Networks Wrangle Over Project Runway

Like the rest of Season 6, finale was a bore

(NEWSER) - It was hard to care who won last night’s Project Runway season finale, but it was easy to say who lost: fans. The move to Lifetime—and, probably more important, the switch in production companies—proved disastrous for the once-brilliant reality show, Heather Havrilesky writes for Salon . “The story of Season 6 was that there was no story.” Either the contestants had no personalities or the producers did a terrible job finding them. More»

(NEWSER) - Project Runway is back after an interminable absence on a new network in a new city, but critics agree the fashion design reality show has kept all its charm intact.

• PR has "hopped channels from Bravo to Lifetime with none of its appeal damaged in transit," Troy Patterson writes on Slate. And the move from NYC to LA has the show "cultivating an US Weekly populism and making its take on the grammar of chic more approachable."

No designers at Friday's finale as 6th season stuck in court

(NEWSER) - Cattiness on Project Runway is part of the show's distinctive flavor, but it's legal wrangling between networks and producers that has kept the whole 6th season off the air. As a result, the finale, a live event tomorrow at New York Fashion Week, will be completely anonymous: Designers will be hiding backstage instead of getting facetime with the fashion elite, writes Monica Hess in the Washington Post in a spirited look at the whole mess. More»

Legal jousting over, show back in summer to face Bravo knockoff

(NEWSER) - After a nearly season-long hiatus, Project Runway will finally be back on air this summer, the Washington Post reports. In an out-of-court deal, the Weinstein Co. has agreed to pay NBC for allowing the show to move to Lifetime. And—as is common in the fashion world—NBC plans to copy Runway style and offer a near clone of the longtime Bravo fixture. More»

Lifetime switch stalled as Bravo launches Fashion House

(NEWSER) - NBC is using its legal muscle to keep Project Runway from airing on Lifetime while it launches a copycat show on its Bravo channel, reports the New York Post's Page Six. Details about Fashion House in Cragslist casting calls make it sound like a replica of the fashion original. The lawsuit against Lifetime and Runway producers claims NBC wasn't allowed first refusal when Lifetime scooped up the show with $150 million, double Bravo's pay. More»