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Project Runway is getting ugly -- and we don't mean the clothes. First Bravo sued the Weinstein brothers, who own the show, for attempting to move the reality fashion design competition to Lifetime, thereby denying Bravo of their astronomically high ratings. Now the Weinsteins are accusing Bravo of deliberately providing little to no promotion for the fifth season of the show in order to kill interest and ensure that Lifetime is delivered a lame duck with little hype and few viewers.
According to Yahoo, a 23-page brief filed in Federal Court late last week by the Weinsteins alleges Bravo
"undermined the ratings and overall value of the show by changing the series' airtime, running it an hour earlier in a slightly less prestigious slot, released spoilers about upcoming episodes, ran a bare minimum number of ads hyping the new season -- the siblings called what few ads that did run "mundane and unappealing" -- and failed to provide adequate information to the press about the season premiere, thus making the show lose out on the all-important buildup buzz."
Bravo's parent company, NBC Universal flatly dismissed the claims saying in a statement, "Not only do we categorically disagree with the Weinstein Company's assertions, but the fact is that Season 5 was the most-watched and highest-rated Project Runway cycle ever." (We're not lawyers, and we don't play them on TV, but our experience and that of many of our friends in the media would back up the no-promo-homo-show argument.)
Though the sixth season just wrapped, a judge filed a temporary injunction in September which has halted Project Runway from being shown on either network until it can be determined who has a rightful claim.
All this bickering got you down in the dumps? Us too. It's like seeing your parents fight and worrying they'll get divorced and things will never be the same. Let's all go watch sweet, soothing Tim Gunn rallying against Prop 8 to help calm our nerves and make it all better.
-- NOAH MICHELSON
Previously > PR moves to LA > Christian Sirano is no hot mess
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