"Squirrel Games" is the seventeenth season premiere of the American reality competition television series RuPaul's Drag Race, and the 224th episode overall. The episode first aired in the United States through cable network MTV on January 3, 2025. It was followed by an episode of the companion series RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked.
The episode has the selected contestants participate in a talent show; the other unselected contestants are given the chance to rank their competitors. Katy Perry serves as a guest judge, alongside regular panelists RuPaul, Michelle Visage, and Carson Kressley. Suzie Toot wins the main challenge, after placing in the top two and winning a lip-sync contest against Jewels Sparkles to "Woman's World" (2024) by Katy Perry.
Fourteen contestants are transported to an undisclosed location where they joined with several previous competitors from the franchise. They shortly learned, in order to continue the competition, the players have to play a children's game of Red Light, Green Light.[1] Replacing its traditional rules, music is played and contenders have to dance across the field, when it stops, they will strike a pose. Any movement detected will cause the player to be pied in the face and eliminated. Afterwards, the remaining fourteen contestants who "survived" the first game are allowed to enter the workroom.[2]
The comedic challenge and character roles is a television parody of the South Korean dystopian survival series Squid Game, which its second season was released a week before the episode aired.[3]
As the contestants gotten a chance to meet each other, RuPaul introduced herself and revealed the fourteen contenders, without knowing, competed in their first photoshoot mini-challenge with the winner being Lana Ja'Rae, earning herself a cash tip of $2,500.[4] RuPaul later announced the first challenge where the contestants split themselves into two groups to participate in a talent show, but they have to decide in what week to perform. The next day, the contestants were getting ready and American singer Katy Perry entered the workroom requesting for some tucking tape; the singer immediately recognized Joella, whom they have a mutual connection with as the competitor began performing in drag.[5] Perry gave the contenders some valuable advice to succeed such as to "play with your alter ego, but don’t be afraid to take the mask off and show the real person in there."[6]
RuPaul introduces Katy Perry as the guest judge, alongside regular panelist Michelle Visage and alternating judge Carson Kressley. The runway category titled "Masc for Masked Singer" required the contestants to present their mask-themed looks. Throughout the talent show, Acacia Forgot was live singing and playing guitar, Arrietty did a cultural dance of baile folklórico,[7] Jewels Sparkles showed an original lip-sync about milk, Joella performed an original lip-sync that referred to her drag name, Lucky Starzzz lip-synced on how to traditionally make lemonade, with Lydia B Kollins enacted a burlesque-comedy routine, and lastly Suzie Toot reciting the "Gettysburg Address" speech (1863) in morse code as she's tap dancing.[8]
RuPaul revealed that Acacia Forgot was placed last in the ranking and will be lip-syncing next week. Jewels Sparkles and Suzie Toot were ranked as the top two contestants for the week and face off in a lip-sync contest to "Woman's World" (2024) by Katy Perry. Suzie Toot won the lip-sync contest and earned herself a cash prize of $5,000.[9]
"Squirrel Games" was originally broadcast through MTV in the United States on January 3, 2025. The episode earned an audience measurement of 0.24 rating and seen by close to 671,000 viewers.[15] The episode was later released in Canada through streaming service Crave, in Australia through Stan, and internationally on WOW Presents Plus with next-day availability starting on January 4.[16]
Reception
In a four-star review, Jason Frank of Vulture laughed when previous contenders being "pelted by pies" from the spoof challenge. During the talent show was filled with "forgettable performances" and contrasted the three finalists from its previous season premiere "stole control of the camera's eye" within seconds. Frank described the guest judge as "excruciating" and named the selected lip-sync song being "actively bad to the point of camp" gave an opportunity for Suzie Toot to win the lip-sync contest against Jewels Sparkles.[17]
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