On Sunday night, ‘The Glee Project’ chose the winner of its grand prize: a seven-episode storyline on the musical juggernaut ‘Glee.’

The competition, which aired on Oxygen, started with 12 performers, winnowed down from the 40,000 who submitted audition tapes, and every week one was eliminated until it was down to four — smoldering and dreadlocked Samuel, utterly-adorable Irishman Damian, catty belter Lindsay, and the sometimes cross-dressing diva Alex.

In a surprising final twist, ‘Glee’ co-creator and writer Ryan Murphy chose both Samuel and Damian for seven-episode stints on the show, and also awarded Lindsay and Alex two-episode guest spots.

Murphy has been writing the upcoming third season of ‘Glee’ for awhile now, and during ‘The Glee Project’ he stressed he wasn’t necessarily looking for the best singer, dancer and actor, but rather someone who inspired a character he felt was missing from the flagship show. Murphy has hinted he likes Samuel’s juxtaposition of being both sexy and a devout Christian, and that Damian could easily come in as a freshman exchange student.

No word yet on the types of roles Alex and Lindsay will play, but with so many of the cast’s core characters “graduating” this year, Murphy has been on the lookout for actors to transition in and fill the void that will be left when the stalwarts depart. Since Lindsay is almost a Rachel Berry clone and Murphy has said Alex is like the “lovechild of Kurt and Mercedes,” he may now have two fewer slots to fill.

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