Watch: 'Real Friends of WeHo' Star to 'Drag Race' Fans: 'Watch Us and Chill Out!'
Stylist and "The Real Friends of WeHo" cast member Brad Goreski addressed the anger that "Drag Race" fans have toward the new reality show, which is blamed for "Drag Race" episodes now being a third shorter — down to 60 minutes from 90 — as well as for a ratings nosedive of "Drag Race" companion series "Untucked."
Page Six reported that Goreski appeared on an episode of the "Virtual Reali-Tea" podcast — which is produced by Page Six — and tackled the wrath of "Drag Race" fans by saying, "Turn on MTV, plop yourself down, watch 'Drag Race,' watch us, watch 'Untucked' and have a fun Friday night and chill out."
As Goreski noted, MTV — which just started airing "Drag Race" this season, after acquiring it from the long-running show's previous perch, VH1 — has scheduled "The Real Friends of WeHo" between new episodes of "Drag Race" and its chat-show companion series, "Untucked." But if MTV executives hoped that the dual draw of "Drag Race" and "Untucked" would make "The Real Friends of WeHo" a smash success, they might be as disappointed as the fans, who are failing in droves to tune back in to watch "Untucked."
As Decider reported: "Now that it's separated from 'Drag Race' and has 'Real Friends of WeHo' as a lead-in, 'Untucked' has tanked."
Offering hard numbers, the writeup added: "The ratings for the most recent episode — 214,000 viewers — were the lowest in the show's televised history, since it became part of a two-hour programming block of 'Drag Race' in 2018."
What's more, Decider said that "this is also a problem for 'Drag Race' artistically, because if you were one of the 178K viewers who watched 'Drag Race' and did not come back an hour later for 'Untucked,' you missed out on all of the emotional buildup and release for a storyline that has been at the forefront of the season so far — and there was room for none of that in the actual episode of 'Drag Race' because the new 60-minute edit has jettisoned a lot of the show's emotional content."
"Real Friends of WeHo" has not offset its alienation of "Drag Race" fans by receiving stellar reviews on its own merits. The Daily Beast raked the show, saying that it "stinks as badly as the alley dumpster behind The Abbey after jockstrap night."
Characterizing "WeHo" as "choppy and unfocused, " The Daily Beast accused the powers that be behind the show of "blithely assuming that its audience has an innate interest in its whiny circle of friends who were cobbled together at the last second."
"Never before has a series so clearly founded itself on the premise of getting its viewers to tune in for a hate-watch."
"WeHo" is also plagued by a perception of inauthenticity, Distractify pointed out, writing that the show's cast "weren't friends prior to the series and they aren't actually from Hollywood, which is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of fan criticism."
"Drag Race" fans are pushing back, Distractify reported. "There's a Change.org petition to cancel 'The Real Friends of WoHo' and 'bring back 90 minute episodes of 'RuPaul's Drag Race,'" the site detailed. "The petition already has more than 32,000 signatures out of a hopeful 35,000."
Goreski told Page Six he's not to blame for any of the things "Drag Race" fans are upset about. "Anything past when we stopped filming, which was early December, I don't have anything to do with anything," he said, before adding: "I'm not a network exec. I'm talent!"
To watch Goreski's appearance on "Virtual Reali-Tea," follow this link.
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