The RuPaul’s Drag Race queen “knows what it means to take an opportunity and turn it into something extraordinary.”
Several former contestants from the Drag Race franchise have gone on to host their own Drag Race shows. Several have served as panelists — from Brooke Lynn Hytes from Canada’s Drag Race to Nicky Doll from Drag Race France.RuPaul’s Drag Race, the original show, has yet to feature an alum sitting alongside RuPaul on the panel. According to longtime judge and co-producer Ross Matthews (the hilarious Ross Matthews, if you’re nasty), there are several queens he has in mind for the judges’ table, one of which is a queen dubbed the “Queen of All Queens.”
Matthews first appeared as a guest judge during the fourth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. It wasn’t until Season 7 that the television host became a regular judge, along with Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’s “Fashion Savant,” Carson Kressley. While on the set of The Drew Barrymore Show, Matthews told Entertainment Weekly that there are multiple queens from the show who have gone on to make the most out of their careers beyond the Drag Race scene. But if there’s one person he’d pick to be on the judges’ panel, it’d be none other than Season 5 and All Stars 7 winner Jinkx Monsoon, as the iconic drag queen — who now can be seen as the villainous Maestro in the Ncuti Gatwa-led Doctor Who — “knows what it means to take an opportunity and turn it into something extraordinary,” per Matthews.
“There are a lot of queens from our show who have gone on to extraordinary careers — not just within the Drag Race world, but outside of that as well. But, if I could pick one who I’d want to come and sit and judge for an episode you know, it’d probably have to be Jinkx Monsoon because she knows what it is,” said Matthews.
Jinkx Monsoon Would Be a Perfect Panelist
Matthews added other queens he wanted to see on the panel, including Bianca Del Rio (Season 6), Monét X Change (Season 10, All Stars 4 & 7), Bob the Drag Queen (Season 8), Shea Couleé (Season 9, All Stars 5 & 7), and Nina West (Season 11, All Stars 9). Matthews added: “I think those are the ones who I would want to come back. Judging on that show is all about nudging people to their potential to greatness, and they know how to do that because they’ve done it.”
Any obstacles were just “water off a duck’s back” for the performer. After winning the fifth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2013, Jinkx Monsoon went on to secure a crown in the All-Winners season back in 2022, fighting against equally iconic and talented queens like Raja, Trinity the Tuck, Yvie Oddly, Jaida Essence Hall, and The Vivienne. Although often criticized for her runway numbers during Season 5, the Queens of All Queens made a splash in her original season with her exceptional comedic chops. She returned stronger in All Stars 7 and eventually emerged victorious. Aside from Drag Race, the actress and comedian went on to find success in other performing fields, having scored a starring role in the 2020 romantic comedy Happiest Season, a Broadway production performance as Mama Morton in Chicago, and a villain role in the newest iteration of Doctor Who. These are on top of her several credits in other television shows and music videos, as well as studio albums of her own.
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 9 streams Fridays on Paramount+. All seasons of All Stars, including RuPaul’s Drag Race, are also available to stream on Paramount+.