17 stats, stunts, & serves that prove 'Drag Race' season 17 was iconic

It do take Nurve, Sparkles, Love, and Star quality to Toot your own horn — thankfully, RuPaul's Drag Race season 17 had it all.

At a time when immigrants, drag itself as an art form, and people in the LGBTQ+ community are being relentlessly attacked by conservatives, the overarching narratives explored on this year's flagship season of Drag Race didn't just feel like good reminders, nor like the series was preaching to the choir. They felt urgent, cathartic, and empowering — proving that this platform's commitment to talk the talk and walk the walk is unwavering.

To celebrate an incredible season of reality TV and its Emmy nominations, keep scrolling to explore 17 stats, stunts, and storylines that prove why RuPaul's Drag Race season 17 was so iconic.

The Drag Race season 17 premiere ratings make history — badonka-dunking past seasons of the series.

The very first episode of Drag Race season 17 — titled "Squirrel Games" in reference to Netflix's Squid Game — hit a 0.908 rating among adults 18-34, as reported by Deadline, based on Nielsen's live + three-day data. Comparatively, this grand premiere was the highest-rated season premiere of Drag Race in at least seven years.

Widening the demo to adults 18-49, this Drag Race premiere was even splashier: It scored a 0.993 rating and became the highest-performing premiere of the flagship series in 12 years.

Once upon a Joella, no one forgot the 'ella' ever again.

[Derrick Barry voice] "Nobody forgot about the 'ella'?"

[Willam voice] "No. No one forgot the 'ella.'"

Joella, the self-proclaimed Slaysian Diva of Los Angeles, was an unforgettable cast member throughout Drag Race season 17. The funniest and most viral moment of her run was, obviously, when Joella earnestly told Lucky Starzzz that she wouldn't be going home yet — kindly informing Lucky of an imminent elimination.

Drag Race: Untucked has also expanded its own Emmy records.

Speaking of Joella! RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked — the long-running behind-the-scenes series that accompanies U.S. seasons of Drag Race — has now received 16 nominations at the Emmy Awards in the herstory of the spinoff.

Nine of those Emmy nominations were also consecutive in the Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program category.

Lydia B Kollins boogies her way into becoming a fan-favorite.

What in the Willow Pill-coded silent assassin strategy just happened?! While Mama Ru was already #TeamB*tthole for a while, Lydia B. Kollins's lip sync to "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind & Fire (with The Emotions) was a moment that fans hadn't seen in a very long time on the show: A queen who underperforms in a challenge and has to lip sync for her life, but somehow emerges from that lip sync not only victorious, but as if she just won another maxi challenge instead.

Think Jinkx Monsoon's lip sync to "Malambo No. 1" by Yma Sumac in season 5 (against Detox), or Yvie Oddly vs. Brooke Lynn Hytes to "Sorry Not Sorry" by Demi Lovato. Those queens did so well in those lip syncs that, in hindsight, fans almost forget why they landed in the bottom in the first place.

That was certainly the case for Lydia here — a really exciting moment to kickstart the momentum she'd have for months to come on Drag Race in 2025.

Between season 17 to All Stars 10, Lydia lip synced on TV every single month from January to July.

Lydia B Kollins was cast on All Stars 10 — and filmed the first batch of episodes for that season — immediately after filming season 17 (her first Drag Race run). Though the series had previously cast "fresh off their seasons" queens before, Lydia literally entered the Tournament of All Stars before her original season even aired on TV!

Producers made the brilliant decision to bring Lydia back right away, and made us all fall in love with this queen even more. Oh, and here's another wild, fun fact: Lydia lip-synced on Drag Race every single month (as seen in the accompanying video to this entry), for seven months, between January and July 2025. Gag.

Season 17 ratings reach the biggest TV share in Drag Race history.

Season 17 had the highest TV share in Drag Race herstory in key demos, as reported by Deadline. This took into consideration the full season of the show, with official Nielsen data being used to outline those statistics.

If you don't know what a "share" is (in reference to TV ratings), here's the tea: A share is the percentage of households watching a program in comparison to all other households also watching TV simultaneously. Season 17 reportedly reached a 6.18 share in the 18-49 demo — meaning that 6.18 percent of all televisions were tuned in to Drag Race season 17 on MTV.

Kori King and Lydia B Kollins are the first official and long-lasting Drag Race showmance in herstory.

Everybody say LOVE (story). After many years of Drag Race wanting to make fetch — er, showmance — a thing that happens in the series, it didn't really happen until season 17 stars Kori King and Lydia B Kollins.

All other Drag Race-related showmances featured over the years were pre-existing relationships between queens. The closest the series had gotten was season 11's flirt-mance between Brooke Lynn Hytes and Vanessa Vanjie, though they admittedly did not continue their relationship after the show.

As of August 2025, Kori and Lydia are still together as a couple.

Long live Kori King: A new internet star is born.

Kori King wasn't just a hilarious queen on Drag Race season 17. She is legitimately becoming a viral superstar with the "personas" she temporarily adopts in videos shared on social media and/or personalized Cameo videos.

At different points this year, Kori literally competed for the no. 1 spot on the Cameo leaderboard among other celebrities. This queen's social media presence keeps skyrocketing, too, proving yet again that Drag Race is still an incredible launchpad to introduce audiences to a new superstar.

RuPaul breaks all-time Emmys record in the Outstanding Host for Reality Competition Program category.

If the category is Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program at the Emmy Awards… It's literally 10s across the board for Mama Ru and Drag Race.

This year, RuPaul received his 10th nomination for Outstanding Host for Reality Competition Program for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards airing next month. As a result, Ru not only broke the category's all-time record, but did so with 10 consecutive nominations throughout the past 10 seasons of the show.

Suzie Toot is a certified SHOOT in the Lip Sync Lalaparuza Smackdown.

Suzie Toot was a huge fan-favorite throughout season 17, but she went home right before the grand finale. This Fort Lauderdale icon went into episode 15 — this season's Lip Sync Lalaparuza Smackdown — with a vengeance.

Suzie steamrolled every single performance in the Lip Sync Smackdown and was ultimately crowned as the new Queen of She Done Already Done Had Herses by the end of that episode. Fun fact: Suzie won that title (in a regular season) right after Morphine Love Dion, which means that the title didn't even have to leave South Florida.

Two episodes of Drag Race season 17 are in the top 10 best episodes ever via IMDb ratings.

The official IMDb list of 10 highest-rated episodes in Drag Race herstory includes two episodes of Drag Race season 17 — a remarkable feat on a list that includes all 16 past seasons of this beloved TV show.

The two episodes included on the list are Drag Race season 17 episode 10 ("The Villains Roast," currently in the No. 6 spot) and episode 13 ("Drag Baby Mamas," currently in the No. 9 spot of the ranking).

Season 17 had the most emotional and heartwarming makeover challenge of all time.

Drag Race season 17 episode 13 ("Drag Baby Mamas") featured the long-running makeover challenge of the series. All four special guests in the makeover episode were parents of the queens: Jewels's father, Lexi's mother, Onya's father, Sam's mother, and Suzie's mother. While all of the parents were incredible guests, special kudos should be given to Andre (Onya's dad) and Douglas (Jewels's dad).

And no, those special kudos aren't just because Andre and Douglas are men who agreed to get in drag. These two dads showed powerful and incredibly earnest support of their queer children — showing up to Drag Race and spelling out how much love and pride they feel for their kids (who are now grown-ups competing in reality TV).

The subtle (but very clear) message sent by them in the makeover challenge should not be dismissed, as they so effectively demonstrated that straight men can be proud of their queer kids no matter what.

"It doesn't make you less of a man to support your child. It makes you more of a man," Jewels Sparkles told Out in a post-finale interview. "If you're comfortable with your child being queer and being a drag queen; that doesn't threaten your masculinity. You can still say, 'I'm a straight man and my son's a drag queen. Yeah, I'll go on TV to support my son. Yeah, I'll get in drag for the makeover challenge.' And that makes you more manly."

Onya Nurve wins four maxi challenges in season 17—joining a small group of Drag Race icons.

Even though winning four maxi challenges has become more frequent in All Stars seasons, it bears repeating that this is not the standard for regular seasons. In fact, Onya Nurve is one of only eight queens to ever win four maxi challenges in a standard Drag Race season.

Previous four-challenge winners include Sharon Needles (season 4), Shea Couleé (season 9), Gigi Goode (season 12), Symone (season 13), Sasha Colby (season 15), Plane Jane (season 16), and Sapphira Cristál (season 16). Of those eight queens, only three went on to win their respective seasons — Sharon, Symone, and Sasha. Onya has now joined that history-making group.

Strongest set of top 4 finalists in Drag Race track-record herstory.

Jewels Sparkles, Lexi Love, Onya Nurve, and Sam Star all made it to the season 17 finale after winning two maxi challenges or more in the competition — the first time this has ever happened on the flagship U.S. show. All other Drag Race finales with a top 4 — e.g. seasons 9, 10, 11, 13, and 15 — had at least one queen who became a finalist despite only winning one maxi challenge.

The top 4 finalists of season 17 also won the most challenges as a group: 11 maxi challenge wins between Jewels (2), Lexi (2), Onya (4), and Sam (3). The highest total of challenge wins out of any finale involving four people or more (and tying with the record broken by season 16's top 3 finalists).

Onya Nurve wins Drag Race without any stunts and/or reveals in the lip sync for the crown.

First things first: A lip sync for the crown to "Abracadabra" by Lady Gaga?!?! Screaming. It was so exciting to see Onya Nurve and Jewels Sparkles really battling it out for the title of America's Next Drag Superstar.

Seasons 9 through 16 crowned winners that did, one way or another, feature gags in their performances. However, that wasn't the case for this legendary Drag Race champion.

Facts are facts, America! Even if Ms. Nurve had a completely different name, it did take nerve for her to lip sync for the crown without pulling a single reveal or stunt (and still slaying the performance).

Liza Minnelli honored with the Giving Us Lifetime Award during season 17.

The iconic Liza Minnelli received the second-ever Giving Us Lifetime Award from Drag Race.

This new award, introduced in season 16, first honored Bob Mackie. A year later, Liza Minnelli appeared on Drag Race season 17 to receive the award — a moment that made many queens and fans very emotional.

Drag Race season 17 has now been nominated for 99 Emmy Awards overall.

It's official: the Drag Race franchise has now earned a gag-worthy 99 nominations from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. This milestone was reached after season 17 received 10 nominations for the 2025 Emmy Awards.