WARNING: There are unmarked spoilers on this page.
At this point, it almost wouldn't be a season of Drag Race if this didn't happen at least a couple of times.
- Any queen who lipsyncs multiple times and survives could be considered this:
- Jujubee on season 2 made it to the final 3 after winning three lipsyncs. And then showed up on the inaugural All Stars and survived more, reaching the final four. She's never won a challenge in either season. Later averted as of All Stars 5, where she finally won her first-ever challenge, and was only in the bottom due to the extremely controversial twist in the second half of the season wherein every single queen who wasn't the challenge winner was up for elimination each week - and even then, not a single queen ever chose her lipstick until the final competitive episode.
- Carmen Carrera never placed higher than safe, survived one lipsync before being eliminated, and then was brought back into the competition to continue competing.
- Akashia, Milan, Latrice Royale, Alyssa Edwards, Jaidynn Diore Fierce, and Nina Bo'nina Brown all survived two lipsyncs in a row before being eliminated after the third. There's an unspoken "three strikes and you're out" rule Ru has in place, and Kameron Michaels in season 10 surpassed even that, surviving three times in the bottom and making it all the way to the end before losing the final lip sync for the crown. Recent seasons would have at least one queen defy this rule, however.
- Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige takes this to a rather ridiculous level. Nearly every single week, she either placed low or landed in the bottom two, yet managed to survive every time thanks to her experience as a seasoned ballroom performer, even defying the "three strike" rule by beating out early frontrunner Plasma. It took until her fourth lip-sync where was finally eliminated by fellow Miami sister Morphine Love Dion, who would later go on a bottom two streak herself in the following episodes.
- In early seasons, there's whenever a queen would have been up for elimination if she didn't have immunity after winning the previous challenge. Tyra Sanchez in particular stands out. The judges flat-out said she would have been on the line after failing the punk rock challenge if she hadn't won the week before. Instead, she went on to win the second season without ever landing in the bottom two. As of Season 6, however, Ru has done away with immunity.
- Rebecca Glasscock in season 1, who was widely considered to have avoided elimination due to luck and her pretty face. Her luck finally runs out in the final three, due to her unprofessional behavior in the final challenge.
- Phi Phi O'Hara, especially when she beat fan-favorite Latrice to the final three.
- Coco and Alyssa. A more cynical viewer might think Ru has only kept them over other queens who put on an equally-strong lipsync (particularly Jade Jolie and Ivy Winters) because of the drama they stirred up. It's also notable that Coco gets eliminated only one week after Alyssa, which might be taken as the result of her no longer having Alyssa to play off of (though it was her fourth time in the bottom 2).
- Inversion: One could argue that Coco didn't deserve to be up for elimination for the Telenovela challenge, and that Ru simply took that moment have Coco and Alyssa square off.
- More than a few online comments have accused Roxxxy Andrews of this. After lipsyncing against Alyssa, she tearfully confessed being abandoned by her mother when she was a child, which ultimately led to RuPaul in tears announcing that both she and Alyssa would not be eliminated that week and no one would be going home.
- Roxxxy gets hit with this even harder in All Stars 2, though unintentionally on her part. She placed in the bottom five times, more than anyone ever has, and coasted through into the top 4 since neither Alaska nor Detox were about to eliminate their friend over their more competitive opponents. Poor Roxxxy seemed just about ready to finally leave every week, too.
- Shangela being saved from elimination in the first episode of Season 3 has been cited as this, which is also unfortunate for competitor Venus D-Lite, whom many fans believe was set up for failure in having to lipsync against Shangela. It's obvious the judges would show at least a little bias towards Shangela since it was her second time on the show (and nearly her second time being eliminated for the same challenge). On the other hand, the decision to save Shangela was partly justified due to Venus being borderline physically violent in the lipsync.
- Come Season 6 we have Adore Delano, who in the first challenge was read on having the hands-down worst dress of the group, yet doesn't even get put in the bottom two for an "It Factor" the judges like from her. Happens again in her next challenge, where she avoids the bottom two despite being the team leader and miscasting April and Vivacious in their roles (which landed them in the bottom instead), as well as having an un-cinched waistline on the runway (again, with April delivering a flawless runway look). A more cynical viewer could argue the point that Ru gave Adore a pass on the first two challenges to make sure she would make it to episode 4's Rusical challenge, in order to play up the "Battle of the Idols" between her and Courtney Act.
- Although no one was too surprised when she sent Magnolia Crawford home, Darienne Lake has been cited for performing badly in a number of challenges (including the Musical, rap challenge, talk show, and wedding makeover challenge) and not being in the bottom two when she arguably deserved to be. She also sent home fan favorite BenDeLaCreme, who the majority of Drag Race fans felt was a stronger queen than Darienne.
- Kandy Ho, who has been a non-entity for most of Season 7 but has managed to hold her own in two lipsyncs (sending home veteran queens Tempest DuJour and Mrs. Kasha Davis in the process, both of whom arguably brought more to the table), and somehow avoided lipsyncing for the Spoof (There It Is!) challenge when many fans agree she deserved to be more than Trixie Mattel.
- Miss Fame has taken Kandy's place, she's pretty much a non-entity in any acting or comedy challenge thrown at the queens (and Season 7 has quite a few), but seems to be saved purely by her runway looks. She's avoided the bottom 2 several times, which is probably a good thing for her since Fame has said outright she is not a performer and doubts her ability to survive a lipsync (which ends up being the case when she finally had to lipsync in Episode 9)
- Certainly a Broken Base depending on if you like her or not, but in season 7 Pearl was very lucky, either avoiding lipsyncs even if she performs poorly, and when she couldn't avoid them, she manages to make it through despite her odd and limited dance moves. The first time vs. Trixie she pulled through since at that point the judges hadn't seen her dancing yet, and against Fame, Fame just wasn't a performer and was wearing a very movement-limiting costume. Even the other queens have called her out on her dancing, calling it "PEARL SMASH!" (fans, on the other hand, like to refer to it as the "Stoner Robot").
- Farrah Moan doesn't know how to sew in Season 9 and is called out, twice, for wrapping "fabric around her dress and calling it a skirt." After spending half the episode moaning and complaining about the process...she's just barely declared safe in the bottom. Conspiracy theorists assume the producers wanted Aja to send Kimora home.
- Silky Nutmeg Ganache is a particularly infamous one from season 11. Fans spent much of the season calling her unpolished, abrasive and one-note, but her gift of gab kept winning over the judges. When she was finally put in the bottom, against Nina West, her reveals, splits and dancing were all sloppy and half-speed, and against nearly anyone else it would've been her time, except Nina West couldn't dance and barely even made an impression at all. Thus, Silky survived one of the most infamous lipsyncs in herstory, and managed to hang on all the way to the final four. Silky seemed to have some kind of idea of the precarious position she was in, as by the time of the finale lipsyncs, not only was she admitting her lipsync with Nina was - to say the least - lackluster, but in general Silky looked like she just wanted this over with.
- Aiden Zhane in season 12. While she had a signature aesthetic, she drew the ire of some fans for underdeveloped runway looks - her Buttons & Bows look was just a bunch of bows glued to a pink sweater, and her Ball look was a black & white corset with a bunch of balls hanging off of it by strings. In the latter case, fans overwhelmingly considered it the worst look of that entire challenge, and somehow she was safe, while fan-favorite Rock M. Sakura wound up going home that episode. It's not her looks that do her in, however; it's her disastrous Snatch Game performance a few episodes later.
- Season 12's presidential debate challenge was a bad night for Gigi Goode, where her robot routine, recycled from her successful Snatch Game performance, fell completely flat. On top of that, her runway look was supposed to be "stars & stripes" themed, and she came down in what looked more like a British redcoat. There was considerable fan outcry and accusations of favoritism when Gigi didn't even have to lip sync, while the bottom two was Jackie Cox and Widow Von Du (the latter of whom went home), both of whom at least had relatively well-received runway looks. In fact, Gigi never did land in the bottom two during her late-season slump.
- All Stars 5:
- India Ferrah made a big splash in the first episode of All Stars 5, but afterward, her Beginner's Luck runs out, she fades into the background, and she spends four times in the bottom before Shea Coulée mercifully sends her packing.
- Despite never winning a challenge and falling in the bottom frequently towards the end of the season, Blair St. Clair finishes in fourth place (ahead of fan favorite Alexis Mateo), which is admittedly impressive for someone who didn't even make it to the Snatch Game episode of their original season.
- Season 13 has Kandy Muse being saved from elimination against Symone, while there were still nine queens left (pre-Snatch Game), the earliest elimination-wise that Ru had ever used a double-save. What qualifies for this trope, is that up until that point Kandy had a fairly mediocre track record (some highs, some lows, some safe) and no challenge wins, making saving her come off as dubious in general, adding the fact it was done with so many queens remaining exacerbating the problems. There's also the fact Ru specifically waited until she eliminated Kandy before saving her, which was also a change to normal procedure. There are some fans, however, who argue looking at the LSFYL alone that Kandy may have beaten Symone (and saving Symone who had two challenge wins at that point), but even admitting that some point out Kandy did not do so well to justify her eliminating the season's clear front-runner at that point.
- While Gottmik has some fandom popularity, her avoidance of bottom placement have been called into question. Many fans argue for the Disco-mentary that the critiques Kandy received (that she was overshadowed by Tina Burner) should have applied to Gottmik as well, and that the show used a flimsy excuse of Tamisha Iman seeming slightly apprehensive to push the Kandy vs. Tamisha narrative. Fans also thought her commercial for the Soda Branding challenge was the least focused or funny, and she was saved from the bottom for the opportunity to get rid of either Utica (whose commercial was cringeworthy yet funny) or Tina (whose commercial wasn't very funny but well put together) who were often overlooked during the season.
- Holland Season 2 has one of the most egregious examples in recent memory as Vivaldi was saved from elimination despite breaking the rules by keeping a phone in her hotel room, even being called out for it by host Fred van Leer. Yet instead of being disqualified like with Willam, she was instead made to lip-sync and won. Even the other queens looked pissed at that. Come next episode, she was once again in the bottom yet she managed to eliminate frontrunner Keta Minaj.
- In Season 14, Bosco landed in the bottom two against Jorgeous and lost the lip-sync - by which point Jorgeous had won her fourth lip-sync, making a record for the American franchise - but Bosco ended up being saved from elimination by the season's golden chocolate bar twist, where each queen chose out a random chocolate bar at the beginning of the competition and whichever lucky contestant had the golden one would be automatically saved if they landed in the bottom and lost the lip-sync. Whether you believe Bosco having the gold bar was genuinely by chance or production interference, however, is for you to decide.
- Jada Shada Hudson from Canada Season 3. She came in with a lot of hype as a big name from Toronto, but struggled to live up to that hype and found herself in the bottom two twice, most infamously flopping in the design challenge in episode 4 with a nonsensical dress with a chef's hat-looking headpiece. In fact, many fans felt that Jada should have been in the bottom more, since she sometimes got a bit lost among the other big personalities during the season, and - similar to Kandy Muse - was very hit-or-miss on the runway. Despite these problems, the judges loved Jada, so she survived until the final two and finished as the runner-up (again, just like Kandy). Fan reaction to the finale was mixed as a result, as many were gobsmacked that Jada advanced to the final two over Miss Fiercalicious, who had a better track record and was undeniably the center of the season's narratives.
- Kahanna Montrese becomes one in All-Stars 8. Although she won the first challenge, she has been in the bottom three times now. Twice the majority has voted for her over other queens, and the one time the votes were against her it turned out to be a non-elimination episode due to Heidi N Closet's exit. Funnily enough, she nearly matches her drag mother Coco's record from season 5.
- Season 16 had its share of disputed lipsyncs where fans argue about who should have stayed. Fights started up when Q eliminated Amanda, who arguably did better in their lipsync, or when Mhi'ya (commonly in the bottom) managed to eliminate Plasma, who had performed much better throughout the competition and didn't exactly flop the lipsync. However, Sapphira Cristal's performance against Morphine in their second lipsync has fans virtually unified in calling rigging. Coming directly off of the heels of Morphine's star-making "Body" lipsync against Dawn, Sapphira arguably gets flattened even worse, to a degree that is shocking after her prior excellent lipsyncs. It comes without the song being weighed drastically out of her favor (which made Dawn's loss palatable and humorous), but she is still declared the winner and Morphine is eliminated. Morphine even calls her performance out in confessionals, noting Sapphira's shaky and slow performance to be un-entertaining rather than understated.
