The Hosts of RuPaul’s Drag Race Pose with Lady Gaga

The new season of RuPaul’s Drag Race is about to start! How big a role will Lady Gaga be playing? If this photo is any indication, it could be sizable.

RuPaul’s Drag Race returns to TV for its ninth season on March 24, moving from Logo to VH1. It’s kind of hard to believe that the program, once an odd niche show on a fledgling network, is now part of TV’s old guard. Year after year, Drag Race just keeps growing, and never ceases to pull out bigger and better draws.

Case in point: Lady Gaga will be appearing on this season, an idea so perfect the fact that it didn’t happen sooner is a miracle on par with the resurrection of the dead. According to Entertainment Weekly, it was a tweet from Gaga back in 2013 that did it. “Can I PLEASE be a judge on Drag Race!” she wrote. “@RuPaul I started out in these [clubs], these women taught me how to serve!”

RuPaul, naturally, was into it.

"She comes from this background of downtown New York City clubs, so that was the difference between her and other guests who’ve been appreciative of what we do but 
don’t know where we come from. She comes from that world."

And now Gaga is all Drag Race fans can talk about. Ross Matthews geeked out about it on Twitter, complete with an exclusive image from EW of him standing next to Gaga and the other judges.

We know a little of what Gaga will do on the show. (Caution: Drag Race SPOILERS follow.) She shows up in the first episode, tromping into the workroom after the other girls have introduced themselves and passing herself off as the 14th contestant.

That’s reason enough for her inclusion, but we wonder how involved she gets. She’s likely a guest judge for the first episode, at least, but if she’s taking official-looking photographs with the rest of the cast, does she stick around after that?

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We’d obviously be into that. All will be revealed on March 24.