RuPaul's Drag Race season 17 episode 10 recap: The queens do a "Villains Roast" while Whitney Cummings makes a guest appearance

RuPaul's Drag Race season 17 premiered on January 3, 2025 on MTV. The show introduced 14 new contestants, with RuPaul searching for the next top drag queen in the US, with a grand prize of $200,000. Michelle Visage returned as a regular judge. She was accompanied by recurring judges Carson Kressley, Ts Madison, and Ross Mathews. Law Roach, a former guest judge, also rejoined the panel.

In the previous episode, the contestants competed in a reading challenge. Later, they created outfits inspired by Betsey Johnson's fashion collection, resulting in Kori's elimination.

The latest episode, titled The Villains Roast, was released on March 7, 2025. It featured a comedy tribute to three drag queens, Kandy Muse, Mistress Isabelle Brooks, and Plane Jane. Comedian Whitney Cummings made a guest appearance as a judge.

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What happened in RuPaul's Drag Race season 17 episode 10?

Michelle surprised the RuPaul's Drag Race contestants with a mini-challenge, hosting the Badonka Dunk tank alongside writer Joey Nolfi. They tested the queens' knowledge with a trivia game. Correct answers kept them dry, while incorrect ones got them soaked. As it turned out, every contestant got every answer wrong and ended up getting dunked.

Next, the queens had to roast three "least congenial" contestants in the show's history. As the winner of the previous maxi challenge, Jewels got to decide the order for the roast. When Jewels asked the other contestants about their preferences, Sam said she'd feel more comfortable going after Arrietty, Lana, or Lydia.

Jewels later decided on the order as Onya, Arrietty, Jewels, Lana, Sam, Lydia, Suzie, and Lexi. Arrietty felt that Jewels took advantage of her weakness in this challenge by placing herself right after her on RuPaul's Drag Race.

"The tension is thick, b*tch... the tension is tensioning," stated Jewels.

During the group workshop, guest judge Whitney gave the contestants some advice. Michelle guided Arrietty and suggested to use her mean streak as a source of humor. She also advised Jewels to play around her own image and infuse that element in her act. Arrietty later decided to get back at Jewels for placing her in a tough spot by stealing some of her jokes and telling them first.

"At the end of the day, all you can do is stab your friend in the back," said Arrietty.

Jewels realized Arrietty might be upset about her placement in the roast, so she apologized. Lexi also mentioned to Lana that Jewels knew that she was worried about Suzie's strengths and had deliberately placed her after Suzie to throw her off. During the roast, Onya started the proccedings. Arrietty soon followed, struggling to deliver a joke about Kandy's tongue twisters.

But she soon set out jokes stolen from Jewels, who recognized her material backstage. Lana surprised the judges with her set, making jokes on Jane. The judges soon praised Lydia as well for her set. After the runway presentation, RuPaul gave safety to Onya and Suzie, named Lana, Sam, and Lydia as the top performers, and left Arrietty, Jewels, and Lexi as the bottom three.

Lydia was named the overall winner due to her comedic timing and best joke of the night. Arrietty and Jewels were named the bottom two and the two had to lip-sync to save themselves from elimination. After their performance to Ya Ya by Beyoncé on RuPaul's Drag Race, the judges decided to eliminate Arrietty.

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RuPaul's Drag Race airs on Fridays at 9:30 PM ET on MTV.