Ten crazy (and not so crazy) ideas to make Project Runway better

Tonight is part one of the finale, Project Runway fans, and as such there is little to prognosticate about. We all know the routine. The designers will be sent home to design. Tim will get his annual use out of his driver's license as he visits each at their homes. One or two of the designers will be creatively blocked and behind schedule, but they'll pull it together. The designers will show up in New York and pretend to be civil after hearing all the behind the scenes trash talk they never heard during the filming. Tim and Heidi will show up with--surprise!--one last challenge, and we'll get the mad dash to Mood and the hurried workroom chaos one last time. Then, next week, the three will at last show their final collections and be judged.

The question on everyone's blogs is, who cares? Worse, will anyone tune in to see if Season Seven is any better?

We don't blame Lifetime, who have put their hearts, souls, time, and money into promoting Project Runway and making it a success. This season was filmed before it even had a home. The new producers though--Bunim/Murray--are justifiably taking a lot of flak in the blogosphere, both in terms of their casting and editing. Honestly, how could an episode with both Bob Mackie and Christina Aguilera have been so paralyzingly dull, boring, and tedious!?

Even Blogging Project Runway--that bastion of Project Runway love and admiration--had to acknowledge their favorite show's collapse. "Longtime recappers have given up on the show, ratings have dropped, commenters are complaining, and maybe worst of all, many fans don’t seem to care what happens next. As we head into the finale, there is no denying that the quality of Season 6 has left us only with a feeling of malaise and apathy." Friends, as BPR points out, The Real Housewives of Atlanta gets better ratings than Project Runway in that time slot.

We have to confess, we're feeling the malaise and the apathy here at Gratz Industries too. If we're honest, we just don't care who wins this season. Like The Scarlett posted in the comments to the above post, we haven't felt compelled to watch any episode of this season even a second time. One week when all our Netflix envelopes were in the mail and we had already watched our recordings of Top Chef and Glee, we ended up pulling out Project Runway Season Two, and we were in love all over again. At the same time, it made it even more painful to realize we no longer loved the show in the same way.

Okay, I'm dropping the royal "we" for a moment here, kids. I kid you not--it takes me an average of seven hours to write up my precaps each week. Seven hours! That's all the preview video watching, the screengrabbing, the Photoshopping, and the writing. It takes me so long to finish those posts that I have to split the work into two sessions--I write the recap on Tuesday nights, and the preview on Wednesday nights.

In the past, I saw that time spent as a labor of love. Now that the love has gone...well, it has just become a labor. I can't tell you the number of times I've asked Wendi if I should bother to keep doing previews for Season Seven. To be honest, there was even a point this season where I considered dropping them.

But we love Project Runway, and we love the online community of Project Runway fans and bloggers. We don't want the magic to end! With that in mind, we offer ten humble suggestions--some crazy, some not so crazy--to make Project Runway everyone's favorite show again:

 

1) Consistent judging.

All right, everyone's been all over this one like white on a Nicolas outfit, but we feel obligated to point out the threesome of Michael, Nina, and Heidi were only together as judges for two episodes this season. Two! That's criminal. Not only did we lose out on the obvious entertainment value of Michael and Nina, more importantly, we feel, the designers lost out on their guidance. Consider the cases of Uli and Rami. Both are great designers, and both earned final three spots during their seasons. But both were called on the carpet by the judges later in the season for being one note. The judges scolded them, challenged them: push, push, push! The only way the judges were able to do that was by seeing the designers' work week in and week out. The designers need consistent feedback, whether it's Heidi, Michael, and Nina, or Heidi, Nick, and Milla. (You know, to just pick a couple of people. Ahem.)

Realistic? Yes. Lifetime sources are already confirming Michael & Nina back for every episode next season, no doubt helped by the fact that the show will be filmed in New York again, where they and 75% of the rest of America's fashion industry works.

 

2) Rank the designers, and send the bottom designer home each week.

Yes, we're calling for a national Big Board of Shame™. We will even relinquish our imaginary trademark. Consider the benefits: each week, the weakest overall designer is sent home, which means we wouldn't have to endure, say, three agonizing weeks of Mitchell. Better designers would get a pass or two for off weeks as well. Think of how much better the runway shows might have been later in the season if designers like Ra'mon, Epperson, and Shirin hadn't been sent home when they were for mid-season missteps. And being on the bottom might light a fire under some people, while fear of slipping lower would perhaps make designers like Santino heed the words of the judges a little more closely. There would be some complications to figure out--do you send someone home week one? what do you do in the event of a tie?--but the idea is interesting. Besides, let's face it, the judges already do this to a certain extent now. Gordana's much denounced aufing last week is proof positive--Althea made it to Bryant Park on the strength of her previous work.

Realistic? We doubt it. A Big Board of Shame eliminates the drama that comes from anyone being able to go home each week, much like the single elimination NCAA Basketball Tournament, and takes away the power the producers have to bend the rules whenever they see fit.

 

3) Always pick new models, and eliminate the models based on model challenges.

Pretty simple: with model-swapping comes drama. It also keeps the designers from getting too comfortable. We say, keep 'em dancing. The more radical idea here: turn Models of the Runway into America's Next Top Model Lite and make it an ACTUAL competition. (It's not really "a competition for them too," Heidi--they stay or go based solely on the work of their designer that week.) Give the models mini-challenges that have something to do with that week's Project Runway episode, and eliminate them or keep them based on those competitions. Imagine the drama when a designer gets ready for model selection, and his or her favorite model has been eliminated in the interim! It's like having a sanctioned Julia from Season One, all the time. Oh, and say what you will about Models of the Runway--it has at least done one good thing for the show: it has gotten rid of the boring time-killer that was a repeat of "I'm keeping my model" each week, and given us more time with the designers and their work.

Realistic? Mixing up the models each week? Definitely. Eliminating the models based on challenges in Models of the Runway? It would require a MotR re-imagining, but at this point, it has everywhere to go but down. Either suggestion would be a truly viable way to shake things up without radically altering the format.

4) Force the designers to use color and prints. 

Season Six will forever be known as the Gray Season among fans. Gray, black, white, brown--with rare exceptions, that's about all we got. We never thought we'd hear ourselves repeat it, but as Nina said, "Thank God for Neoprene!" She wasn't kidding. We needed something to liven things up a little. (And yes, we know Neoprene isn't a color--but that one was lime green!) Since the judges weren't around consistently to push for it, the challenges should have forced the issue. Instead, the challenges were too vague, and allowed far too much acceptable use of drab color palettes. This season's only color-inspired challenge, the Macy's "blue" challenge, left us feeling, well, blue. Do a kids' clothing challenge. Or a spring challenge. A "sponsored by Skittles" challenge ("taste the rainbow!"). Anything. But please, make the designers take chances with color and print.

Realistic? Sure. It doesn't have to be every episode, but just somewhere.
 

5) No more repeated challenges.

Speaking of challenges, let's get this one out of the way right now too--no more repeats! No more art museums as inspiration, no more grocery store challenges, no more generic red carpet challenges, no more wedding dress challenges. (Not even as homages!) Yes, we know six seasons of challenges is a lot of challenges, but there are more original ideas out there. We promise! Look harder. Both Blogging Project Runway and Project Rungay have asked fans for suggestions in the past, and great ideas came flooding in. We have a few of our own. Surely the creative team at Bunim/Murray can generate some new and exciting challenges that will knock our socks off. (To coin a phrase.)

Realistic? In theory. The better question is, Necessary? YES.

6) Anonymous judging.

Here's another of our wild and crazy ones: don't let the judges know whose work is whose. Yes, in some cases, it would be obvious. Designers, after all, are supposed to evince a clear and unique personal aesthetic. But perhaps we could do away with some of the more prejudicial judging we see occur. The judges have their favorites each season, and it definitely influences their decisions. (Really, would Ra'mon have gone home as early as he did if Nina had been around more?)  So we say run those garments down the runway without names attached, and let's see what the judges have to say about the clothes, not the designers...

Realistic? Never in a million years. There's too much drama to be had in confrontations on the runway--between designer and designer, and between designer and judges--for them to ever do it. Maybe as a one time stunt, but not as a regular format change.

7) Bunk the boys with the girls, and let them have some down time.

Let's take a lesson from Top Chef here. Enough of the boy/girl suites and the five hours of back home time. Get the designers a big brownstone to live in together, and give them time to play house! Okay, yes--it's expensive to put sixteen people up in a house in New York City for three weeks. We don't care. Make it work! How lame was it when Christopher was all alone in the boys room last week, talking to himself? Great drama there, guys. We've been enjoying the heck out of Top Chef this season, and so many great moments have come from the time the chefs spend together back at the house or out to dinner together. But when in the world would the Project Runway designers have time to share a beer, even if they did live together? For the love of sanity, let the designers have more down time, okay? We know it's a time-honored PR tradition to deprive the designers of sleep so much that by week ten they are zombies, but enough already. We'd like to see what kind of work they consistently produce when they're at the top of their games.

Realistic? Yes. And long overdue.

8) Mini-challenges.

While we're sticking in the Bravo knife, why don't we turn it? Yes, we gave The Fashion Show a shot, and no, we didn't stick with it for more than a few episodes. But we have to admit--the mini-challenges were an interesting way to mix things up, and we've always loved the Quickfire challenges on Top Chef. Would it be so awful to have a sewing skills competition? A sketch-off? Name that classic designer from a picture of their work? Style that model? Make a little black dress? Design a shoe? A hat? A handbag? Winners get immunity or other advantages. Losers get shame heaped upon them and feel lousy. And even if the "Quick Sew" took the designers an hour, through brisk editing we could see it in ten minutes. It's a good idea. Steal it. We won't tell.

Realistic? Yes. Again, that ersatz Project Runway did it, so why not? We need something that will surprise the designers--and us.

9) More two day challenges.

What was with all the one day challenges this season? By our unofficial count, there were only three two-day challenges this whole season--and two were the first two episodes of the year. Again, it's this feeling that the designers have to be run ragged. Enough! Give them time to actually put some thought into their designs and do some really beautiful work. If you always give the designers $100, thirty minutes to sketch, thirty minutes to shop, and ten hours to finish a look, you're going to get a lot of cheap, quick, unfinished crap. That's great if you're just looking to give Nina something to bitch about, but what about giving her-- and us--something to rave about? The five remaining designers didn't even have two days to finish the pieces that would decide if they made Fashion Week or not. Ridiculous. Slow down the pace for the designers, and let their personalities come out--both in the workroom, and on the runway. Good editing will ensure the pace isn't slow for us as well.

Realistic? Absolutely.

10) Up the stakes.

One hundred thousand dollars? Pshaw. Let's give the winner ONE MEELLION DOLLARS! Seriously--start a line for $100,000? What is this, 1967? How many of the past winners have produced a line with that cash? Anyone? One hundred thousand dollars may give a designer the kind of mad money needed to live and work in New York when they're just starting out, but we doubt you could produce much with that kind of dough. Some sci-fi series cost $1 million an episode to produce. (Or more!) Surely there are enough sponsors to put together a sweeter deal?

Realistic? Well, one million dollars might be a little ambitious--but is $500,000 out of the question? And if that were on the table, would it affect the casting? Are any of this season's designers worthy of half a million dollars in prize money?

There you have it. Our modest proposals for rejuvenating our favorite reality show. Season Seven has been filmed and is already in the can, as they say in show business, so we'll just have to hold our collective breaths and see if the producers have come up with any ideas for rejuvenating the show on their own. All we can really say is: yeah, it needs it. Lifetime, Bunim/Murray, we'll tell you the same thing we tell the gimp we have locked up in the basement: we're tough because we care. We enjoy Project Runway, and we want to see it succeed.

Oh, and if you're stuck for an idea for a fun challenge, may we suggest Project Runway bloggers as models one episode?

See everyone in seven, when we predict the winner of Project Runway Season Six.