Drag Race Eliminates First Season 17 Queen — Who’s Left After Episode 3?

Andy Swift

17 January 2025 at 9:31 pm·2-min read

Drag Race Eliminates First Season 17 Queen — Who’s Left After Episode 3?

Well, it took three whole weeks, but RuPaul’s Drag Race finally eliminated its first Season 17 queen on Friday.

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Fourteen queens initially sashayed into the Werk Room for Season 17 — Acacia Forget, Arrietty, Crystal Envy, Hormona Lisa, Jewels Sparkles, Joella, Kori King, Lana Ja’Rae, Lexi Love, Lucky Starzzz, Lydia B Kollins, Onya Nurve, Sam Star and Suzie Toot — but after Episode 3, only a baker’s dozen remain.

Making the elimination process significantly more complicated (and entertaining) this season is the introduction of the Badonka Dunk Tank. Following each bottom-two lip sync, the losing queen gets to pull from a group of 10 levers. Two of the levers will successfully drop Michelle Visage into the tank, thus saving the queen from elimination, while the other eight do absolutely nothing. Hormona Lisa managed to pull one of the lucky levers at the end of Episode 2, meaning only one working lever remains.

Read on for a chronological breakdown of each elimination (as it happens), along with our early predictions for which queens could potentially go all the way. When you’re finished, drop a comment with your own thoughts on Season 17. Who do you love? Who deserves the next boot? And who do you think will win?

First Elimination: Lucky Starzzz

The first queen of Season 17 to get the chop turned out to be Lucky Starzzz, whose lackluster look in Episode 3’s “Monopulence” challenge earned her a spot alongside Joella in the bottom two. Lucky pulled out every trick in her repertoire for their lip sync battle to Paula Abdul’s “The Way That You Love Me,” but the judges preferred Joella’s slightly more comedic approach.

And unlike Hormona Lisa the week prior, Lucky wasn’t fortunate enough to pull the lever that would have saved her from elimination.

Our Early Predictions

It’s probably too soon to start predicting which of these queens will make it all the way to the Season 17 finale — but that’s not going to stop us.

Lexi Love is arguably the competition’s clearest frontrunner, a favorite among fans and fellow queens. She even manages to regularly gag Raja and Raven over on Fashion Photo RuView, which is probably the hardest challenge of all.

Sam Star, also a winner after Episode 3, is another queen we’re keeping a close eye on. Some of our other early favorites include runway stunners Lana Ja’Rae and Arrietty, and Ms. Lydia You-Know-What Kollins.

There’s also something about Onya Nurve that we can’t help but love. And after seeing her more competitive side jump out in Episode 3, these other queens better watch their backs (and their jewels).

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First Elimination: Lucky Starzzz

Our Early Predictions

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