Can The Weinstein Company make Project Runway’s move to Lifetime work? That’s the question we’re asking ourselves after we received a joint press release from TWC and the cable channel announcing a "groundbreaking agreement" that would move Heidi Klum, Tim Gunn, et al from Bravo to Lifetime in Nov. 2008. Of course, buried deep in the release was an acknowledgment that NBC Universal, Bravo’s parent company, had filed a lawsuit today against The Weinstein Company in an effort to block the hop. Apparently, NBC believes its contract gives it the right to match any other offer Weinstein has for the show, while the Weinstein-Lifetime press release claims that NBC declined to compete for the series. The courts will have to figure out that hot mess, but there is something we can judge in the meantime: Does the network airing Runway affect whether we’ll watch it? And how big of a loss would this be for Bravo?
Clearly, a move to Lifetime means that the show isn’t concerned about wooing men (okay, straight men) to its fanbase. So if it’s women and gay men producers are after, Lifetime is the place to be. Lifetime doesn’t have the cachet that Bravo has, but Klum and Gunn do bring their cred with them. I can’t imagine they’d let production values suffer, so why wouldn’t we keep watching? As for Bravo, it’d still have Top Chef (and Kathy Griffin). And I’d bet on Bravo’s development team coming up with another hit quicker than Lifetime could create one from scratch.
So, will you watch if Runway moves to Lifetime? And will it feel as fierce?
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Yep, as I said in the other thread, my basic cable package shockingly…SHOCKINGLY…doesn’t include BRAVO! So was SOL with this past season’s PR, but I do indeed get Lifetime. Who knows? Maybe there’s a couple million people like me, for whom BRAVO! had morphed somehow into a premium channel, that will get turned on to PR for the first time? Savvy move by Weinstein to pick up more eyeballs (and thus more ad revenue)?
Heck yes I’ll still watch and I’ll be much happier not seeing a commercial for the Housewives of Whereverville during Project Runway or in the corner of the show. Besides, maybe Bea Arthur will be a guest judge!!!!!!!!
Oh, good. Now I’ll always know when the Golden Girls is on.
Works for me! I don’t get Bravo, but do get Lifetime.
Bad Move. Sorry to those that don’t get Bravo, but I’d might have to pass. I don’t want to see the commercials for “Give Me Back My Baby!” movies….ugh. Bravo is for the gays, Lifetime is for ladies and “gays in menopause”.
of course i will keep watching!! as long as the show is the same, i don’t see why not! (BUT PLEASE RETURN ASAP! I MISS TIMMMM!!)
Ugh. Yes, I’d still watch, but I wouldn’t enjoy it nearly as much. Bravo suits Project Runway (no pun intend) and vice versa – I really don’t see the point in making the move to Lifetime after four solid seasons.
I just have a basic problem associating Project Runway with The Party Never Stops, Mom at Sixteen and The Nanny reruns. But I’ll do anything for Tim and Heidi. I’m more worried about Andy Cohen.
I don’t get Lifetime. I mean, sure it is an available channel on my tv, I just find it insulting. It has long been banned in my house and my love for PR will not be enough to lift it.
The gray-haired crowed will love it, though! Auf wiedersehen PR!
It’s spelled “cachet”. “Caché” means hidden. I’ll watch on whatever channel though
Project Runway is an amazing show. I will watch it no matter what channel it is on! I just hope they keep making as many seasons of it as possible!
I don’t care what channel PR is on. I record it so I can ff through the unbelievably repetitive Bravo promos. Lifetime promos are likely just as bad, but who cares, thank so Mr. Tivo. I’ll follow Tim and Heidi anywhere they go, especially after the last season — the best ever IMO.
Fierce? It is, was, and shall ever be MAY-JAH!
I am so excited!!!! I don’t get Bravo and have had to watch past seasons in 7-8 min clips on You Tube. I still haven’t been able to see the end of season 3 because it got removed before the episode was over! (something about it being illegal or something…) This is GREAT!!!
I guess I’d still watch, even though it would feel really weird. I would have been fine had PR moved somewhere else on the NBC Universal ladder, like NBC or USA.
But still, whenever I think of Bravo, I think of Project Runway, and vice versa. When I think of Lifetime, I think old ladies with tea cozies. It just doesn’t feel right.
Maybe by the time a season airs on Lifetime I’ll change my mind. I’m at least thankful it didn’t get moved to the Travel Channel, or something considerably worse like…VH1.
Explorita would agree. (It’s true, ya’ll!)
I get the argument that Bravo copied the Runway formula to various other shows (none as interesting or successful as Runway) and that this dilutes the brand, but I think the move is ultimately a mistake. While Lifetime has it’s cult following (Television for Women and Gay Men), it doesn’t have the quality reality programming that Bravo has had (Queer Eye, Kathy Griffin, etc.). I think ultimately, the show will suffer and lose viewers if the move is allowed to progress. Here’s hoping this is Weinsteins way of getting more money out of NBC and they can repair their relationship. I had been thinking that because Runway had built such a loyal audience, that NBC (which has a horrific lineup right now) would start airing Runway on NBC in primetime. I guess not. This is a hot tranny mess! NOT FIERCE!
Will be odd adjustment for all Americans am sure. WE also just got the rights to Golden Girls to, so Lifetime better do some damage control asap!
No, Bravo will NOT develop other shows as good as Project Runway. How do I know? Its current track record–How to Be a Supermodel, Step it Up and Dance–suck bigtime.
I don’t think Lifetime will do the mulitple showings and the marathons that Bravo does. Some days there is just nothing better than watching a PR marathon all day long.
I’m surprised Bravo let PR get away… that was their bread and butter. Can’t leave it all up to James Lipton.
I really hope Lifetime will do PR marathons. I usually wind up watching PR on Sunday afternoons and I suspect this viewing pleasure will disappear.
You know, if PR had started as a Lifetime show, I never would have watched it. The fact that it was on Bravo drew me in since I was (and still am)an avid Bravo viewer. But now that I’m hooked on the Runway, I guess I have no choice but to follow it anywhere and be glad that my DVR will let me have my own marathons if Lifetime doesn’t.
So one day your ON Bravo, and the next day your OUT.
Project Runway moving to Lifetime? What’s going to happen next? Maybe The Golden Girls should move to Spike TV, you know, to balance it all out.
If I remember to watch PR on Lifetime, aka the channel that caters to menopausal women, maybe then I’ll catch PR.
Bad move, Bravo and NBC.
I’ll follow “Project Runway” whereever it goes.
I agree with the people on this board in that I’m very surprised that Bravo would let their signature show get away. I don’t really think I can come up with another example of that happening off the top of my head.
Still, I’m not buying that this is some sort of cataclysmic move. I get that Lifetime is “television for women” (and, unofficially gay men), but let’s not act as if Bravo is the butchest channel around. Other than Lifetime (and, of course, channels like LOGO), Bravo is the gayest network around, in my opinion.
I would still try to watch but PR just feels so much better on Bravo.
Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!! I don’t know who’s responsible for this travesty (well, i do), but I smell a Tori Spelling conspiracy.
I love Project Runway. But I gotta say, putting it on Lifetime gives it a little cheesiness. It would make me think twice about watching it. It’s crazy. There’s no reasoning. But it’s true.
I guess at Bravo, I like it in the company of Top Chef.
The thing about Project Runway is that the BRAVO brand, with its “watch what happens” and it’s classy designs really augmented the show’s credibility. Then we have lifetime, where the show will inevitably air next to some old Yasmine Bleeth damnsel in distress movie. Yeah, doesn’t sound the same. Bravo still has the best TV reality show out there, TOP CHEF. and out of this debacle they can create a fashion show called SEW ME, in which fashion designers take people to court for just being a big fashion hot mess.
The move to Lifetime is sad … if it really happens. (NBC is PISSED[!], so their lawyers may find a way to block the move.)
And just for the record, outside of LOGO, Bravo is easily the gayest channel of them all … which is why it’s the perfect home for PR.