‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’: what happened to Santino Rice and why did he leave the show?

On the latest episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars, the judging panel threw some serious shade at Santino Rice, a former Project Runway alum, fashion designer, and a regular judge on the long-running drag franchise from 2009 to 2014.

When contestant Alyssa Edwards strutted her stuff on the runway in the new episode, head judge RuPaul recalled the moment on season five when Santino told Alyssa she wore the ugliest outfit ever worn on the series — to which fellow judge Michelle Visage responded, “well, where’s Santino now?”

Good question, Michelle. Here’s what we know about what Santino Rice is doing now, and what he did to receive that shade.

Why did Santino Rice leave Drag Race?

Santino’s departure as a judge was never formally announced, and he hasn’t been seen on the show since he made a small cameo in season 7 back in 2015, having left the previous season. Seeing as Santino was never seemingly fired from the show, the fashion expert likely left due to scheduling conflicts, or to pursue other projects. It is also possible that, with no formal drag background, Rice was not asked back in a format shake-up to offer new insight from the judging panel.

However, Tammie Brown, a contestant from Drag Race’s first season, has claimed that Santino was fired after several queens had complained to production about his harsh critiques. ‘You have Santino up here, saying these rude things to us,” Tammie said on Drag Queen Interviews with Matt.“Who the hell is he anyways? In fact, we got him fired.”

This has never been confirmed by production, and Tammie is known as one of Drag Race’s zanier characters, to say the least, so while she could be perfectly correct, this claim should be taken with a pinch of salt.

What has Santino been up to since Drag Race?

According to Santino’s IMDb page, he hasn’t been on television since departing Drag Race — although he did appear on a 2017 episode of The Doctors, which is not credited on the site. In the episode, Santino discussed his 111-day all-juice diet, which he claimed had been beneficial to his health problems — a claim that was rubbished by the medical experts on the series, who categorized the fast as disordered eating.

After the outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020, Santino was criticized for purporting anti-vaccine claims. As shown on his Twitter/X page, Rice also shares climate change denial posts, discounting the effects of toxins in everyday foods and medical supplies, as well as claims that school shootings are staged.

In one tweet, Santino said he simply “moved on” from Drag Race, rather than being fired. “If I wanted to do it again, I would,” Rice said in response to another user. Rice has also expressed his support for Donald Trump on multiple occasions, and given the show’s very obvious anti-Trump leanings (perhaps best shown in the Trump: The RuSical episode), it is highly doubtful Santino’s claim of being welcomed back with open arms is in any way true.