2023 Reality Stars Rankdown (Steven & Sola’s Noms Posted)

[Solaris]

save Annabel

cut Anna

[Solaris]

Anna Yinan Zhou 

 

 

I am cutting one Anna to save another.  Anna Yinan Zhou was a contestant on Project Runway, a show that I have never seen, but I know a little bit about. Anna was originally a contestant on the 19th season of Project Runway, where she placed 7th.  In this rankdown she is representing season 20, and she is the lowest placed contestant currently remaining in the rankdown from the season (8th).  Anna looks like she consistently placed in the safe or low placements, with one high week as an exception.  She was not in the bottom 2 until the she was she eliminated, which was week 9. Prajje was in the bottom 2 next to her, and I assume the judges decided to keep Prajje?  Not sure how the eliminations work. Anna did well to get this far in the rankdown!

 

Save: Annabel

[*Diana]

Jaymes Mansfield

 

Jaymes Mansfield was first on the  season 9 of RuPaul's Drag Race. She was the first queen to be eliminated and ended up finishing in 14th place.

 

Despite being eliminated first, the queen returned for all stars! Jaymes  returned to compete on the eighth season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars. She finished 7th. So she went from 14th to 7th. Good for her. Is she an iconic queen really? I am going on reddit and Wikipedia but it doesn't seem it.

 

The best she placed was 7th so not really a huge loss in our game.  Not really understanding the choice of her as all star based on what I am reading.

 

Saving Ash Pollard

Edited July 17 by *Diana

[*Wallace]

LOL Yeahhh.... a lot of the casting choices (on paper) for All-Stars 8 did seem like a choice as a good half of them were early boots (either 1st or 2nd boots or didn't make it above 9th place).  It was very jarring since the previous All-Stars season was an all-winners season. Many of us were not here for the cast when it was revealed.   Though the fun in All-Stars is seeing how the queens can improve. Some of them really stepped it up and made massive improvements but some of them remained underwhelming/disappointing. Jaymes was the former in improving though I feel like a number of other queens stood out more than her. But Jaymes was really funny and fun and enjoyable (I feel like she shone in the comedic based challenges) - definitely a much better run the second go round.  

[Zoey]

Save Banksie

Cut Grace
 

[Zoey]

Grace West | The Voice

Grace West is the runner-up from the twenty third season of The Voice US. This season was extremely short with only 2 episodes for the live shows so it really lacked any sort of impact. Doesn’t this show lack any impact anyway? Grace was a decent singer but she’s someone that we have seen a million times before on multiple singing competitions. I’d say I prefer her to Gina, who ended up winning but I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of anyone from that season honestly. She had a few nice performances throughout her journey but none that stick out in my mind as anything to write home about. She was a solid singer who benefited from having a very short season.

 

Saving Banksie.

[*Chris]

Saving Raven Sutton & Paris McTizic (The Circle)

Cutting Charbel Hayek (Top Chef)

[*Chris]

CHARBEL HAYEK

TOP CHEF : WORLD ALL STARS || 9TH PLACE

 

 

Charbel Hayek is known for having competed and won the fifth season of Top Chef Middle East & North Africa. Since winning, he has continued to refine his culinary skills and expand his knowledge while working as a private chef in Lake Worth, Florida. Charbel describes his cuisine as "New American," with influences from French and Lebanese cuisines.  He joined the World All Stars edition of Top Chef, representing one of the two chefs from the Middle East & North Africa edition. On that season, he established himself as a front-runner, winning the first week and consistently placing either safe or high throughout the competition. During his time on the show, he was in the top a total of three times before being eliminated in the 8th week; I would assume with his impressive track record, his elimination was most likely a surprise for the viewers and other competitors.  Unfortunately, as I've never seen the show, I ended up choosing him to cut over the other nominees, and therefore, he is out of the rankdown.

 

SAVING: RAVEN SUTTON & PARIS MCTIZIC (THE CIRCLE)

[Alex95]

Heidi N Closet (RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars)

Darienne Lake (RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars)

Kate Butch (RuPaul's Drag Race UK)

Nicole Gomes (Top Chef)

Donna Hartt (The Traitors Canada)

Travon Smith (The Traitors Canada)

[*Chris]

On 7/15/2024 at 10:52 AM, *Chris said:

MARSHAWN LYNCH

STARS ON MARS || 6TH PLACE

 

 

Just like Buddy Games, Stars on Mars premiered in 2023 and was essentially a way for FOX to have shows airing during the writers' strike. The premise of the show follows celebrities living together in a base camp to simulate life on Mars. Each cycle, someone is elected Base Commander and assigns tasks to be completed around the camp. During missions, the group works together to complete tasks under the direction of the Base Commander and a Mission Specialist, chosen by the Commander. After the mission, the Specialist and Commander choose three celebrities who contributed the least, putting them up for elimination, and the group then decides who to eliminate.

 

On the first and only season of the show, Marshawn Lynch, an NFL legend, competed. He was the Base Commander in the first episode but found himself at risk during the next two episodes. Whether this was a strategy to get him out early or if he was truly the weakest is unknown, as I didn't watch the show. Regardless, he made it all the way to the 11th episode before being eliminated in 6th place. Overall, this is a great showing for him considering he's from one of the lesser-known reality TV shows in this rankdown.

 

SAVING: MARVIN ACHI

 

On 7/13/2024 at 1:05 PM, *Chris said:

BRETT ROBINSON & XANTHI PERDIKOMATIS - "JENNIFER"
THE CIRCLE 5 || 5TH PLACE

 

 

When The Circle’s 5th season premiered, there was one person I was not looking forward to seeing compete: Brett Robinson from Big Brother; I was never a fan of his, and nothing in this world could convince me to become a fan of his. During the first episode, two top influencers of the week - Raven and Marvin - respectively blocked Brett and Xanthi, who I certainly wanted to see more of. Shortly after their elimination, Brett and Xanthi met each other and discovered they would get a second chance to compete.  I was happy to see more from Xanthi, but it also meant dealing with Brett a bit longer. With the twist, they would be catfishing as a player the producers chose for them: Jennifer, a 51-year-old single dog trainer. Together, they complemented each other well and successfully became a convincing catfish, with little suspicion on them. They even ranked near the top of the pack during the 4th voting of the competition. They ended up making it all the way to the finale, finishing in fifth place. Despite their success, I can't say I ever really cared for them or rooted for them. At this stage of the rankdown, there's someone I much prefer to see outlast them, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to cut them.

 

SAVING : WILL YOUNG

 

On 7/16/2024 at 9:06 AM, *Chris said:

NAYSHA LOPEZ

RPDR : ALL STARS 8 || 11TH PLACE

 

 

Naysha Lopez was first introduced to us during Season 8 of RuPaul's Drag Race, where she oversold herself as a great queen, especially being a pageant queen and having won Miss Continental, which is like the Miss Universe of Drag Queens. On her original season, she fell short of impressing the judges and became the first queen eliminated. She received a second chance on the same season when she came back after the double sashay, but her time on the show was once again short-lived when Chi Chi Devayne completely annihilated her in the lipsync the following episode.  After her original season, she continued to be involved in the fandom, hosting a regular Drag Race viewing party in Chicago where she had queens from RPDR appearing and doing Q&As after the episode. I was not surprised when it was announced that she would be competing on RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars 8; I was actually excited to see her because I have always been intrigued by her drag style. On All Stars, she once again failed to impress the judges and her fellow competitors. She found herself in the bottom during the 2nd episode and eventually got eliminated by her sisters when Jimbo lost the lipsync against Pangina; Even if Jimbo had won, she would have been sent home. With the twist of the season, she got to showcase some of her looks during the Fame Games, but most of her looks left me wanting more, especially compared to other queens in the competition. There's no denying that Naysha Lopez is a talented queen, but she's one of those queens that sadly does not fare well in a competition setting like Drag Race, which can be seen with her track record, which might be one of the worst in the herstory of the show.

 

SAVING: CAROLYN WIGER

 

Edited! I think I'm all up to date now. 

[FrogLenzen]

Jaymes was one of those queens who hustled off the show after she was initially eliminated. She started a successful youtube channel about styling wigs and became known in the industry. 

 

They couldn't decide if All Stars 8 was going to be the "early out" season or a regular all star season. They had a lot of trouble casting apparently. So we ended up with like... half early-outs and half regular and the whole branding of the season was super unclear and it suffered for it

[FrogLenzen]

save Kate

cut Donna

[FrogLenzen]

Donna Hartt (The Traitors Canada)

 

If Donna's strategy was just to survive as long as possible, maybe she did good on the season. If her strategy was to actually find Traitors, maybe not. Donna was a faithful on the premiere Canadian season. Right off the bat she gave sus vibes and was almost banished, but later on it became obvious I guess that she was not a traitor and was just a loon. She never became a target for the Traitors because she was all over the place and easily convinced of anything. Meanwhile actual competent faithfuls lost out instead. She was so wild that no one suspected she was a traitor but also that no one suspected she was any type of threat. So she lasted all the way until 4th place lol. But in the end the Traitors won so while it's cute she lasted far in the game she didn't do much to help find Traitors

 

Save Kate Butch

[Alex95]

@jarmon @*Lily

Heidi N Closet (RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars)

Darienne Lake (RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars)

Nicole Gomes (Top Chef)

Travon Smith (The Traitors Canada)

[*Wallace]

Grace is good and talented but she wasn't one of my favorites. Agreed that this season felt reallly short, in comparisons to most of the other recent seasons, so it was hard to connect with the cast. She did well making it to 2nd though. 

That's actually a really accurate write-up on Donna's time on The Traitors Canada. Donna was a fun hot mess and made herself way too suspicious to look like a traitor. She wasn't too good with the strategy of things with finding out the traitors. But yeah, she was a fun character but not someone I really rooted that strongly for. I was surprised she made it to 4th but do get it.  
 

[*Wallace]

41 minutes ago, FrogLenzen said:

They couldn't decide if All Stars 8 was going to be the "early out" season or a regular all star season. They had a lot of trouble casting apparently. So we ended up with like... half early-outs and half regular and the whole branding of the season was super unclear and it suffered for it

Oooh didn't really know about that part at the first sentence. That makes sense for why the casting was as chaotic as it was.  

[*Lily]

cut Heidi

save Darienne

[*Lily]

Heidi N Closet

 

If you told me pre-All Stars 8 this would be the way around I'd do the cut/save, I probably wouldn't have believed you. Because I was always kinda indifferent on Darienne. And while she wasn't one of my favorites this season, I did wanna see more of her and thought she put up a good fight for the Fame Games, considering she was known to not have great runways the first time.

 

Heidi, however... it's complex. I loved Heidi on Season 12. Small-town girl with less experience but a bucket load of personality and charisma that made her an instant star. It was very reminiscent of Chi Chi, another one of my favorite RuGirls. Heidi had a great run on her first season and she was primed for an All-Stars spot.

 

And then All-Stars 8 happened. And that was a rough spot. Heidi I thought was doing ok in the competition and was getting overlooked. She did well in the improv challenge, and she surprised me in the ball. But when she missed out on the win, she was vocal about it disappointing her. It all came to a head when she had a heated confrontation with Kahanna, and then Kandy, about some whispers on people's strategies to take out the bigger competition.

 

I rewatched that scene again recently and it was a tough watch. Heidi basically got turned on by most of the group, she freaked out and she quit. And good for her to do what was best for her. The way Heidi acted on social media post-season.. left a little bit of sour grapes, and it's a shame because I really liked her before the season. I still like her, and if this was a Drag Race rankdown I may think differently, but it's a 2023 Reality Stars rankdown, and her All-Stars 8 run just wasn't up to par for me.

 

Save Darienne Lake

 

[Solaris]

Heidis Drag on AS8 was fantastic, for the few episodes we saw it.  It definitely had a glow up.

 

Don't know what happened on social media post show though.

Edited July 17 by Solaris

[*Wallace]

Not Darienne being the AS8 all-star to survive over Heidi and Jaymes.   (It's not a big deal at all though I prefer them over Darienne, lol).

Ah Lily said it all perfectly well on Heidi on AS8. She was the one I was most looking forward to and excited for as I think she was my favorite of the cast pre-season. Then that season happened and.... it's all really tough to watch and grasp.   I do think she did well and was underrated and didn't get enough credit for her performances in the challenges. I felt bad for what all went down and led to her quitting but respect it for it being the right decision for her and her mental health. I don't know much about the social media rants/posts but not liking what I heard about it.

[Alex95]

@jarmon has about 5 hours left for Nicole Gomes (Top Chef) vs. Travon Smith (The Traitors Canada)

[Alex95]

6 hours ago, Alex95 said:

@jarmon has about 5 hours left for Nicole Gomes (Top Chef) vs. Travon Smith (The Traitors Canada)

24 hours is up and anyone can make the final cut

[*Wallace]

Save Travon, cut Nicole

[*Wallace]

Nicole Gomes (Top Chef: World All-Stars)

 

Nicole Gomes is a chef from Vancouver, British Columbia, who originally competed on Top Chef Canada. Nicole competed on Top Chef Canada not only once but twice! Nicole was the only chef to have competed on two different seasons before. On Season 3, she finished at 5th place. But she got her redemption and won it all on Season 5. So on paper, did Nicole come in with an advantage having competed on the show twice before while everyone else did it once? I don't know.... but I would think probably not.  

Nicole's track record on the show seems pretty decent/~boring~ compared to the other chefs. She was IN (aka safe) for the first 3 weeks of competition. Nicole received a HIGH ranking on Episode 4, which looks like it was a group challenge. Which yeah, this was the "Spurred Lines" episode, where Nicole was teamed up with Amar & Victorie and they competed in a football-themed tournament-style team challenge set at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Nicole's team was safe from the elimination. Nicole was IN (safe) on Episode 5. Then Nicole received her highest honor of winning on Episode 6's "Top Chef Is No Picnic" challenge, where she won with a Salmon Niçoise Salad. And did she receive $10,000 from this win? I'm thinking so. Okay after that, Nicole was safe for two more weeks on Episode 7 and 8. But sadly her luck ran out on Episode 9's "Restaurant Wars" where she was eliminated. Nicole lasted 9 weeks/episodes with an 8th place finish, which is not too bad.

Saving: Travon Smith

 

 

[Alex95]

@Solaris is up next to nominate 16 reality stars