a drag king got into the bake off tent. hours later another one got into drag race españa.

via PinkNews on the Bake Off tent, PinkNews and GCN on Drag Race España.

Drag kings have spent roughly forever being the answer to a question nobody on television was asking. Twelve seasons of a franchise built on drag, spinoffs on four continents, and the working assumption stayed the same: kings are a thing that happens in a basement bar on a Thursday, beloved locally, invisible everywhere else.

That got dismantled twice on Monday, by two shows that have nothing to do with each other.

the bake off tent

Channel 4 announced the Great British Bake Off line-up for series 17, back in the tent from 22 September. Twelve amateur bakers, ages 21 to 67. One of them is Gabe Capes, 32, who uses he/they, an artist and costume designer whose work has turned up on RuPaul's Drag Race UK, and who performs as the drag king Blü Romantic. PinkNews reports he calls himself the "daddy of Birmingham drag," which is the correct amount of confidence to bring to a marquee full of proving drawers.

He has wanted this since he was thirteen, which is when he watched the first series and started baking. He is into meringue and savoury bakes with meat in them. He has also already met one of the hosts, and told the story himself: "I have met Alison before, she famously smacked my bum, live on Channel 4 while I was in drag on Late Night Lycett."

The tent has changed in other ways too. Nigella Lawson is joining as a judge, replacing Prue Leith, who retired in January with the greatest exit line of the year: "I'm 86 for goodness sake!" Paul Hollywood stays. Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond stay.

drag race españa, the same day

Then, the same day, Drag Race España confirmed its season six cast, back 27 September, and Marcus Massalami is in it. He is the first full-time drag king ever cast anywhere in the Drag Race franchise.

Full-time is doing real work in that sentence. A king did compete once before, Johnny Jones on the sixth season of Canada's Drag Race, who also performs as Velma Jones and went on the show doing both. Massalami is the first contestant whose drag is only kinging, with no queen persona standing behind it as a translation. Season six also has the franchise's first self-declared bruja and its first Basque performer, so España has apparently decided to spend its casting budget entirely on firsts.

why two unrelated shows matter

The two announcements are unrelated and that is exactly why they matter. Nobody coordinated this. A Channel 4 baking show and a Spanish drag competition arrived at the same conclusion in the same 24 hours, which is what it looks like when a thing stops being a risk and starts being obvious.

One programming note we cannot resist. Bake Off has now had a drag king in the tent before the flagship of the drag franchise managed to put one in the workroom. A show about biscuits got there first.