Why This Matters: The more swings taken in daytime, the more chances for new product and breakout hits.
Everybody say love!
RuPaul's been saying that for years, whether on RuPaul's Drag Race or on his radio show or his podcast or even on The RuPaul Show on VH1 back in the day. And everybody in the audience repeats it. And more importantly feels it.
Host RuPaul on set with co-hosts Michelle Visage (c.) and Ross Mathews
That's exactly the vibe RuPaul Charles drag queen, diva, author, recording artist, broadcaster and Emmy Award winner wants to bring to daytime TV.
On June 10, Fox Television Stations began a three-week, seven-market test of his talk show, The RuPaul Show, which will air through June 28. If all goes well, the show will be sold into national syndication for a fall 2020 start.
RuPaul also is an example of several ways syndication is changing with the times: He is a big name, but was still willing to do a three-week test if that's what it took to get his show on the air. He's throwing himself into the marketing and promotion just as if he was launching a national show, with the hopes that he will be. And the show is being offered on several online platforms to give as many people as possible the chance to sample it.
On the surface, though, RuPaul is about glitz, glamour and glitter. He's about lifting platinum-blonde wigs to the highest heights (and girl, we do mean high, because RuPaul is very tall), sliding into five-inch stilettos and bedecking himself with the latest fashions.
But that belies what all of it is really about.
Even as a kid, I wanted to break the fourth wall and say to other people, Is this all kind of weird to you? Does this all seem like it's an illusion, like it's someone's weird joke?' RuPaul said on the set of his talk show, which was housed for this week of tapings on The Real's set on the Warner Bros. lot in Los Angeles. It wasn't until I was about 11 or 12 and I saw Monty Python's Flying Circus on PBS. And I went, They get it. That's my tribe right there.' They didn't take anything seriously. They were making fun of everything. Nothing was off-limits. There were men in drag, men out of drag, there was everything. And I thought, That's it. My tribe is out there.'
Making a Space to Play
For RuPaul, drag is more of a guiding principle than a practice. It's shape-shifting. It's a way for people to play, to reveal who they really are and to experience something new, different and beautiful. Having helped that tribe find each other, now he brings them with him wherever he goes, and ideally, to a nationally distributed talk show that runs for 20 years. And this time, he won't be in drag but he will be, of course, very well-dressed.
You know, drag is not easy to do. It's very constricting, if you know what I mean, he said, launching into his signature laugh. This is more about me hanging out in my living room with my friends having a conversation. I believe that with where we are today socially, politically, emotionally in this country, there needs to be an inclusiveness so that people at home can be a part of that conversation.
Before RuPaul and crew can get to 20 years, they have to get through the test and into national syndication. On Monday, June 10, The RuPaul Show turned in a 0.6 rating/1 share household ratings average, according to Nielsen, in the seven Fox markets on which it is airing. That's up 20% from its year-ago time periods and even with its lead-ins.
We gave RuPaul really good time periods and we are also airing the Women's World Cup right now, Fox Television Stations executive VP of programming Frank Cicha said. What I like about all of this is that we have that event happening and we have a brand-new show in half of our group that is fresh and immediate. I love the overall strategy of it.
It's early to glean much information from ratings, and the show also is running in the typically slow summer, so Fox will evaluate its performance using more than just the ratings. Fox looks at the production, the talent, the topicality and how it performs on other platforms, including social media. And The RuPaul Show isn't just airing on TV stations in specific time periods, it's also available on YouTube, the local stations' websites and on RuPaul's own site, so his fans can come and find him whenever they want.
Ultimately, these things are going to have to be offered in such a way that people can consume them in the ways they want to consume them, Cicha said.
RuPaul himself understands the game of promotion, so every day he exhorted people to seek out the show online and post about it on social media via @RuPaulShow. And the week after taping wrapped, he hit the road to visit the various markets.
The show is already a big deal just because RuPaul's in it, Cicha said, and that provides an immediate boost to what's always a challenging and crowded marketing scenario.
From what he's seen of the show so far, I think [RuPaul's] done a very good job, Cicha said. I liked him [immediately], because he's a good listener. That's gigantic with these sorts of shows. If you can't listen, you aren't going to be a good interviewer.
Over the course of the 15 shows, RuPaul listened to the likes of James Corden, the Property Brothers (Jonathan and Drew Scott), Leah Remini, Matt Bomer, Marcia Gay Harden, Sen. Cory Booker and more, as well as many so-called regular people.
He's so naturally curious and he loves hearing people's stories, said executive producer Jill Van Lokeren, who previously produced The Oprah Winfrey Show and just completed Michelle Obama's book tour. Even off-camera, he goes up to people and he wants to know their stories. I fell in love
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
01/06/2026
Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music
AudioShake has introdu...
01/06/2026
The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...
01/06/2026
Category line-up & sponsors announced
Photo: Paul Clarke
The Production Music Awards (PMA) have announced that submissions are now officially open ahead of...
01/06/2026
New hybrid sample/synthesis instrument revealed
Excite Audio have just released the latest instalment in their Evolve series, which has been developed in co...
01/06/2026
Latest TONEX expansion captures three rare vintage amps
The newest addition to IK Multimedia's ever-growing TONEX line-up introduces a set of three incr...
01/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
01/06/2026
SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026
1 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has secured Hyundai, Hisense, Macca's, Rexona, bet365, Com...
01/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to ...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Mardi 2 juin 14h00
FilmLight (ARRI), 10 rue Ren Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Rejoignez-nous pour d couvrir comment FLAPI (l'API FilmLight) peut transformer e...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Wins 15 Awards at the Canadian Screen Awards - See Pho...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
31/05/2026
As factories move from isolated automation to plant-wide intelligence, manufacturers need AI systems that can connect live machine signals, quality systems, wor...
31/05/2026
The NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem is accelerating the global buildout of AI factory infrastructure. Partners are expanding capacity to meet growing demand from ente...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
Why This Matters: The more swings taken in daytime, the more chances for new product and breakout hits.
