LOS ANGELES — RuPaul Charles zoomed down Sunset Boulevard in a 1979 red Volvo he inherited from his mother. He wore a pinstripe suit and an open-collar shirt revealing a wedge of shaved chest.

“Hollywood is an idea,” he said, as the Bee Gees blared on the radio. “It’s not a real place.”

He stared down the road through oversize sunglasses. “It’s more of a concept,” he continued. “So, to step behind the curtain of the dream factory, things are never what they seem to be, and that is by design.”

As arguably the world’s most famous gender illusionist, he should know. More than two decades after his hit single “Supermodel (You Better Work)” made him an unlikely pop icon, Mr. Charles is back on top. His show “RuPaul’s Drag Race” returns for its sixth season on Monday (it was just renewed for a seventh) and is the centerpiece of the gay network Logo TV, bringing drag — and its reigning queen — into homes from Sweden to South Africa.

The series, an irreverent competition to crown “America’s next drag superstar” (as if anyone else could claim the title), has garnered a rabid cult following. There are official viewing parties in gay bars across the country, as well as unofficial ones in Chelsea and West Hollywood living rooms. The show has just reached the million-fan mark on Facebook, and its devotees include Sally Jessy Raphael and Lady Gaga, who tweeted: “Can I PLEASE be a judge on drag race!” Occidental College even offers a course called “Reading RuPaul: Camp Culture, Gender Insubordination and the Politics of Performance.”