Project Runway - Will it work?

Season 5 of Project Runway premiered on Bravo last week. But is this basic cable hit losing its flair? I hope for truly original personalities to emerge, but so far we have the usual: flamboyant, catty, rocker, overconfident, wacky hair, takes-self-to-seriously, etc. etc...



On my early hateradar is Blayne, the self-tanning junkie who wishes to become the next Christian "Fierce" Siriano. My first impression of him is that he lacks the authenticity and personality of Siriano, who won season 4 (and a bonus of being impersonated on SNL). Blayne already turned me off by forcing his "licious" verbiage on everything. Is it really possible to come across as "trying to hard" on a reality show? I assume most reality TV participants to be a little over-the-top in order to get screen time, but lots gets edited out, and it makes for good watchin'.


However, is PR waning because of behind the scenes network squabbles? As of next season, PR will be moving from the increasingly hip, NBC-owned Bravo network, to the decidedly unfashionable, Movie of the Week graveyard that is Lifetime. (who, even though they're a media company, failed to secure the URL lifetime.com). The Weinstein Company seems to want to do this, presumably to fill his bathtub with jewels and wipe his ass with c-notes. Lifetime needs a hit so badly, I'm sure they give him carte blanche on the sponsorship angle. I expect to see contestants sporting brands like NASCAR cars come season 6.