HEADER BY YOSEF PHELAN

When MTV announced that new episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race would have their runtime reduced from 60 to 40 minutes (without ads) to make room for The Real Friends of WeHo, a critical and commercial flop, the internet descended into anarchy. The daft decision resulted in seven-second runways, reduced screentime for the queens and complete eradication of deliberations, disrupting the entire flow of the season in the process.

Following mass fracas online and, of course, a change.org petition, World of Wonder released the episodes in their intended 60-minute form on WOW Presents Plus to overwhelmingly positive feedback from fans and critics, who were unanimous in their decision that the new scenes improve on the season’s narrative and watchability. After watching the extended episodes, we agree; season 15 was already fierce as hell, but now it deserves to be regarded as one of the franchise’s best instalments.

Here, we break down the most memorable new moments, from the rather uncomfortable scenes with RuPaul to the extended lip-syncs you need to watch out for.

Longer lip-syncs:

This is, undeniably, one of the most titillating – titillating! – aspects from the extended episodes: longer lip-syncs (amen!). Nearly all the lip-sync smackdowns between episodes 3-10 are longer, most notably: Sasha Colby vs Anetra to ‘I’m in Love with a Monster’; Jax vs Mistress Isabelle Brooks to ‘Tell It To My Heart’; Salina EsTitties vs Amethyst to ‘Q.U.E.E.N’; and Anetra vs Jax vs Luxx Noir London to ‘The Right Stuff’. For example, Sasha and Anetra’s iconic showdown showcases more of the former’s sickening floor work and Jax’s loss to Mistress becomes even more… questionable. (No shade to Mistress, her booby-pops are legendary.)

Robin Fierce’s homage to Pearl

This scene’s omission from the original edit is quite… wild? Ahead of the Snatch Game, RuPaul embarked on her classic run through, which, again, largely consisted of: ‘I have no reference of this celebrity, change it – just make me laugh!’ Robin Fierce revealed that she planned on impersonating Karen Huger from The Real Housewives of Potomac, which elicited the following brutal response from Ru: “I’m bored already.” After a back-and-forth, where RuPaul expressed interest in seeing Robin’s “twisted side”, the two engaged in an awkward (and rather unnecessary) stare-off (it was camp, though). Remember the infamous battle of 2017 between RuPaul and Pearl? It felt like a spiritual sequel, albeit a sequel that doesn’t live up the expectations of the original.