Project Runway All Stars Brings Back Memories

Two-hour special leaves fans wanting more

Judges loved this dress by Daniel Vosovic.

The long-awaited return of Project Runway finally unfolded last night, and Lifetime showed that it is going to milk its newly acquired product for all it’s worth. Before Project Runway Season 6 Episode 1 aired, viewers were treated to a two-hour special called Project Runway All Stars Challenge.
This special so-far-one-time show has gotten just as much attention as the season six premiere. It pitted several “fan favorites” against each other, and had longtime Project Runway fans once again rooting for their old favorites. I read one blog today who said she wishes they’d do a whole season of Project Runway All Stars. Are you listening, Lifetime? That is a really good idea. With the money you’ll be making off this franchise, you won’t even need cheap loans to pull it off.

Concurrent cash makers

I don’t think that Project Runway All Stars should take the place of the Project Runway – not at all. Bravo, after losing huge moneymaker Project Runway, realized it had to milk its other uber popular hit – Top Chef – for all it’s worth, and thus Top Chef Masters was born. Bravo showed how popular and successful a spinoff show can be, and pulled out some brilliant business sense when it aired the Top Chef Masters finale and the Top Chef season six premiere on the same night.
Lifetime, if you want to make some serious cash off of this product – which I have heard cost a pretty penny – I say follow suit. People will tune in to Project Runway year round, in whatever incarnation, if only you build it. Clearly, the Project Runway All Stars special plus the already airing spinoff show, Models of the Runway, show that Lifetime is aware of the power and moneymaking potential it now possesses thanks to Project Runway. I say milk it until it’s dry. I will watch anything Project Runway related, and so will all of my friends.

About Project Runway All Stars special

The Project Runway All Stars special brought back eight designers from previous seasons of Project Runway. Each designer had to design a four-piece clothing line to present on the runway. The eight designers who competed were: Chris March (who did his usual amount of sleeping), Korto Momolu (who came in second place), Mychael Knight (still making skirts as short as possible), Santino Rice (who did not get much praise for his tight, shiny, silver numbers), Sweet P Vaughn (who, true to her romantic design style yet biker chick background, made a pretty, girly looking leather dress), Jeffrey Sebelia (who suffered by straying too far from his rock n roll roots) and Uli Herzner (who uncharacteristically steered away from bold prints and bright colors). Aaah, memories.
The $100,000 prize and the all star crown went to Daniel Vosovic, season two runner up, whose two-tone cocktail-style dress won over the judges. I think if the Project Runway producers could take exactly the same approach as Top Chef Masters, only using previous Project Runway contestants, and the series would be a huge success. Top Chef pitted a different group of four chefs against each other in each of six episodes, choosing one winner each time. Then those six winners competed against each other and one chef was eliminated per episode until there were only three and a winner was picked. It was fun to watch, and Top Chef viewers were delighted to have more competitive cheffing action to take in while the regular Top Chef was not in season.