Manila Luzon spills the tea on hosting 'Drag Den' and not wanting to wait for 'Drag Race Philippines'
Drag fans were expecting RuPaul's Drag Race icon and double All Star Manila Luzon to host the Philippine spin-off of the reality competition but instead, the Filipino former contestant announced that she would be hosting her own show: Drag Den.
Manila's Drag Den announcement came before the long-rumored Drag Race Philippines was made official. She spilled all the tea about the two drag reality competitions in an interview with PinkNews.
"I was aware that they were trying to get [Drag Race Philippines] off the ground for many years," she said.
The fan-favorite Filipino drag queen, who competed on three seasons of Drag Race, has said before that she wanted a spin-off to happen to showcase the talents of local drag artists, but the timing wasn't right.
“When the opportunity [Drag Den] came to me, I was like: ‘Well, I’m not waiting around.’ Any new opportunity, I’m gonna jump at, so I took it," Manila said.
She added that Drag den will be very different from RuPaul's show. “They have their formula and they’ve been plugging it into all these different countries. So we’re trying to do something very new and something that’s very Filipino.”
Manila also pointed out that there's no bad blood or rivalry between the two shows.
This is MAJOR! The Philippines is going to have TWO drag reality shows on TV! ??❤️ @dragdenph & @dragraceph pic.twitter.com/EtWWS5TsId
— Manila Luzon (@manilaluzon) August 16, 2021
“I’m excited that we have multiple shows. I’m going to be able to show and tell the stories of different queens and Drag Race Philippines will be able to tell their stories and showcase different queens," she shared. "I think that it’s great because there’s more opportunity, especially for a country that doesn’t have a lot of opportunity for drag queens.”
Aside from Drag Den, Manila Luzon is on another show highlighting drag talent titled Karaoke Club: Drag Edition.
Thumbnail and banner photos from Instagram.
