Get your first look at Canada’s Drag Race
Ms. Brooke Lynn Hytes will see you shortly.
By Will Stroude
In case there wasn’t enough Drag Race in your life right now, what with season 12, Secret Celebrity and the imminent All Stars 5 (more details on that here), Canada’s Drag Race is about bust its way into our lives.
Co-hosted by Canadian dancing queen and Drag Race season 11 runner-up Brooke Lynn Hytes, the upcoming series was announced last summer as the fourth international edition of the Drag Race franchise, after spin-offs in the UK, Thailand and Chile.
Unlike the UK edition, howoever, Canada’s Drag Race won’t see any onscreen involvement from RuPaul himself, so fans have been eager to see how the 10-part series will shape up.
Happy birthday to my beautiful country. 152 years of fur, maple syrup and war that lasted 2 days. History class sure was boring for you but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love you @Canada pic.twitter.com/2cZ02P8n5N
— Brooke Lynn Hytes (@Bhytes1) July 1, 2019
Well, thanks to a preview interview in Entertainment Weekly, we’ve got our first taste of what’s to come from Hytes and her fellow co-judges, UnREAL‘s Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman and supermodel Stacey McKenzie.
“We’re all RuPaul, put together,” Hytes says of the hosting set-up on Canada’s Drag Rag, which is expected to premiere this summer.
“Not one of us has all the power. It’s a team effort. We all take turns sharing duties, and we all make decisions together!”
Of her co-judges, 34-year-old Hytes says: “I love Stacey so much. She reminds me of Alyssa Edwards or Vanjie, because she just doesn’t know how funny she is. She’s feisty and very honest, so I feel Stacey is the Michelle Visage of the group.
Jeffrey was the old pro, because he’d judged the American version twice, so he was there helping us with little tidbits and advice on things.
“He’s an actor, he’s used to being on set, he’s professional, and keeps it together. He was the stern father figure!”
While the cast of queen’s who’ll be competiting for the Canada’s Drag Race crown are yet to be revealed, Stacey McKenzie has promised fans an upliftingly diverse range of contestants.
“You know how they always say Canadians are nice? I have to agree with that!” McKenzie says.
“[This cast] is different in terms of the diversity and the different types of ethnicities that you’ll see. They bring their culture to the table.
She adds: “What I love about Canada’s Drag Race is the queens take critiques and they’re hungry to learn. It wasn’t frustrating to work with queens who didn’t give me too much attitude!”