It's hard to believe that it's already that time again, but Project Runway is kicking off another season July 29th at 9:00pm. Heidi Klum, Tim Gunn, Michael Kors, and Nina Garcia are back again, and this time they've been super-sized. The show will run 90-minute episodes this season.
17 new contestants will take a run for the money, and the show will again be backed by loads of online content, but the sister show apparently didn't make it.
Some of the contestants look pretty interesting (check out the line-up here), and I hope they deliver. Last season may have done fine in the ratings, as expected, but the majority of the show was a snooze, and week after week saw a gaggle of uninteresting outfits, put together by uninteresting people, hoping to capture the "least bad" default prize. As is the trend with many of these reality competitions, less than half of the contestants had a shot, and sitting through the useless exercise of culling the herd proved especially boring last time around.
The show is looking to get you familiar with the talent it has picked this time around, and you can check out casting sessions, home visits, and more at the Project Runway Video Page here.
I think the show needs more cowbell at this stage (Tim Gunn obviously being the cowbell), but we'll see how she goes with yet another season. I wonder if viewers are still interested in Klum's ever-worsening attitude, but that may just be me.
As part of the winner’s prize package, this season’s victorious designer will receive $100,000 from L’Oréal Paris to start his/her own line, a fashion spread in Marie Claire magazine, a $50,000 technology suite by HP and Intel to create his/her own vision and run his/her business, and the opportunity to design and sell an exclusive collection on Piperlime.com. The model paired with the winner of "Project Runway" will also appear in the designer’s editorial feature in Marie Claire and receive $25,000 from L’Oréal Studio Secrets Professional.
Lifetime’s digital offerings will represent a robust collection of video content, including extended runway judging, designer and judge video blogs, and more. They will also feature full streaming episodes of the show, available only on myLifetime.com. Also returning for Season 8 are Rate the Runway photo galleries of the show’s fashions, as well as blogs by mentor Tim Gunn and fan-favorite designers from past seasons.
Other return offerings include the 2010 Webby Award–nominated Tim Gunn’s Workroom videos and Designer Portfolios. Tim Gunn’s Workroom will continue to showcase his critiques of the contestants’ garments-in-progress, and the interactive Designer Portfolios will display the designers’ previous work along with sketches made before the show and throughout the season. Roiworld.com’s popular weekly Project Runway dress-up games (which accounted for more than 4.8MM game plays in Season 7) will also return, featuring illustrated versions of the winning designs in an interactive wardrobe.
"Project Runway" enthusiasts can also interact with fellow fans, show insiders and designers by following @projectrunway on Twitter or visiting www.facebook.com/projectrunway for the latest "Project Runway" news and updates.
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About Marc Eastman
Marc Eastman is the owner and operator of Are You Screening? and has been writing film reviews for over a decade, and several branches of the internet's film review world have seen his name. His reviews have brought him personal praise from the director of a major motion picture, and have been used as required reading in a course at a major University. These priceless rewards, along with just bags of cash, keep him from straying from freelance writing. He is also a member of The Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Television Journalists Association.
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