Drag Den

Manila Luzon grew up surrounded with Filipino pride and being influenced into doing drag with his name referencing the Philippine city Manila, Luzon. After rising to prominence for competing three times on American television series RuPaul's Drag Race, fans described the drag queen as "best-loved" for her witty humor. Manila Luzon later mentioned in an interview with Vice how outstanding the drag artists are in the Philippines such as Vice Ganda, and hopefully be involved in a Philippine adaptation of Drag Race. Three months later, the drag queen exclusively told Entertainment Weekly about an upcoming project taking place in the Philippines. Manila Luzon later revealed she is set to host and head judge reality competition series named Drag Den. The series' title is a play on "drug den", a term used colloquially in the country in reference to safehouses holding drug addicts.

Development

Drag is still kind of underground here, so I'm excited to bring the Filipino audience and let them see underground and see the scene that's happening and to fall in love with these queens and to be inspired by their creativity, to be in awe of their beauty and their transformations, and so it's going to be like a pageant.

,  Manila Luzon, introducing Drag Den to Mega Entertainment.

Rod Singh was announced as the director of the series, produced by Cornerstone Studios and Project 8 Projects. The series was later picked up by streaming media service Tencent Video, with auditions opening in August 2021. Manila Luzon expressed on X (formerly Twitter) that production showed her the finalized first episode in March 2022. Soon after, cinematographer Antoinette Jadaone praised the drag queen and announced herself as an executive producer for the series. After its short hiatus, streaming service Amazon Prime Video released a teaser trailer on 16 November 2022 with eight contestants competing.

Three months after the first season concluded, the series posted an image similar to the promotional material from American comedy film Barbie (2023), featuring a doll-like figure of Manila Luzon. Both the head judge and director announced the renewal of the series with auditions for season two opening in April. A teaser was later released on 1 December 2023 with the judging panel appearing in a new set, featuring ten contestants.

Auditions

The television series partnered with video-sharing platform TikTok and announced auditions were opened on 16 August 2022 with the deadline being on the last date of the month. A month later, a public vote was conducted online for three days named Call Beks, where fans decides which drag queen would be able to compete in for season one. The two participants Yudipota and Marlyn were shortlisted from competing, with O-A winning the fan-vote. With the renewal of season two, auditions were announced on YouTube and opened on 13 April 2023 with the deadline ending on the last date of the month.

There has been a total of eighteen contestants featured in two seasons of the reality series so far with Naia and Deja crowned as the Philippines' Next Drag Supreme. The series also welcomed its first openly trans woman contestant Barbie-Q, and its first cisgender woman Marlyn.

Judges

The judging panel cast opinions about the challenge performances and theme-wear looks made from contestants. Dubbed as the Drag Lord, Manila Luzon has been the host and head since the series' premiere. Beauty pageant Nicole Cordoves appears supporting the host on the panel every episode, with comedienne Sassa Gurl appearing as a messenger and mentoring the competitors. A fourth slot is filled by one or more guest celebrity judges.

Drag Agents were later introduced in season two, where contestants from previous seasons come back as judges. For the fourth episode of the second season, Nicole Cordoves was absent from the panel with actress Megan Young acting as an "honoree" judge.

Drag Den debuted through Amazon Prime Video on 8 December 2022, consisting of eight episodes until 26 January 2023. The second season premiered on 18 January 2024 for eight episodes and concluded on 7 March 2024.

Ysmael Suarez from CNN Philippines sees the series focusing the growth of the contestants "before and during the competition" with no competitor being filmed "in a bad light, each having their clear strengths and defined perspective" for their drag persona. Writing for Nylon Manila, Rafael Bautista compliments the series for highlighting the Philippines' diverse local drag scene and how it goes "beyond location and gender."