TVSquad

It wasn't a fierce season for Project Runway. No Cristian Soriano to spice things up. No Wendy Pepper either, speaking of spicy. That said, as the show wrapped up and three designers presented their collections at Fashion Week, the competitive juices were flowing and I was definitely into it. Maybe not as much as previous years, but the Project Runway formula still worked. And most significantly, the final three were all women. As Tim Gunn pointed out, it was the year of the woman on Project Runway.

All in all, the finale wasn't exactly up to the level of previous seasons. The personalities weren't as dramatic or defined. There was no Jeffrey to hate. No pregnant Laura to root for. And no Jay or Santino to giggle over. It's interesting that even Tim Gunn, before this season aired, had said that this group wasn't as distinctive as some other seasons. As usual, Tim was right.

A couple of months ago, I interviewed Lifetime president of entertainment Susanne Daniels for TV Week, asking her about Project Runway jumping from Bravo to her network.

"We know for certain that Heidi (Klum) and Tim (Gunn) are returning. We would love to see the judges back, Michael Kors and Nina Garcia...but we're working on that," she said.

She went on to say that the show will look and feel very much like it did on Bravo; it will be airing in the same time slot, the same day of the week. And she secured Kors and Garcia, so the four important Project Runway principals all will be in place.

Now comes word that in an effort to keep Project Runway as much a hit on Lifetime as it's been on Bravo, Lifetime is bringing in the veteran production team Bunim-Murray to take over as showrunners.

The first reality show contestant I learned to hate was Puck from the San Francisco season of MTV's The Real World. This was actually before people went on reality shows just to be on television and become some sort of celebrity. Oh, what innocent, fun times those were (and I'm serious - the first few seasons of The Real World were quite good).

Puck was actually OK for several episodes, but then he started with the hateful talk, not getting along with his roommates, and the battles with Pedro (though I have to admit that the thing I disliked most about Puck wasn't any of those things, it was the time he stuck his fingers in the peanut butter - gah). Now TV Guide includes Puck in their list of the top 10 reality TV villains. You can probably guess a few of the others. Spencer Pratt is on there (I had never seen or heard of this guy until Letterman's interview last night), Survivor's Jonny Fairplay, and, of course, Omarosa of The Apprentice.

Anyone missing from this list?

(By the way, it actually hurt a little bit to check the "celebrities" category for this post.)

NPR asked a few designers from various seasons of Project Runway to complete one more challenge and sketch some ideas for cool Halloween costumes. Diana Eng, Daniel Vosovic, Nick Verreros, Wendy Pepper, Nora Caliguri, Katherine Gerdes, and Starr Ilzhoefer pitched some sketches and, well, I thought they were okay (yes, I'm going to pretend it was an actual episode and critique a few things because, now that the season's over, I. Am. In. Withdrawal). I liked Diana's lightning bug idea, and Katherine's iPod costume would be fantastic for a parent and child... but what was up with Nick's Pirates of the Caribbean costumes? Generic pirate and princess. Not Captain Jack and Elizabeth. Tsk tsk, Nick.

I choose to Auf... Wendy Pepper. Not because her witch costume was crappy, but because I'm still pissed that she robbed Austin Scarlett of the final Bryant Park spot (ooh, I'm so bitter). Anyway, check out the costumes for yourself.

[via Styledash]

(S03E01) What a crazy start to a new season. Already, I've been outraged (I'll explain later). This challenge started almost right after the designers met Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn for a little champagne to celebrate their first day. They were told to create an outfit defining their personality with absolutely anything from their brand new apartments. Armed with scissors and their greedy hands, the designers totally ripped their beautiful apartments into pieces. Shower curtains came down, couches were skinned, lamps were attacked, and cushions were destroyed. Sigh. It looked like so much fun. I was green with envy.

Bravo has officially decided to start airing the third season of Project Runway this summer in order to use September's Fall Fashion Week for the finale (where the three finalists -- and one other designer who's just there to throw off spectators and will not be aired -- compete with collections instead of individual garments). An hour-long casting special will air July 12 at 9PM ET/PT, with the first episode premiering at 10PM.

If you've never seen the program before, I suggest you jump on the bandwagon with the first episode. It really is the classiest reality show on television.

[Thanks, orimental!]