Project Runway is being relaunched, again, with another ‘refresh’ – reality blurred (2025)

Project Runway is being relaunched, again, with another ‘refresh’ – reality blurred (1)

Project Runway's logo on the season 20 set. Season 21 will leave Bravo and air on Freeform (Photo by Zach Dilgard/Bravo)

It’s been almost two decades since the premiere of Project Runway, and the show will be back for a 21st season.

Yes, Project Runway is returning yet again! And to actual cable TV, though not on Bravo, which has again lost the show, which has no room for shows about creativity or talent in between seasons of The Real Housewives and Below Deck.

Bravo basically left the show for dead, joining other ignored but never formally cancelled fashion design reality TV shows: Amazon Prime Video’s Making the Cut and Netflix’s Next in Fashion.

The 10 new Project Runway episodes will air in 2025, with a “refresh [of] one of television’s most successful reality competition series, making more dreams for aspiring fashion designers come true,” Disney Entertainment Television said in a press release.

Disney said that “[a] host, judges and premiere date will be announced at a later time,” and that means they’ve either not signed deals with anyone and/or they’re recasting the spots held in season 20 by Nina Garcia, Brandon Maxwell, Christian Siriano, andElaine Welteroth. (Revival host Karlie Kloss left after season 18.)

Project Runway is being relaunched, again, with another ‘refresh’ – reality blurred (2)

The franchise is staying to the hands of its creators, the original Magical Elves, Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz, though through their production company Alfred Street Industries (they sold Magical Elves to Tinopolis in 2014, and left in 2019, when they started the new company).

They’ve recently produced Netflix’s Is It Cake? and Homicide: New York, and HBO’s revival of Project Greenlight, a show they also created.

In a press release, Cutforth said, “It is exciting and inspiring to have the opportunity to guide the evolution of Project Runway for a new generation.” Lipsitz added, “The challenge to stay relevant while the world is changing at lightning speed makes us eager to not only honor our die-hard Project Runway fans but also to introduce fresh and innovative ideas.”

Compare that to what they said in 2018, when the show was revived by Bravo: “We can’t wait to return to it with a renewed creative energy,” Lipsitz said. “We are really excited to reflect some of the incredible changes that have happened in the fashion world since we last produced the series.”

Project Runway is being relaunched, again, with another ‘refresh’ – reality blurred (3)

Now they get to bring renewed creative energy again, six years later. Project Runway has had a dramatic life. To recap:

  • Bravo debuted the show in December 2004, and while one watched at first, it became a major hit, bringing us icons like Wendy Pepper, Kara Saun, and Christian Siriano over four seasons
  • Lifetime poached the show, to be produced by Bunim-Murray, creators of The Real World
  • The fifth and final season aired on Bravo
  • Lifetime aired 12 seasons, from six to 16, plus five spin-offs:
    1. Project Runway: All-Stars
    2. Project Runway: Threads
    3. Project Accessory
    4. Project Runway: Junior
    5. Project Runway: Fashion Startup
  • Lifetime cancelled the show in early 2018
  • Bravo licensed the rights from the format’s new owner
  • Bravo aired four seasons produced, once again, by Magical Elves
  • Now, Disney has licensed the rights, and will bring the show back for its 21st season

The revival will air on the Disney-owned cable network Freeform, which, sure? What? I guess they have room for original TV in between all the sitcom reruns.

I think they may be confused, too, because the press release quote is from Simran Sethi, president, scripted programming, Hulu Originals and ABC Entertainment. Scripted? ABC? Hulu? Hollywood’s gonna Hollywood, I guess.

Sethi said, “‘Project Runway’ is an iconic television juggernaut that perfectly complements the pop-culture spirit at Freeform. We are excited to welcome the original series to the Disney family and reignite the fanbase alongside Spyglass and Alfred Street, giving viewers the chance to once again share in discovering the next generation of exceptionally talented fashion designers.”

While I celebrate any cable channel that is producing original content, I’m not quite sure how this fits on Freeform is. This year, it’s aired Wayne Brady’s reality show, Royal Rules of Ohio, Grand Cayman: Secrets in Paradise, and Chrissy & Dave Dine Out, which is quite a disparate mix.

The good news is Project Runway season 21 will also be on Disney+ and Hulu, “shortly after” weekly episodes, which hopefully means the next day, not the six months it’s taking for NatGeo’s Life Below Zero to show up on streaming.

About the writer

  • Project Runway is being relaunched, again, with another ‘refresh’ – reality blurred (4)

    Andy Dehnart

    Andy Dehnart is a writer and TV critic who created reality blurred in 2000. His writing and reporting here has won an Excellence in Journalism award from NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists and an L.A. Press Club National A&E Journalism Award.

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