2023 Reality Stars Rankdown (Lily’s Battle Posted)

[Solaris]

cut Luxx

[*Lily]

save Kate

[Zoey]

Save Zara.

[Alex95]

New page

Dotun Olubeko (The Bachelorette)

Melinda Verga (CDR4)

Tanya Manhenga (Love Island S9)

Pentatonix "California Rolls" (TMS 9)

Yamil "Yam Yam" Arocho (Survivor 44)

Luxx Noir London (RPDR 15)**

[Solaris]

Luxx Noir London

 

 

Luxx Noir London was a drag queen on RuPaul's Drag Race Season 15.  Being perfectly honest, Luxx felt like a RuPaul encyclopedia for most of the season.  She wasn't really adding much of her own material to it, and instead recycled others.  That is to say until the Queens were asked who should go home.  This gave what was in my opinion Luxx's iconic moment of the season.  She went down the line talking about how inspiring and beautiful each queens drag was.  Then she got to Loosey LaDuca.  She laid into her.  It was EVERYTHING.  You should see it for yourself, but I can't find a full clip of it.

 

Outside of that moment, I found Luxx largely unlikable and bratty towards her other competitors.  She won a design challenge, and a comedy challenge alongside her bestie Loosey.  So she was keeping up to the rest of the queens she made the finale with.  Luxx was placed into the bottom only once.  She stayed against Loosey. She made it to the finale and was eliminated at the original song portion, finishing in 3rd/4th.

 

I will say, that Luxx had some of the best actual drag on the season.  She does know style and it was reflected throughout the season. Some of my favorite runways she had were Who is She? Metallica, Glove and her Crystallized design look was top tier.

 

I would be open to Luxx returning in the future as I think time would allow her time to mature.  Hopefully with that it makes her more likable.  Rarely does someone win Drag Race that the audience deems unlikable these days.  I do have hope, as her drag is all-star worthy.  Based on season 15, and whats happened in the last couple cycles of the rankdown, I won't be letting her advance. Great jobs to her fans who kept her here, and apologies for the cut!

Edited September 29 by Solaris

[*Diana]

Saving Melinda.

[*Wallace]

Lol I missed the cuts I wanted to make and don't want to cut most of anyone here.

 

But I suppose I'll cut Dotun as I'd like to give him a good write-up. 

[*Chris]

Save Yam Yam

[*Wallace]

Dotun Olubeko (The Bachelorette Season 21)

 

 

Ugh I am failing sooo badly with The Bachelor Nation wins that I want that it's not even funny. I wanted Charity to win for The Bachelor and I failed at that. I wanted Kylee to win for Bachelor in Paradise and failed at that. At least Theresa wins for The Golden Bachelor.... so at least I get one win that I want there (though I wouldn't have minded Sandra or Susan winning there either lol) but that was the show I was least passionate about getting a winner there. Yeah I wanted Dotun to win for The Bachelorette.... but there's no way Dotun will survive this round, so I'll give in and let the Joey fans get what they want and let Joey get the win. Don't get me wrong, I like Joey a lot but I still feel like Dotun should win for this season. It's what Charity would want... but alas, not meant to be here. Ideally and honestly, I would have cut Tanya out of who's left as she's my easy least fave left but I'm sure she's gone this round (though lol if I'm wrong and Chris saves her then she lives on to see another round  ETA: Okay I see that I'm not wrong). 

Dotun Olubeko is a literal giant 30 year old Integrative Medicine Specialist from Fresno, California, who competed on the 20th season of The Bachelorette starring Charity Lawson. Dotun is a real cool, chill and likable guy. He's not the biggest or wildest personality, soo he may come off as boring to people. But I think the moreso lowkey people like Dotun that stays out of drama, have true intentions of looking for love. Ugh this season of The Bachelorette was ridiculously short and so annoying as there were SO many guys cut so quickly and the season sped through SO fast. Charity deserved better! 

 

 

Dotun did have a few solo dates with Charity. The first date they had was on Episode 4 (with 10 men left in the season). Then Dotun had another solo date on Episode 5 - and yes, he had ANOTHER solo date over the likes of Tanner and Sean, neither of whom ever had a solo date.   That's so unfair but it is what it is.  Dotun and Charity had really great chemistry and a great bond with each other. You could tell they were really into and falling for each other on these dates and the more solo times they had. I think it was their second solo date on the Top 6 episode where I was thinking "YUP, THAT'S IT! I'm rooting for Dotun for Charity." I think I remember Dotun saying he didn't really know what the show was about or that he would have to get engaged by the end of it, which was interesting.    But yeah I really liked Dotun a lot and thought he was such a great likable guy. He made it through to the Top 4 Hometowns (where they had a beautiful Drive-In date), then made it through to the Top 3 Fantasy Suites. Then it was down to Dotun and Joey as the final 2. I do think this was one of the best final 2 guys of The Bachelorette as both Dotun and Joey are great guys. That can kinda be rare on this show, lol. Charity broke things off with Joey and ultimately chose to be with Dotun. Then Dotun proposed to Charity. lol he was on bended knee and still was nearly her height - that was funny to see.   They had a beautiful love story, and it was really lovely to watch. Dotun was there and supported Charity through her time on DWTS. And they are still engaged and planning to get married... I think sometime next year. I do love Dotun & Charity as a couple and wish them all the best and a lifetime of happiness.    

 

I wish I could have helped Dotun win for The Bachelorette as it only feels right but I was fighting a losing battle there so oh well.  Just glad that Dotun was able to get to the Top 100 and the Top 2 for that season, at least. I'll post the video of their Drive-In date that Dotun had for Charity for his Hometown date and then their beautiful engagement.  

 

 

 

 

[jarmon]

I think I achieved what I wanted to with these noms.

Both Joey & Archie winning their seasons now makes me happy

 

[FrogLenzen]

1 hour ago, Alex95 said:

Tanya Manhenga (Love Island S9)

Pentatonix "California Rolls" (TMS 9)

I think these are my options so cut Tanya?

[*Wallace]

2 minutes ago, jarmon said:

I think I achieved what I wanted to with these noms.

Both Joey & Archie winning their seasons now makes me happy

 

You're welcome.

 

 

2 minutes ago, FrogLenzen said:

I think these are my options so cut Tanya?

They are both cut regardless as it's down to you on Steven, who have cuts this round.

[FrogLenzen]

1 minute ago, *Wallace said:

They are both cut regardless as it's down to you on Steven, who have cuts this round.

oh darn

[FrogLenzen]

then I'll do the Pentatonix write-up

[FrogLenzen]

Pentatonix

 

Masked Singer has one of the worst RTV formats ever nowadays, with few performances, random wildcards, clearly rigged eliminations, it's a mess. But Pentatonix came in and delivered the best vocal performances of the year and I have no choice but to stan. I'm likely the biggest (only?) Pentatonix fan on the boards but I thought maybe without Alex and Nico here that they might stand a chance of making it further, but alas. It was pretty obvious from the start that it was Pentatonix disguised as sushi, like there are 5 of them and they clearly have experience singing together. If you're like me you recognized them instantly from the voices which I know very well, but even if not it's like, who else could it be lol. I think they guessed stuff like "the cast of Glee" which was funny and probably just the judges feigning ignorance to keep the show entertaining. 

 

Anyway, Pentatonix originated on another reality TV show The Sing-Off where they won their season and were amazing. I really think that the lead tenor (Scott) is one of the best male vocalists in the business. I could go on about every member and even the former member (Avi) but I'll stick to this show for now. After they were unmasked they did a full reprise performance of Creep (video above) which they had sung a couple weeks prior. But this reprise was incredible, show-stopping, live changing, never the same, etc. It was fun seeing them untethered by the usual "a cappella" constraints and performing with full back-up music. And Creep on a singing show is sooooo tired but they managed to still blow my socks off completely. All things equal they should have won the season based on singing talent alone because they were far and away better than all the other jokers that season, yes Archie included. And maybe that's cheating since they have 5 members lol but it was really no contest in my opinion. Of course they got eliminated for the Fergie Impersonator which was a travesty that I would have been able to survive had it actually been Fergie but it was not. 

 

Anyway I'll leave you with the other performance they had that I consider to be in a whole different echelon than what we're used to seeing on these goofy singing shows.

 

 

And here's their entire run, because why not it was short enough lol

 

 

[*Wallace]

Luxx wasn't one of my top favorites from her season of Drag Race, but she's definitely a strong and talented queen. And a very worthy finalist for S15, I would say. Her personality wasn't my favorite (though Loosey was much more unlikable to me), so that kept her from being a favorite of mine. But yeah she owned it with her runways and I do think runway/fashion was her strong suit. And lmaooo the "who should go" speech at Loosey moment was definitely a memorable moment. I am sure we'll see her on All-Stars and do well there in the future.  

Pentatonix "California Roll" were really and simply fantastic on The Masked Singer. I can't remember if I guesed them right away or how quickly I recognized them, but pretty sure I guessed and thought them right away regardless. All of their performances were great but "Paparazzi," "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Creep" were major standouts and some of my favorites from them.   I wouldn't have minded them to make it further here, and I thought they could have made Top 50 or so here. But still happy they got this far. I'm also totally fine with them beating out fake Fergie Bishop Briggs "Medusa" too.
 

[Alex95]

Tanya Manhenga has been eliminated and Steven is responsible for her writeup. He will not be able to cut or save in subsequent rounds until he gets his writeup in.

 

@Steven_ is up next to nominate. @*Chris @*Lily @*Diana @Zoey will be cutters for this round and should now post their immunity picks. @Solaris @*Wallace @FrogLenzen @jarmon will be savers.

[*Lily]

Noky Simbani

[*Lily]

 

[Zoey]

Aurora.

[*Diana]

Immunity to Gabi Elnicki

[*Chris]

Brittany Allen

[Alex95]

@Steven_ can now post his nominations whenever he's ready. Noky Simbani, Aurora Matrix, Gabriella "Gabi" Elnicki, and Brittany Allen are off the table.

[Alex95]

@Steven_ has about 7 and a half hours left to get his nominations in, and also still has to post his Tanya Manhenga writeup.

[Steven_]

TANYA MANHENGA

 

Tanya Manhenga participated in last year's Love Island. She's a student and influencer from Liverpool, England. It looks like she was one of the main islanders. She entered the villa on Day 1 and ended up placing fourth overall with Shaq Muhammad. She and Shaq seemed to be a steady couple, repeatedly coupling up with each other in the first half of the season. That changed after Casa Amor. Tanya chose to recouple with a new guy Martin while Shaq stayed single. Shaq said he was going to move on after that. However, Tanya went back to Shaq afterwards, and the two of them stayed a couple until the finale. I went over to Reddit to see what the fans thought about them. It seems like there's a consensus that Tanya was a bit immature compared to Shaq. Tanya is still young and laid-back, but Shaq is already looking ahead to the future and wanted a serious relationship. I guess they don't seem to be so compatible, at least according to these viewers. And are Tanya and Shaq still together? According to a Reddit thread posted a month ago, the two of them announced they broke up. There's also something called "Miami-gate" mentioned in the comments....Oh, so rumors has it that Shaq cheated on Tanya. So, I guess he wasn't so emotionally mature after all.