Todrick Hall is firing back.
Following the debut of his new series The Real Friends of WeHo on Jan. 20, the entertainer spoke out about the LGBTQ+ community's response to the new MTV reality show on social media.
"I've been talking about the show and the response that the queer community has had at large about our show The Real Friends of WeHo, and people keep saying, 'People don't wanna watch your show,'" Hall said in a Jan. 22 video posted to his Instagram Story. "I just wanna clear a few things up. It's not my show, I'm not a producer, I didn't come up with the concept, it was a job to me. I had a great time, I love the guys, I had some great experiences."
But by not giving the show a chance, the "Jim" singer says people are actually missing out on its true message.
"I'm not fighting for this show because I think the show needs to last for 64 seasons," Hall explained. "I'm more just having a conversation about the fact that people are shutting the show off not realizing that Bob [The Drag Queen] and Monét [X Change], who are beloved by the queer community and the Drag Race audience, are on the show. Issa Rae, who is an Emmy-award winning, incredible Black advocate, ally, is on the show. We have a Black man on television talking about his experience, and how even in his 30s he's terrified of coming out. All of those stories are necessary."
While Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel'le actor Curtis Hamilton's coming out story is certainly a standout in the series premiere, a lot of the drama in the episode centers around why the cast—including Hall, Hamilton, Brad Goreski, Dorion Renaud, Joey Zauzig and Jaymes Vaughan—would want to be a part of a docuseries in the first place. A question that viewers are clearly now asking as well.
The 37-year-old shared his answer to that very question in a 4-page hand-written letter he posted on Instagram in response to the premiere's less-than-stellar reviews.
"After last night's premiere of The Real Friends of WeHo, I saw a lot of comments saying, 'We don't want to see a bunch of rich, fit, entitled, privileged gay men...,'" he wrote in the Jan. 21 post. "Which begs the question: Why are we thrilled to watch rich Kardashians or Real Housewives, but we only want to watch gays be underdogs, not well-off, not too confident? Let's get into the weeds, real talk."
Hall further defended the series over its casting, noting that some of the complaints leveled against it are just as pervasive in other major reality franchises.
"Could our ensemble of six be more diverse? Absolutely. But this points to a bigger issue. There isn't a large pool of gay celebs to begin with. They'd need to live in L.A. and be available, have time and a desire to do the show," he noted. "But why don't we hold Real Housewives to this standard? Is there even one city in the franchise that is as diverse as our cast is from its gigantic pool of women it can choose from?"
As for one of the biggest criticisms directed towards the show, coming in after RuPaul's Drag Race—which has been shortened for season 15—and before Untucked, the long-running reality series' after show, Hall is hopeful people will come around.
"Queer audiences didn't support A-List, Noah's Arc, Fire Island, Bros, Prom or Drag Race initially," he noted in the Instagram caption of his letter. "They want 20 more minutes of a show, but instead of taking it up with the programming people who made these timing decisions, they're attacking us as if WE had something to do with it. I want longer Drag Race episodes as well, so we're on the same team."
"Either way, we have to know that queer people attacking our queer cast is not woke, not progressive and not going to change the situation so it's a waste of time," the Celebrity Big Brother 2022 runner-up concluded his message. "Wake up people, we are smarter than this."
See what all the fuss is about when The Real Friends of WeHo airs Fridays after RuPaul's Drag Race on MTV.