“Project Runway”: We Get It Already!

I have to admit that even with all of the Lifetime/Bravo drama, I was kind of psyched to see the “Project Runway All-Star Challenge.”

But it was so hard to enjoy it, because Lifetime insisted on banging us over the head with promos for the “Runway” premiere.

“You’re just two hours away from the premiere.” “You’re just 90 minutes away.” Every commercial break another time check. Like we weren’t smart enough to figure that out ourselves—especially with that annoying countdown clock in the corner of the screen.

“Project Runway” is on Lifetime. We get it already!

If you were able to get past the promos—and that’s a big if—the “All-Star Challenge” was kind of fun. That is until the judges lost their minds and decided that the crap Daniel Vosovic was passing off as fashion was actually good. It was hard not to notice that Santino did not walk back out to the runway to congratulate Daniel. Who could blame him?

But the biggest shock was not Daniel’s win, it was just how bad the designers’ work actually was. In my opinion, only Uli put together a good collection. But the judges didn’t even include her in the top four because she didn’t use any colors like she had before.

What happened to judging that challenge only?

After the two-hour challenge—which did not include nearly enough of Santino Rice doing his Tim Gunn impersonation (How dare Mychael Knight tell him to shut up.)—the MUCH hyped premiere finally aired. As I told you before, the show has not changed, although it was hard not to notice the extreme—and extremely unnecessary—close-ups of the judges during their comments.

The judges surprised me again—but this time in a good way as they eliminated a contestant I was sure they would keep around just for drama. But it was the right decision. And although the show is taking some flack for having Lindsay Lohan as a guest judge, I thought she made some good comments, especially when she said, “You can make all you want, but it doesn’t matter if no one buys.” Oh, snap!

But the show came off terribly dated as Lindsay looked incredibly normal and the contestants visited the red carpet of last year’s Emmys...

Lifetime would have been good to just stop after the premiere. But they decided to continue the overkill with a spin-off show, “Models of the Runway.” Someone had better hope there’s more drama to come because otherwise this show is going to be seriously lame. The only interesting thing about it is watching the designers choose their models at the end of the episode.

And because they just couldn’t let it go, during every commercial break of “Models,” we had to hear about the encore presentation of “Runway” airing right after it.

Plus, even though Harvey Weinstein complained that Bravo had diluted his brand with marathons, I couldn’t help but notice that Lifetime was airing the premiere again Friday…

At the same time Bravo was marathoning season three (Man, do I love them!)…

It pains me to even think about not watching my beloved “Runway,” but if Lifetime insists on continuing to jam it down our throats, I might have to tell it Auf Wiedersehen…

“Project Runway” airs Thursday nights at 10 p.m. on Lifetime…

Photo Credits: David Russell/Lifetime Networks 2009 and Mike Yarish/Lifetime Networks 2009