“Drag Race” fans, get ready to start your engines, as MTV and Paramount+ have greenlit a slew of new sickening seasons of the beloved franchise.

That’s right: Season 16 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” will sashay onto television screens 15 years after the series’ iconic first episode premiered in 2009. An additional season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked” will premiere after each episode debuts each week. Paramount+’s beloved “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” will, too, return back to the streamer for its ninth season with adjoining “Untucked” episodes.

The announcement comes on the heels of the “Drag Race” franchise accumulating nine Emmy nominations during the 2023 season. The nominations, including those for outstanding reality competition program and outstanding casting for a reality program, make “Drag Race” the most nominated reality program of the year. 

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Casting directors Goloka Bolte and Ethan Peterson explained that they’re always looking for “people that are going to step up and fight” for the LGBTQ+ community when casting queens for new seasons.

“We are in a world where ‘Drag Race’ [have become] a beacon of hope for a lot of people, and in these scary times for our community, it’s important to put people on the show that are going to fight and be examples to help evoke change,” said Peterson.

Following an influx of anti-LGBTQ threats and censorship, production company World of Wonder, co-founded by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, established the Drag Defense Fund in partnership with the ACLU. “It has never been more vital to be an ally to defend and protect the rights of drag artists and the LGBTQ community,” says Bolte.

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