The 73rd Emmy Awards, TV’s most prestigious award ceremony, happened last Sunday, September 19th and this edition will be forever remembered for making history: RuPaul became the person of colour who received the most awards. Now owning eleven Emmys, the reality show host of RuPaul’s Drag Race surpassed cinematographer Donald A. Morgan, who was awarded ten Emmys. That’s no surprise considering how amazing this drag queen competition is!

RuPaul Andre Charles is a sixty-year-old American actor, supermodel, author, singer, and most importantly, drag queen. He is the host and main person behind his homonymous reality show competition, RuPaul’s Drag Race, which first aired in 2009 at Logo TV channel – later moving to WOW Presents Plus, and now at VH1 since the show’s ninth season. Produced by World of Wonder, this funny, colourfull, beautiful, amazing reality show – now in its thirteenth edition – portrays RuPaul in search of the charisma, singularity, courage, and talent of a special drag queen, to receive the title of “America’s Next Drag Superstar”. During its weekly episodes, the contestants engage in competitions that challenge their singing, dancing, sewing, humour, and personality abilities. This show, which is filled with a lot of fashion information, had two spin-offs: RuPaul’s Drag U, canceled in 2013, and RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars, currently in its sixth season.

On September 19th, at the occasion of the 73rd Emmy Awards – the most awaited and esteemed TV shows’ award celebration -, RuPaul Charles made history by becoming the most-awarded person of colour at the Emmys. The creator, executive producer and host of RuPaul’s Drag Race had been so far tied to Donald A. Morgan – a veteran cinematographer, owner of ten Emmy trophies – in number of Emmy Awards but surpassed him by receiving the Outstanding Competition Program award last Sunday. RuPaul’s Drag Race then became the most-awarded Reality Competition Show, with four consecutive awards. In addition, the award ceremony marked RuPaul’s sixth consecutive win in the category of Host for a Reality or Competition Series – making him the winningest host since 2008 when this category was established -, which record was also previously held by Morgan. RuPaul was awarded eleven Emmys from his sixteen nominations for the reality franchise. Other four awards of the night include Editing, Casting, Directing, and its first win at Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program category for RuPaul’s Drag Race Untucked. It is important to mention that only forty-four percent of this year’s Emmy Awards acting nominations were to performers of colour. Moreover, five nominees in the Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program category were people of colour: besides RuPaul, Nicole Byer was nominated for Nailed It, Karamo Brown was indicated for Queer Eye, Padma Lakshmi for Top Chef, and Daymond John for Shark Tank.

RuPaul’s Drag Race received a total of fifty-nine Emmy Awards nominations – the first one in 2015, six years after the show’s launch in 2009 – and scored twenty-five of them – the first victory happened in 2016. Bellow is a list of all Emmy Awards nabbed by RuPaul and his Drag Race reality show:

2021:

– Outstanding Competition Program – RuPaul’s Drag Race

– Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program – RuPaul Charles

– Outstanding Casting for a Reality Program – Goloka Bolte and Ethan Petersen

– Outstanding Picture Editing for a Structured Reality or Competition Program – Jamie Martin, Paul Cross, Ryan Mallick and Michael Roha

– Outstanding Directing for a Reality Program – Nick Murray

– Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program – RuPaul’s Drag Race Untucked

2020:

– Outstanding Competition Program – RuPaul’s Drag Race

– Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program – RuPaul Charles

– Outstanding Casting for a Reality Program – Goloka Bolte and Ethan Petersen

– Outstanding Picture Editing for a Structured Reality or Competition Program – Jamie Martin, Paul Cross, Ryan Mallick, Michael Roha and Michael Deis

– Outstanding Contemporary Hairstyling for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program – Curtis Foreman and Ryan Randall

– Outstanding Contemporary Makeup for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program (Non-Prosthetic) – Natasha Marcelina, David Petruschin, Jen Fregozo and Nicole Faulkner

2019:

– Outstanding Competition Program – RuPaul’s Drag Race

– Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program – RuPaul Charles

– Outstanding Costumes for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program – Zaldy Goco and Art Conn

– Outstanding Hairstyling for a Multi-Camera Series or Special – Hector Pocasangre

2018:

– Outstanding Reality-Competition Program – RuPaul’s Drag Race

– Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program – RuPaul Charles

– Outstanding Directing for a Reality Program – Nick Murray

– Outstanding Hairstyling for a Multi-Camera Series or Special – Hector Pocasangre and Gabriel Villarreal

– Outstanding Costumes for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program – Zaldy Goco

2017:

– Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program – RuPaul Charles

– Outstanding Picture Editing for a Structured Reality or Competition Reality Program – Jamie Martin, Michael Roha and John Lim

– Outstanding Costumes for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program – Zaldy Goco and Perry Meek

2016:

– Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program – RuPaul Charles

In his award acceptance speech, RuPaul standed by Drag Race judge Michelle Visage, Season thirteen winner Symone, and second-place finalist Gottmik, and stated: “Wow, thank you so much to the Academy and all of you gorgeous people here tonight. […] You know, they are so gracious to tell their stories of courage and how to navigate this difficult life, even more difficult today. This is for you.”. RuPaul’s Drag Race has been renewed for its fourteenth season, announced to air in 2022.

Published by HOLR Magazine.