Crave tells Drag Race ‘shantay, you stay’

RuPaul’s Drag Race debuted in the US in 2009.

Canadian SVoD service Crave, owned by Bell Media, has ordered a second season of its hit local adaptation of US drag competition series RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Casting for season two of Drag Race Canada, produced by Blue Ant Studios in association with Crave and World of Wonder, has begun, with production of the 10 new episodes set to start in the coming months.

Available to audiences in Canada in both English and French, the adaptation is both the best-performing Canadian show and original series on Crave to date.

Season one was available internationally on-demand in more than 160 countries via World of Wonder’s SVoD platform WOW Presents Plus and additionally on Logo in the US, BBC3 in the UK, Stan in Australia and Yes in Israel.

The original US version of the series, produced by World of Wonder, launched in 2009.

Exec producing Drag Race Canada are Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato and Tom Campbell for World of Wonder and Michael Kot, Laura Michalchyshyn, Betty Orr and Pam McNair for Blue Ant Studios. RuPaul also exec produces, while Trevor Boris (Big Brother Canada, Paradise Hotel) has come on board as showrunner for season two. For Bell Media, the production executive is Danielle Pearson.

“Crave prides itself on creating original programming that connects with audiences, and with an immensely talented and diverse cast that represented the backgrounds and personal stories of so many viewers, the inaugural season of Canada’s Drag Race did just that,” said Karine Moses, senior VP of content development and news at Bell Media.

The news comes as Bell ousted several of its top-tier executives, including president of content and programming Mike Cosentino and senior VP of original programming Corrie Coe, as part of what the company called a “streamlining.”