The Traitors isn’t just one of today’s hottest reality TV competitions; it’s also the show that ended RuPaul’s eight-year winning streak at the Emmy Awards, courtesy of currently reigning host Alan Cumming
Now, Cumming revealed how RuPaul reacted to his win in a new interview on Late Night With Seth Meyers.
Meyers congratulated Cumming for his Emmy wins in both the Outstanding Host of a Reality Competition and Outstanding Reality Competition Program categories, both of which were nabbed by RuPaul’s Drag Race the year prior. “There was a bit of a dynasty for RuPaul’s Drag Race, and you were the one that sort of knocked RuPaul off the throne,” Meyers said.
“I topped RuPaul,” Cumming quipped back. “Many have tried.” Indeed, RuPaul had won Outstanding Host for eight consecutive years at the Emmys, the longest streak and most total wins in the category, when Cumming swooped in and took the trophy last year.
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“People say I toppled Ru, like Ru is a big sequoia tree or something,” Cumming added.
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The win was “bittersweet,” Cumming said, in part because of the valuable queer representation Drag Race provides.
“I think that show’s done so much good in terms of trans and drag awareness, and everything like that — which we need all the more right now, of course,” he said, to applause from the crowd. “But in a way, I sort of think we’re — you know, [The Traitors] is not quite as queer, but it’s a pretty queer show.” With a host as fabulous as Cumming and contestants as iconic as Bob the Drag Queen, it’s hard to argue with him there.
That’s when Cumming told the story of seeing RuPaul for the first time after winning the awards. “I saw Ru sort of backstage in a thing, and it was kind of like a bit of a Western,” Cumming said. “I went up to him and I just went, ‘I am so, so sorry.’ That’s all I said.”
That’s when Ru gave the most Ru answer possible: “He went, ‘Condragulations,’” Cumming recalled. “It made it all worthwhile.”
New episodes of The Traitors Season 3 release Thursdays on Peacock at 9 p.m. ET, and new episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 release Fridays on MTV at 8 p.m. ET. Check out both seasons’ trailers below.
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