The Television Academy launched the first day of its first-ever Televerse festival on Thursday, complete with a panel for “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 17 amongst a bunch of other 2025 Emmy nominees.
Season 2 and All Stars 1 alum Raven, who also serves as RuPaul’s Emmy-nominated Head of Makeup, moderated the panel with executive producer Mandy Salangsang and “Untucked” co-EP Natalia James at the JW Marriott at L.A. LIVE in Downtown Los Angeles. Plus, guests were treated to an extra special Mini Lip Sync LaLaPaRuza Smackdown for the Sash between MTV contestants Lexi Love, Sam Star, Acacia Forgot and Lana Ja’Rae, with Bruno Alcantara representing for the Pit Crew, of course.
Round 1 saw Lexi and Sam performing “Adrenaline” by Ru, with Lexi earning the audience’s vote, while Round 2 featured Acacia and Lana performing “American” by Ru, with Lana coming out on top. In the end, Lana won the coveted ‘Winner, Winner’ sash with her rendition of “Queendom,” once again by Ru.
On the panel side of things, Salangsang explained how RuPaul himself and the world of pop culture at-large inform the different challenges the queens might face at any given time — including recent parodies of “Squid Game,” “America’s Got Talent,” “The Circle” and “SNL,” for example.
“So much of what we do and so much of what we task the queens with doing is based on things that he’s done in his own career. Everything from fashion, obviously, to music, to modeling, runway walks and lip syncs, which is a drag staple,” the EP shared. “Part of what we do when we’re coming up with the creative for the season, the challenges, is we get together and we talk about ‘What are you watching, what’s hot right now, what’re people into?’”
“We love TV, we love film, we love fashion, we love magazines. We thought, ‘What would be a great way to pay homage and put our own ‘Drag Race’ flair on it?’” she said of landing on the ‘Squirrel Game’ spoof for the season premiere. “We sampled everything from confetti squibs to glitter balls, trying to figure out what exactly to detonate. But we thought it’s gotta be a cherry pie to the face.”
So what was Salangsang’s favorite part of the season in the end? “They’re competing at the absolute highest level of drag, they surprise us every single time, and it’s a great opportunity to have everyone back together — so for me, it’s always the finale. And this season, we had the honor of giving the Giving Us Lifetime Achievement Award to Liza Minnelli.”
Meanwhile, Emmy-winning makeup artist Raven shared what’s changed since she was first on the show back in 2010 when it aired on Logo.
“There’s a little less inhibition. I come from the school where you put this on, you get in the car, not seen by anyone because someone may heckle you, say something to you or even beat you up,” Raven explained. “Some of these kids were watching this as five-year-olds when it first started airing, so to see them come in and do this and do so well, it’s very rewarding. And it helps keep us on our toes.”
“This is such an extraordinary honor to work on this show. I’ve been on it since Season 4 and it is absolutely the highlight of my career and one of the highlights of my life,” Salangsang concluded. “Most of the crew has been back season after season after season. We’re fortunate enough to be able to shoot here in Los Angeles, which is absolutely wonderful.”
The 2025 Televerse festival runs through Saturday in DTLA.
