding Competition Program — meaning they’re clearly doing something right.
“It’s humbling. When we first pitched ‘Drag Race’ in the year 2008, celebreality, ‘Top Model,’ all those shows were such a huge hit. Randy [Barbato] and Fenton [Bailey], World of Wonder had been friends with Ru and working with Ru since they were in rock bands in the ’80s and were with Ru through all of his success as a supermodel in the ’90s. So we were like, this is the time to do celebreality with Ru,” Campbell recalled. “We came up with ‘Drag Race’ and were really pleased with ourselves. We thought it was funny and punny and really good to go, with the art of drag and all that goes along with it … and nobody wanted it.”
“[They’d say], ‘We love you, we love Ru, but, you know, we can’t really get this by our ad sales department.’ At the time, Logo, which was the smallest network, said yes. It turned out to be the exact best place for us to be. Logo is incredibly nurturing and we were on for many, many, many seasons,” he continued. “The format has not changed. It’s the extra-special magic that the queens bring, which you couldn’t necessarily write on a pitch document, but it became very apparent to us while filming right away. So we just kept doing something we loved, always worried that it might be let go or Logo was in danger of being taken off the air.”
“I do think when Lady Gaga said she’d do the show — and she played ball, we had the best time — that was such an endorsement. And many, many before her, not just her, but the business and the weird idea of streaming came along. Initially, ‘Drag Race’ was available to watch on Netflix, in reruns,” Campbell further recalled. “All of a sudden, we live in a world where there’s an algorithm and if gay people are 10% of the population, you can reach them all around the world. You have an audience.”
“So when the Emmys came about, we were kind of shocked; Ru first, then the show. It’s a labor of love, so it feels good, but it’s incredibly, incredibly humbling. Still, we live in a world where I’m always concerned that LGBTQ programming and personalities can be viewed as expendable or somehow controversial when it’s quite the opposite,” he concluded. “So, I love having the gold just as one more reason for networks who are run by creative people but also owned by corporations to give us the chance to tell one more season of queer stories.”
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” airs Fridays at 8 p.m. PT on MTV.
