Canada's Drag Race is a sister series to RuPaul's Drag Race where Season 11 runner-up Brooke Lynn Hytes is joined by Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman and Stacey McKenzie as the main judges with Traci Melchor acting as "Canada's Squirrelfriend", a correspondent for publicity-related challenges. Beginning in Season 2, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman and Stacey McKenzie left the judges panel and were replaced by Brad Goreski, Traci Melchor, and Amanda Brugel. Since Season 3, Amanda Brugel left the panel.
The series began filming in early November 2019 and began airing July 2, 2020 on Crave in Canada and on WOW Presents+ in the U.S. and most territories. In the UK, it aired the day after on BBC Three.
In addition to Brooke Lynn Hytes, each season of Drag Race has featured two other regular judges. On Season 1, this was Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman and Stacey McKenzie. On Season 2, Jeffrey and Stacey left the panel and were replaced by Brad Goreski, Traci Melchor, and Amanda Brugel. Amanda left beginning in Season 3.
Description
Following 12 Canadian drag artists as they compete for the title of “Canada’s Next Drag Superstar.” Each episode tests their talents and challenges them to master singing, dancing, acting, impersonation, costume making, and improvisation. Judging the series are a panel of entertainment industry experts, including Brooke Lynn Hytes, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, and Stacey McKenzie, along with a weekly celebrity guest. One competitor is eliminated at the end of each episode until one Queen is left standing with the crown, scepter, and title. Throughout this journey, the Queens share their personal struggles, successes, and show the importance of celebrating everyone’s charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent
It is the fourth international version of the Drag Race franchise to be announced, following Drag Race Thailand, The Switch Drag Race (Chile) and RuPaul's Drag Race UK; two months after the announcement of the Canadian version, RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under was also announced. Canada's Drag Race is the first English-language incarnation of Drag Race to not be hosted by RuPaul, although RuPaul did narrate and appear in the show's preview trailer.