While conservatives are busy hating on drag queens, and doing everything in their power to outlaw transgender rights, RuPaul's Drag Race is celebrating a huge ratings victory.
via Deadline:
The finale episode, which aired April 14 on MTV, delivered a 0.59 rating in the 18-49 entertainment demographic, according to Live+same-day Nielsen data. That’s a 17% increase compared to the Season 14 finale on VH1. The episode also had the highest audience share ever for a RuPaul’s Drag Race telecast.
Sasha Colby took home the crown on Friday, closing out the highest-rated season of RuPaul’s Drag Race in three years. The season averaged a 0.49 demo rating, up 17% versus last year’s 0.42 average.
Season 15 debuted in January to its highest-rated premiere in six years with a 0.63 in the demo. That was actually the highest Live+same day rating of any premiere since Season 9, which was the first one to air on VH1 and got a 0.66 in the demo.
The long-running competition series moved to MTV from VH1 this season, which likely has a lot to do with its ratings spike. The last time that the series switched networks — from Logo TV to VH1 — it saw a similar spike. MTV also generally performs better in terms of viewership and demo ratings than VH1, which explains why Season 15 held steady in its higher ratings.
For reference, Season 14 boasted an 8% increase in its demo rating, averaging a 0.46 vs. Season 13’s 0.42. Average total viewer count for Season 14 pretty much matched Season 13 (609K vs. 607K).
On social media, Season 15 was considered the most social season in series history. The finale was also the most social reality reality episode on cable in the last year.
Based on the aforementioned report, they made the smart move by sashaying from VH1 over to MTV. Speaking of the network, I hope MTV understands the huge juggernaut they have in their arsenal, and won't make the mistake of taking the long-running series for granted, by using Drag Race as a springboard to push their freshmen shows (we hardly knew ye, Real Friends of WeHo).
Don't get me wrong - we want more queer content and representation. Just not at the expense of a popular, pre-existing IP.
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