Slag Wars: The Next Destroyer
A competition to find the next LGBTQ+ icon.
Slag Wars: The Next Destroyer is a British reality television competition series that premiered online on 27 November 2020. The show features Rebecca More and Matthew Camp alongside either Sophie Anderson or Fantasia Royale Gaga in a search for the next LGBTQ+ icon. The first series aired in 2020 on Men.com and SlagWars.com, and a second series was broadcast in September 2024.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Reality
- Judges
- Rebecca More
- Sophie Anderson
- Matthew Camp
- Fantasia Royale Gaga
- Narrator
- Chase Icon
- Theme music
- Andrew Barret Cox
- Opening theme
- "Slag Wars"
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Seasons
- 2
Facts from the source article.
Synopsis
The programme aimed to celebrate sex work and provide a secure environment for authenticity. Participants were called "slags," a British slang term for slut, to reclaim it positively. Confessionals included names and pronouns. Each episode had foreplay and passion challenges examining sex industry aspects, like obtaining credit card numbers during ASMR sex talk or rope bondage. Discussions covered tokenism, fetishism, racism, anti-trans violence, and sexual consent.
Production
Slag Wars was dreamed up years before it aired by Sophie Anderson and Rebecca More, the duo famous as The Cock Destroyers. Its original name, "Slag Wars: Finding the Next Cock Destroyer," got toned down before release. Filming took just four days at a friend’s countryside house offered to More. The cast included seven sex workers and OnlyFans creators: Nicky Monet, a transgender woman; Tyler, a Black non-binary person; and five contestants who went by he/him. Four hailed from England, with one each from Scotland, Mexico, and the United States. Due to the UK’s COVID-19 restrictions, Camp and any slags from outside the country had to quarantine for two weeks. Queer production company DaddyTV made the series on a shoestring budget, running four episodes. Anderson put off a planned buttock augmentation because she worried it would mess with the lycra suits ordered for the show. Matthew Camp co-hosted, and many personal friends of the Cock Destroyers appeared as guests, including narrator Chase Icon. Andrew Barret Cox created the original soundtrack. AVN announced the show in October 2020, highlighting its inclusive casting. It streamed on Men.com and SlagWars.com, the latter a safe-for-work option. Tyler won the first season. In May 2021, More said the pair split after she got a “viscous email”; the next month, DaddyTV launched Hot Haus, judged by Camp and Monet, with Fantasia Royale Gaga taking the win. More kept tabs on Anderson’s life post-breakup, and they eventually made up. A second season was shot in late 2023, meant to be hosted by More, Anderson, and Camp, but Anderson pulled out after missing the first day due to illness, replaced by Royale Gaga. Cain, a slag from season one, returned as producer and casting director, having previously worked with some of the new slags he cast, like Mama Mamba and Cocoa Kink. This season kept the same theme song.
Reception
Though never a mainstream success, the series attracted a devoted following. i-D’s Emma Kelly praised it as an exceptionally authentic portrayal of sex workers and queer, trans, and non-binary individuals on television. Vulture’s Tim Forster enjoyed its campy, dirty fun but pointed out obvious product placement for Daddy Couture and a diversity strategy that fell short, given five of seven contestants used he/him pronouns. Dazed’s Barry Pierce celebrated the show as a joyful, positive, and inclusive celebration of self, naming a moment where Anderson failed to storm off in heels and instead crawled away as his television highlight of the year. Collider’s Joel Medina called it an unprecedented, raucous display of LGBTQ+ joy.
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