NEW YORK — Wednesday’s epi- sode of “Project Runway” will reveal the next winner of the popular fashion design competition: Kenley, Korto or Leanne.
But the more pressing question hanging over the show is this: After “Runway’s” fifth season concludes on Bravo, how long will viewers have to wait for its return?
The future of the reality show is in limbo, the subject of a bitter lawsuit between Bravo’s parent company, NBC Universal, and the show’s producer, the Weinstein Co.
“I think they’re going to be sad if they have to wait,” host and executive producer Heidi Klum said of the program’s fans.
Executive producer Harvey Weinstein was planning to show the next season of “Project Runway” on Lifetime Television, which struck a lucrative deal for the rights to the program. But NBC Universal sued, claiming the Weinstein Co. breached its contract by shopping the show to another network.
Last month a New York state judge granted its request for a preliminary injunction to stop Lifetime from airing or promoting the show or its new spinoff, “Models of the Runway.”
While the parties haggle, production is nearly complete on the sixth season, set in Los Angeles instead of New York, with guest judges such as Lindsay Lohan, Eva Longoria and Rebecca Romijn assessing the work of a new batch of designers.
But barring a settlement agreement, it appears highly unlikely that “Runway” will be back on the air in January in time for a finale at New York Fashion Week in February, as Lifetime had hoped.
If NBC prevails, the situation is more complicated. It’s all but certain that the show wouldn’t return to Bravo, the network on which it became a hit.
Before their negotiations ended, NBC Universal and Weinstein were discussing airing “Runway” on a different network, perhaps even as part of NBC’s prime-time schedule.
The bottom line: Until the suit is resolved, tomorrow’s episode of the show may be the last that “Runway” aficionados will see for a while.
It’s a jarring interruption of what has been a stellar ride for “Runway,” one of cable television’s great success stories.
When the program launched in late 2004, even its producers had some doubts about its premise.
But the program’s inside pass to the fiercely competitive fashion world proved a major draw, as did the outsized personalities who vie to be crowned the country’s “next great designer.”
For Bravo, “Project Runway” helped power its rise as a destination for a young and affluent audience. By far the most-watched program on the cable channel, ratings for the show are at an all-time high this season, averaging 3.981 million viewers each episode.
“It is the gold standard,” said Frances Berwick, general manager of Bravo Media.
The end of the program’s run on Bravo is especially poignant for the duo of executive producer Jane Lipsitz and Dan Cutforth, whose company Magical Elves oversaw the show’s daily production. In May, they signed a deal to produce other projects for NBC and are not working on the sixth season for Lifetime.
Cutforth said he has mixed feelings about watching the next iteration of “Runway,” whenever it ultimately airs. “It’s a bit like watching someone you were in love with get married to someone else,” he said. “You might get invited to the wedding, but you might not want to show up.”
