Comedian Rhys Nicholson has praised RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under for giving mainstream audiences a bite-sized look into Australia and New Zealand’s queer culture.
But ahead of the third season‘s highly anticipated premiere, the popular TV host reminded “diehard fans” that they “make [Drag Race] for you and not in spite of you”.
“You hold a show like Drag Race to such high expectations. You stop thinking about it like a competition reality programme that is made to be shocking and fun,” Rhys said during an interview with So Dramatic!.
The 32-year-old admitted that they had been “guilty of it as well”, having previously hosted a Drag Race podcast of their own.
They continued: “When something happens on Survivor or Big Brother, you’re shocked but you’re like ‘Oh, that’s interesting that they’ve done that’.
“When [Drag Race] does it, it’s like, ‘Why did you do this to my show? This is different to how it has been’. Yeah, it has to be different.”
Rhys Nicholson reveals why so many RuPaul’s Drag Race fans have such high expectations of the long-running franchise
Rhys – who identifies as non-binary and queer – agreed that many LGBTQIA+ folk hold such “high expectations” of all RuPaul’s Drag Race franchises because there isn’t a lot of representation in mainstream media.
“Our culture is really important to us, now more than ever. Who’d have thought we’d be getting attacked again? That’s a surprise. But it is, it’s happening again,” they said.
“We need to protect [ourselves] but I’ve always thought part of that is showing [queer culture] to people.”
Rhys went on to praise titular star RuPaul Charles for championing LGBTQIA+ representation in mainstream media for over 30 years, despite the many controversies surrounding the drag icon.
“Ru is somebody that I really believe in. That’s something I’ve learned from being on this show is how incredible someone like Ru can be for our culture,” Rhys said.
“We’re all just specks of dust floating around RuPaul because of how engrained she is [in queer culture].”
They added: “How exciting to have people in the deep south of America or Australia, see RuPaul and it surreptitiously puts gay culture in [their homes].
“They realise, ‘This is not threatening to me’. Who knows how many parents are watching Drag Race with the yet-to-come-out queer kids?
“RuPaul is a queer person of colour, who grew up in the South. Can you imagine someone having a better point of view on how things can change than someone like Ru? I think having her at the helm of mainstream culture is really exciting.”
Rhys Nicholson reveals why RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under season three won’t have to ‘rely on drama’
Rhys admitted that the second season – which saw underdog Spankie Jackzon take the crown and runner-up Kween Kong become the first queen to be nominated for a Logie Award – was far better received by fans than season one.
They believed that season three would benefit from a cast of “queens that you might not know” (yet).
“There are a few babies in there. There are a few newer queens, a few older queens that have just stayed in the kind of place that they live and not really ventured too far into social media,” they said.
They continued: “That’s really exciting to me. It means that we’re not relying on drama like, ‘Oh my god, she fought with her on Twitter once’. No, these are just some really great drag queens doing really great work’.”
It appears that producers didn’t want to deal with another incident like Minnie Cooper briefly storming off during a DragCon Q&A panel, after a painfully long feud with many of the other queens.
RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under host Rhys Nicholson speaks out about THAT feud with MAFS’ Dean Wells
While Rhys prefers to keep the Twitter drama off of the Drag Race Down Under stage, they’re not immune to a little social media feuding of their own.
ICYMI – The comedian, author and actor (triple threat alert!) unexpectedly made headlines in early 2023 after Married at First Sight participant Dean Wells started harassing them on Instagram.
After Rhys promoted a queer comedy show on NYE, serial sh*t-stirrer Dean lamented that the ABC was using “taxpayer dollars” to celebrate inclusivity on a secular holiday.
“He just went off and then got reality obsessed with it… I don’t understand it,” Rhys said of the bizarre reality TV feud.
They continued: “I don’t watch MAFS or The Bachelor. I’m not anti-them, [those shows] are just not in my wheelhouse. So I had no idea who this guy was.”
The iconic redhead soon found out Dean had been the villain of his season and carried that negative energy into his IRL persona, so Rhys stopped replying to the hate.
“I had a bunch of my friends being like, ‘Oh my god!’. That’s why I stop replying. I was like, ‘Oh my god, I think this guy might be crazy’. And then he got his comeuppance recently and claims to be cancelled.
“I also love the idea of like a straight white man being ‘cancelled’ because they aren’t, really. I’ll tell you what, [Dean] has still got a lot of followers and seem to still be getting a lot of work. So good luck.”
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