The fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race began airing on January 28, 2013, with a 90-minute premiere episode, and ended on May 6 of the same year. The winner of season five headlined Logo's Drag Race Tour featuring Absolut Vodka, won a one-of-a-kind trip, a lifetime supply of Colorevolution Cosmetics, and a cash prize of $100,000. Santino Rice and Michelle Visage returned as judges at the panel.
The theme song playing during the runway every episode is "I Bring the Beat", while the song playing during the credits is "The Beginning". Both songs are from RuPaul's album Glamazon.
This is the first-ever series in the show's history to feature a double elimination or a double sashay between two contestants, Honey Mahogany and Vivienne Pinay. It is also the first series to feature a queen, Coco Montrese, lip-sync for their life four times and send 3 people home. This is also the first series where RuPaul allowed fans to vote for a winner.
The winner of the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race was Jinkx Monsoon, with Alaska and Roxxxy Andrews being the runners-up, and Ivy Winters being crowned season 5's Miss Congeniality by fans.
Ages, names, and cities stated are at time of filming.
Notes:
Legend:
Listed in chronological order:
Guests who appeared in episodes, but did not judge on the main stage:
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The overnight ratings for the fifth-season premiere of Rupaul's Drag Race reinforced the show's position as Logo's juggernaut. "Monday night's 9PM season five premiere of RuPaul's Drag Race worked the ratings runway, averaging a .8 rating in the P18-49 demo. This number represents a 33% increase over Logo's previous top-rated season premiere (fourth-season premiere of RuPaul's Drag Race) and clocks in as the highest-rated season premiere in Logo history.
Additionally, the 90-minute premiere tallied a total of 565,000 viewers. The fifth-season premiere night of RuPaul's Drag Race and companion series RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked delivered over 1.3 million viewers.
Furthermore, RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked was the most-watched premiere ever averaging 291,000 total viewers and a .5 rating P18-49. On social media platforms for premiere night, RuPaul's Drag Race and Untucked showed a 136% increase in social activity versus the fourth-season premiere â this includes tweets, Facebook posts and Get Glue check-ins.