Associate Editor Tom Bryant was in the room at the Attitude Awards in London where the BBC was roundly booed over their decision to axe Drag Race UK
When you need to make half a billion quid in savings, the BBC has got more than a few tough decisions on its hands.
Having heard a room full of gay men and drag queens booing the Corporation at last night’s Attitude Awards, I wouldn’t recommend a whip-round.
“500 million quid in savings to find, apparently, and somehow it’s the drag queens that have got to go first,” said host Danny Beard, who brought up the decision to axe Drag Race UK.
As for where the axe should fall instead, he wasn’t short of ideas.
“I never liked Mrs Brown’s Boys. I call it cultural appropriation, to be honest…a straight man in a sh***** wig in a cardigan, and you call it drag,” Danny said.
I would happily wave Mrs Brown off. But then, my approach to saving the BBC money would involve cancelling programmes I dislike while insisting my favourites are vital national assets. I suspect many would think the same.
Unfortunately, someone actually has to make these decisions, with £500million to find and an aggrieved audience attached to practically everything.
Drag Race has had eight series since arriving in 2019, helping launch stars including Danny, La Voix and Tia Kofi. At its peak, it averaged around 1.5million viewers an episode.
For some, it is amazing, and trailblazing television. Others find its exaggerated femininity offensive. Neither view makes deciding its future straightforward.
Tia Kofi, the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The World series 2 in 2024, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that cutting the show also means a “marginalised” audience now has no representation on mainstream TV.
Future series will instead move to the production company’s streaming service, WOW Presents Plus. But at £5.99 a month, it’s yet another subscription for viewers already wondering how many they need just to watch the telly.
I wouldn’t claim Drag Race deserves immunity. But the BBC’s job isn’t simply to chase the biggest audience: it’s to offer something for everyone, including those whose tastes don’t deliver blockbuster ratings.
Niche audiences pay the licence fee too.
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