Brooke Lynn Hytes addresses Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman’s Drag Race exit
Brooke Lynn Hytes on season one of Canada’s Drag Race. (BBC)
Brooke Lynn Hytes told PinkNews all about Canada’s Drag Race, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman and teaming up with Priyanka.
The queen of the north recently made her music debut with a single titled – you guessed it – “Queen of the North”.
The video is absurdly camp – a gay Game of Thrones/Mad Max crossover with a sprinkling of Marie Antoinette. Oh, and Canada’s Drag Race winner Priyanka makes an appearance, too.
Working with Priyanka again was “wonderful”, Brooke Lynn told PinkNews – but she wants to make one thing clear.
“I’m always in charge,” she laughed. “I will always pull rank.”
Brooke Lynn Hytes takes her role as Drag Race host seriously and is in touch with all the season one queens. “All the girls, if they need anything from me, I’m around.”
The first Canadian edition was a hit with viewers – but was marred by toxic bullying from so-called fans. At one point, judge Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman quit social media, apparently to get away from the overwhelming negativity.
Brooke Lynn said the best advice she gave the queens was to block it out, and “just be yourself”.
“No matter what you do, somebody is not gonna like you, and some people are gonna like you like, so you might as well just be authentic to yourself.”
Canada’s Drag Race will return for a second season, with Brooke Lynn Hytes joined once more by co-judge Stacey McKenzie – but not Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman. He was forced to pull out due to prior commitments, filming a starring role in the upcoming Dougie Hoswer, M.D. reboot, Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.
“He’ll always be part of the extended family,” Brooke Lynn said. “It sucks that he’s not gonna be able to join us, but it was a scheduling thing. I know he was so excited to come back, and he was wanted. Unfortunately, it was just one of those things.”
Brooke Lynn was many fan’s first choice to host the Canadian edition after wowing on season 11 of Drag Race – and she revealed that she’d been approached about the show before the dust had even settled on her season.
“It’s so blurry, I think I knew there was talk of it [going into the finale] but then I like found out this is a real thing that might be happening right after the finale – which was perfect timing because after I didn’t win I was like, ‘Well, f**k, what am I gonna do now? I guess there’s always All Stars!‘.”
Brooke Lynn says she was “flabbergasted” when her manager called with the news. “I thought if they did a Canadian one, maybe I’ll get to come up and do a workroom walkthrough or something. That would be cool. But I never thought I would actually get to be sitting there every week. So it’s very surreal.”
Brooke Lynn Hytes is coy when asked about the new season, saying she doesn’t “really know a lot about it” yet. “I’m excited to be going back to work,” she adds. “After this s**t show of a year, it’s gonna be nice to be back in the studio.”
