• Bravo is developing a Runway copycat while it keeps the show bottled up in court. Some of the program's original producers are involved. Harvey is pissed.
• Weinstein Company lost four executives in six months.
• Weinstein lost and agreed to pay a $1 million bet, a bet that would have paid him nothing had he won.
• The New York press Weinstein used to believe he controlled began to turn on him.
• The fashion company Weinstein paid $25 million for got tepid reviews on its new line.
• Weinstein's Facebook for Millionaires saw traffic decline.
• His charitable giving was questioned as perhaps too low.
• Stock in in his home-video distributor declined to less than one-tenth its prior value.

The mogul at this point would be well advised to get any more disappointments out of the way over the next 40 days or so, so he can hit rock bottom and try to redeem and restart himself in 2009. Now that would make for a fresh reality show.

• The two other fashionz showz are creatively titled The Fashion Show and Celebrity Sew-Off. The former involves viewer voting, Make Me a Supermodel-style, and the latter features as-yet-unnamed celebrities competing to see who is ready for their own clothing line. So those sound... yeah. The problem with viewers voting for their faves is that most viewers are idiots and/or too horny to make sensible decisions. As exhibited by Supermodel, in which nearly every qualified girl was sent home by the girls and gays-filled audience, leaving just one lady and a dreamy handful of chiseled mens. (Though the girl won, deservedly, in the end). All that said, though, these shows still ought to be better than, say, Stylista.
• Another show will be called Polo, and is about polo players and their families. Because that's really cool...? Well, cool or not, it's wealthy and sorta queer, which is basically Bravo's key demo.
• There are two shows that sound kind of boring: Fashionality which is sort of a style news magazine, and Double Exposure, a docu series about photographer Markus Klinko.
• The most promising-sounding new series, for me at least? The Dubai Project, about British and American expats making their homes in the Arab Emirate. Talk about wealthy! Could be really fascinating.

Or really scary. Like all of these shows, really.

“It was horrible,” [Bravo programming head Andy] Cohen remembered aloud. The confrontation happened at the downtown Manhattan restaurant Pastis, at a breakfast meeting during which Cohen made a passing reference to an exercise mixtape that he made for himself. He had called it “Fit-n-40.” (“I was being ironic!” Cohen said in her office, defending himself. “It was all new Mariah, new Madonna.”)

As Cohen and Zalaznick ate their breakfast, discussing various other work projects, Zalaznick’s mind was still on the questionable-sounding mixtape. And there were, to Zalaznick’s mind, a few other false notes that Cohen struck over the course of the conversation. Suddenly, Zalaznick let him have it. “She says: ‘Just so you know, you have become that person who thinks he knows what is going on in the universe, but you really don’t. You’re really out of it. You don’t have the same reference points as anyone,’ ” Cohen recalled...

If Zalaznick came down hard on Cohen, it’s because she relies heavily on employees like him — trendy, about town — to help her figure out the precise moment when, say, Bushwick, not Williamsburg, becomes the place where hipsters in Brooklyn live; when people under 30 start watching her shows more on Web cast than on television; when a word like “fierce” is so tired it’s officially over and when it has been safely resurrected as mainstream camp.

Another source said: "Basically, Bravo took all the benefits of the 'Project Runway' brand without being a good partner..."
The producers of Project Runway fear Bravo is stalling to get Fashion House on air before the court case is resolved and capture the original show's viewers.

Oh man, NBC is being a bad partner to poor Harvey "I Own New York Media" Weinstein? Just wait until the angry calls and emails start pouring in on that outrage, Jeff Zucker! Just you wait!!

...We now hear [Bravo] is casting for "Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys," a reality show based on Melissa de la Cruz and Tom Dolby's compilation of personal essays about friendships between straight women and gay men. Plus, Bravo's working on several "Real House wives" spinoffs and about 10 other concepts.

We submitted a question about this to the fameballs' new "Advice Box" ("you can literally ask us anything") and are eagerly awaiting a reply. (OK, maybe not quite "eagerly." But definitely "awaiting!")

If the Bravo show does fall through, we'll at least find out whether Allison, Asha and Rambin have the wherewithal to move forward with their joint venture, Nonsociety, as something other than a TV showpiece. A tough phone call from an old friend to Allison recently prompted a "mini-meltdown" — who knows what a big cancellation would do.

The lawsuit—filed by NBC/Universal, who say that TWC violated a first right of refusal agreement when they decided to switch to Lifetime—is only dredging up the uglier, more commercial side of the show, indicating that the product placement-crazed Weinstein Company (and implicitly its fearsome old leader, Harvey Weinstein) would have the cast members dressed up in NASCAR-esque sponsored jumpsuits if they could. There was something magical (like the Magical Elves, the show's talented production team, who won't follow the show to Lifetime) about the first few seasons. Here was a supremely entertaining show with enjoyable hosts and judges, that was also about actual talent, and that rewarded creativity and innovative thinking. Sure there was some producer tinkering (Wendy Pepper beats Austin Scarlett?), but for the most part the show held up a banner of integrity. It won a Peabody, for God's sake!

Which makes it so depressing to watch it slide into disrepair this season, with a questionably talented and too self-aware group of contestants and tired old challenges and obviously angry and frustrated judges. Bravo may have given up on this one because, heck, they were losing the show anyway, but it makes you wonder then why NBC is fighting so bitterly for it to return. The show isn't exactly fresh or new, it's six seasons old after all, with the sullied brand to show for it. Top Chef could be a serviceable (and younger) flagship show replacement for Bravo, right? Just let the grumpy old Weinstein Company ruin their show (incongruous location, new production team) and cram it into Lifetime's dim, uninteresting programming schedule. They'll basically hang themselves with their own taffeta rope.

This is probably the last season of Project Runway that I'll be watching, and I don't think I'm alone in that. Sure next season, whenever the hell it happens, will have Tim and Heidi and Michael and Nina and all that, but after all this bickering and tinkering and product placement and drama, I just doubt that anyone involved is going to feel that, in the end, the juice was worth the squeeze.

Rambin, post 1:

Frangy, post 2:

Rambin:

Frangy:

Rambin:

Well, at least Rambin is learning to stand up for herself, I guess. Though the whole fight leaves me feeling like the third cat (off to the side) in this video from our tipster, Cajun.

Once confined to HBO and then Showtime, top-shelf programming has spread to smaller networks like AMC, home to Mad Men, and even Lifetime, future host to Runway. Comedy Central's Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, with their fake news shows, have a level of influence that meets and even, at times, exceeds that of the broadcast news anchors.

As this process continues and even smaller networks come up with distinctive hits that grow their audiences — think TNT, FX, Sci Fi and the Food Network — cable will have achieved something of an advertiser's holy grail: Narrow targeting combined with deep reach, something never really possible on broadcast television and still being tinkered with online. The efficiency of advertising on these networks, by the way, happens to be quite attractive when you economy is slowly melting.

The cable boom will be pretty glorious, at least until advertisers wise up about how many viewers are digitally skipping right over their commercials, at which point product placement will poison all that creative fun, and everyone will be sad until the Sex And The City of iTunes comes along and moves the fun to yet another medium.

(Photo: Rick on Flickr)

She signed up [reality show partners Mary] Rambin and [Megan] Asha to act as cofounders of the site — nonsociety.com — and began developing content: lip-sync videos, a talk-show series modeled after The View, and the collected musings that the trio were already posting on their own blogs.

(Emphasis added.) There's no doubt that after four years of fameballing her way around the New York media and Web startup scene, Allison will be able to drum up some decent guests for her talk show. But will she and her co-hosts be able to host any conversations worth listening to? Allison's hardly had occasion to develop interview skills, what with her decidedly non-journalistic work as a sometime society chronicler, dating columnist and stint as Star's official talking head for television.

Talk show aside, between the Wired cover, Bravo show and deepening roots in the tech/media investment community, Allison is clearly revving up to take her act national, a point the Wired profile neatly crystallizes. Here's how it recasts her West Coast forays, which have seemed like nothing so much as shopping excursions for geek talent and VC money, as part of a national expansion of the Allison machine:

In July 2007, having conquered — and perhaps oversaturated — the Manhattan media market, Allison set her sights on a new target: the Silicon Valley startup world. In a flashback to her Gawker breakthrough, she flew to the Bay Area to attend the annual TechCrunch party thrown by influential blogger Michael Arrington. Dressed in a flattering Diane von Furstenberg dress, Allison made an immediate impression among the blue-shirt-and-khaki-wearing attendees. The next day, Arrington posted a video on his site of Allison cooing for the camera, telling her audience that she had a thing for geeks, and urging them to call her. Soon Allison had become a Valleywag staple, befriended the likes of CNET's Caroline McCarthy and Sequoia Capital's Mark Kvamme, and — like Jack in the Box opening a new crosstown franchise — introduced her brand of ignore-me-if-you-dare provocation to the Web 2.0 startup world.

Other noteworthy points from the story:

• Former Gawker managing editor Choire Sicha says Allison's fame happened "in a way that seemed seamless and kind magical."
• While an undergraduate at Georgetown University, Allison wanted to date med students, so she got a job in the medical school library and did, well, did her thing. She became known as the "Medstitute" — and a fixture at med school parties, even shown in a slideshow at med school graduation.
• Allison debuted on Gawker when Nick Denton "demanded" Chris Mohney write about her.
• Gawker writers, "facing an unrelenting 12-posts-a-day workload, couldn't resist the easy productivity of a quick Allison item." True!
• Allison had a "burgeoning relationship" with Digg founder Kevin Rose, but it was "killed" by Valleywag's very early coverage.
• Allison talks to Rambin like "a mother comforting a child after a deflating T-ball game:" "I thought that Gawker post about you today was very nice."
• Non Society in a nutshell: "Two C-list starlets can get together and make one B-list couple."

Finally, a tipster notes that Platon Atoniou's photo of Allison for Wired's cover (assuming he shot it — he is credited with the inside shots) borrows heavily from his earlier shot of Italian actress and model Monica Bellucci (on the left):

Is there a suggestion here that Julia Allison is anything less than a total original?? Heaven forbid.

[Wired]

Project Runway was a big hit on the Bravo network. But Weinstein decided to move the show to Lifetime, which agreed to up his cut to around $1 million per episode. He also screwed Bravo by lining up sponsors for the show on his own, which precluded the network from selling ads to other companies in the same categories. Weinstein even ended up favoring a Wal-Mart placement on the show over a Macy's one, proving he wasn't in it for taste.

Still, the show is a hit, and a cash cow. Project Runway has been successful enough to demand that fashion magazines like Elle and Marie Claire pay for the privilege of being featured on the show. Hardcore media hardball.

And a treasure trove of new evidence dug out of Weinstein's trash can by the Village Voice's Tony Ortega shows that the mogul himself is closely involved in the show's sponsorship choices. An email from a former Weinstein Co. employee shows the calculating negotiation process:

"I wish there was more time. Twc [The Weinstein Company] has already gone to great lengths with new partner at lifetime to not only secure both categories for you but also to be flexible toward loreal in coming up with an alternative for you on their packaging of [seasons] six + seven. Unfortunately, due to filming of season five and tresemme's feeling that they are being iced out of season 6, there just is not more time to give. As you know, season five commences in days...twc is now at risk that tresemme will pull out of season 5, which puts twc at risk for 1.1m [$1.1 million]. Carol is welcome to call hw [Harvey Weinstein] or me, but the deadline has to remain at close of business tuesday for loreal to decide on hair category for [Project Runway]/models for season 6 and structure of [seasons] 7/8. I would additionally say that the whole reason we are to this point is a result of the relationship! Without the relationship and the history, l'oreal would not have the opportunity to even engage in the opportunity to obtain the hair category."

Good thing they have such a good relationship! Or this sponsorship thing would really be nasty. And here's how much the company is expected to cough up to Weinstein in order to have its goop featured on the faaabulous production:

"Hw - if you get a call from carol hamilton it will be regarding [Project Runway] season 6 and beyond. I've imposed a tuesday, close of business deadline for them to commit to hair category in addition to make up. They have two choices: 1) Take both hair and make up for [$2 million] plus [$1 million] to twc (no split) for season 6 and [$2 million] for hair and makeup for season 7 plus [$1 million] to twc for a total of [$6 million]. 2) Commit to season 6 only for [$2 million] hair/make up plus [$1 million] to twc] and then by 3rd episode must pick up both season 7 + 8 for a total of [$8 million] (but must take additional [$1 million] to twc regardless) They have asked for additional time and I have declined that citing tresemme and season 5 which starts shooting shortly. Call me if you have questions. Best, lori"

A mogul's life: not so different from a used car salesman. Buy now! There's a guy on his way here right this minute to take it off my hands if you don't want it.....

[VV; pic via NY Mag]

Look at what's working in cable's favor today:

Decline of the networks.

The networks plus cable equals the whole TV pie. And it's a huge pie. Any advertiser wanting to reach the most coveted demographic of all—relatively young men and women—has to spend big on TV. The internet hasn't destroyed television as it has print media. And the networks' roster of shows these days is weak, historically speaking—which was exacerbated by the writer's strike last year. The president of TBS says:

"There is very little consistency in what they are doing, and people don't know what to expect when they turn on the broadcast networks. They are still in the business of appointment television, but there are fewer and fewer appointments. There's a great big opportunity for cable networks."

Cable programming is getting better and better.

The days when the networks were automatically presumed to have the best shows are long gone. It's not just premium cable channels like HBO that changed the equation, either. Bravo, Nat Geo, Discovery, the Sci-Fi Channel—all are dominant players in their programming fields, in terms of quality. Cable channels have fewer content restrictions, and they've virtually eliminated the barriers to snagging good talent. Think of your favorite shows. How many of them are on cable? MOST OF THEM. Why? They're investing:

Annual spending on programming by basic networks has doubled in the last five years from $9.2 billion in 2002 to $18.8 billion in 2007, and the top 20 cable networks spent an average of $566 million per network during 2007 compared with $321 million in 2002.

Cable is confident.

The dominant theme of reporting on the television upfronts this year was the surging confidence of cable channels. They're consciously positioning themselves as direct competitors to the networks. They've grown their audiences to the point that they can't be disregarded by the same advertisers who support the networks. Money is pouring in. Discovery—that home of fine executive pay—isn't just generous with its CEO; its stock price grew more than 50% last year. The Sci-Fi Channel makes profits in the range of 40%. It's driven by good programming, which is only becoming a stronger and stronger pull for audience growth; that's one lesson of the internet, where content trumps big money. In the past decade, the overall cable audience has more than doubled.

Networks must, by design, try for mass appeal. Cable channels can target their audiences much more effectively. The scary thing for networks is that even specialized cable channels no longer represent just a niche audience any more; they are almost as plugged into the mainstream as the networks themselves. Virtually all American households at least have the option of cable, and the majority are cable subscribers. The industry is sitting in a sweet spot: it's already big enough to have reached critical mass, and it still has plenty of room to grow.

If this keeps up, I may even get cable myself.

[NYT, WSJ, NCTA]

The broken, rage-filled 10th grade lesbians and haughty, closeted 9th grade boys who will inevitably populate the show will mirror the ruined and angry contestants on the grownups version, while also representing how kids today "are continually expanding their culinary knowledge - from cooking classes to kids' cookbooks," according the show's press release. Also noted in the release is that the adult scream-fest Top Chef, which airs at 10pm on Wednesday nights, performs very well with kids aged 2-17. Who the hell is letting their 8 year old stay up till 11pm on a school night? Seriously, I want to know. Are they the same people that are sending little 12-year-old Vincent (pronounced, by Vincent, as "Vinthhhent") to culinary classes? Find out for me. There's your reality show.

The two said in an interview Monday that signing the deal was part of a plan to own more of their work.

"It is sad," [Jane] Lipsitz said of leaving Runway behind. "But in terms of the bigger picture of building our business, it was a decision that we had to make."

A Weinstein Co. spokesman said, "They've been fantastic producers, and we wish them well." Weinstein Co. and Lifetime have already signed deals for host Heidi Klum and fashion mentor Tim Gunn to stay with "Runway" — even though Mr. Gunn also stars in Bravo's "Tim Gunn's Guide to Style."

[WSJ]

The episode—in which contestants were asked to create a meal for four people for ten dollars and were helped during the preparation by disadvantaged children—reeked of a Lifetime special. As was communicated throughout the show via the valorization of Antonia, a single mother contestant, the target demographic of this challenge was...single mothers, a demographic more likely to be sitting in front of a television tuned to Lifetime than to Bravo. And not just single mothers but low-income single mothers which even moreso places the focus on a Lifetime-esque demographic. That said, the kids were cute as buttons. (Not these buttons. These buttons.) How can you make fun of kids!? What kind of bumptious stinker would dare attempt to? In this way, however, the show has already showed itself more interested in inoculating itself against criticism rather than making good television.

Of course, the winner was Antonia, the single mother! Why? Because, in the words of Gail Simmons who may or may not be pregnant but has certainty gained some weight which I totally understand because during the course of the show I ate an entire large pepperoni pizza from Posto and a slice of strawberry pie I got upstate in this weird hippie bakery that was actually the kitchen of a couple named Bob and Valerie who had moved to Woodstock twenty years prior and set up a pie shop, "it was so natural for her." Well, fuck, of course it is natural to her. She's a single mother (though she does live in Beverly Hills.) But authenticity is no reason anyone should win anything. I would have liked to see Crazy Andrew win because he used to be fat and now is skinny but of course that might be read as fattist, not to mention sexist, by the sexy fatty Lifetime viewership. So there's Antonia—-who, make no mistake, I genuinely like—smiling and telling funny/dirty jokes to her kid. (Knock knock/Who's there/Smellmap/Smellmap who? Get it?/No/Smell my poo!/Oh. Ha!)

Two other moments of the show are also noteworthy. Firstly, that quick challenge really totaled my faith in Padma. Contestants using UNCLE BEN'S RICE had fifteen minutes to create an entree. The screen was immediately flooded with a panoply of UNCLE BEN'S PRODUCTS!!! Padma was excited. How that woman could be so excited by such a lame challenge or at least act that excited by such a lame challenge questions if, and when, she tells me that she loves me, how can I believe her? It just seems so shammy. What a put on! What a laugh! You love me you say?! A love that is so easily bestowed that it falls on a product placement so heinous is no love that I want, Padma.

The other moment of emotional amusement was when crybaby loser (and handsome Australian Kiwi) Mark accused Tom of not liking him. After sending him home Tom said, "I don't dislike you." It's not as if Tom is using litotes to communicate his intense affection for Mark. "I don't dislike you" is like when a girl tells you (or you a girl, or you a guy or a guy you) "I don't not love you" which, even more than "I really like you," means "I don't love you" which is all to say, this new life-affirming Top Chef? I don't dislike it at all!

Gays would rule the show because:

• Women, or at least Lifetime's women, are not snarky enough: "Lifetime’s untrammeled earnestness — eagerness, even — comes off as distinctly uncool. And tucked within online commenters’ anxieties about whether Lifetime would keep Project Runway gay was the fear that Lifetime, in its implied anti-irony stance, would, therefore, be resistant to kitsch and camp and sarcasm, and perhaps leave on the cutting-room floor the bitchy asides that the PR contestants make."
• For example, instead of ultra-uplifting makeover show How To Look Good Naked, Bravo has Tim Gunn's Guide To Style, which involves eye-rolling. Gunn and "his co-host, Veronica Webb, make fun of their subjects and their awful wardrobes/haircuts behind their backs, even as they do make them undeniably more attractive in the end... It’s funny, ironic, hip."
• They have grass-roots operations online, like at Project Rungay, whose co-editor told the Observer, "They talk about the show in terms of it being a women’s show... We’re living proof that that’s not entirely the case. It has a very large gay viewership."
• Golden Girls. You are going to leave Runway in the hands of the ladies who put that on Lifetime's programming lineup?
• The gays are more finicky.

Women would rule the show because:

• Um, they just paid $150 million for it.
• They have already co-opted their very own gay! Carson Kressley of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy has since January hosted Lifetime's How to Look Good Naked, "an Oprah-fied version of Extreme Makeover... featuring rather overweight, depressed women with negative amounts of self-confidence who, thanks to Mr. Kressley’s relentless cheerleading and a haircut, become the women they were meant to be."
• There are these two new lady top executives at Lifetime, Andrea Wong and Susanne Daniels who are, in Daniels' words, "working toward making the brand cool, one way or another." How positively lovely!

Hopefully the two sides will eventually work things out, with Lifetime promising gays equal rights within its borders, and the gays apologizing for calling Lifetime a ginormous cow. Because it's not like you can just recreate these reality-based fashion shows.

[Observer]

I suppose congratulations are in order, to Allison, whose pink and perky determination has propelled her to fame of some debased sort; to the blonde one, a veteran of reality shows, Mary Rambin, older sister of the Hud-banging teen star; to Megan Asha, the supposed tech heiress; and to the agent who has shepherded through the project, Jason Fox of William Morris Agency, pictured here with his three angels.

It would be easy to dismiss IT Girls as final proof of a culture gone spongy in the brain, in the final stages not so much of Alzheimers as syphilis. But let's be honest: the concept, three girls are followed by the cameras as they set up an online chat show, a younger version of The View, is positively gripping compared with some of the other reality projects being touted. Julia Allison's obvious ambition provides a dramatic core; she's better at least than the empty socialites around Kristian Laliberte, another group with television ambitions.

Finally, IT Girls promises to take watching-me-watching-you media narcissism to a new plane. A girl who is famous for photographing her every move, sets up a pretend chat show which is itself the focus of cameras from a cable show. So meta! And that will, for a blog that has designated Allison an icon of a new age of self-levitating celebrity, make great entertainment.

“'They get crushes,' she said in her office at Sky Sport & Spa, her penthouse gym in Beverly Hills with sweeping views of the city and the Hollywood sign. 'I have hard-core women that get major crushes. I have women that send me—this is the weird thing—I have women that send me photos of themselves with their husbands and three teenage boys or whatever—I’m just giving you an example—with a love letter attached.'”

But when you can't actually find any wedded women who'll admit for the record that they'd like to have... you know... actual lesbian sex times with Jackie, just hit the Net!

"Those who can’t afford the $400 an hour fee have joined social networking groups such as 'If Jackie from ‘Workout’ hit on me, I’d definitely reconsider my sexuality.' As a woman with the moniker LibbytheCute put it in the interactive magazine Zimbio.com. 'I’m straight. Very straight, and even I would seriously consider batting for her team.'" [NYT]

These three are more career-driven and have more to say than their L.A. counterparts, which should only lead to more drama. Even when they're not hitting Waverly Inn for dinner or flying cross-country for exclusive Silicon Alley [sic] events, this clique is never boring. They get Restylane injections for fun, own pocket-size dogs, and never go anywhere without blogging about it. What's not to love?

So yeah, they're all awful. But the most awkward, and only marginally interesting, thing about the show is how remarkably and painfully self-aware these women are about their outsider-looking-in status. They're not old money, they admit, so they have to work twice as hard to get anywhere in the highfalutin milieu they so desperately love. The sad trouble is, the key to "high society", especially in the pinched wilds of the Upper East Side and the Brahmin corners of the Hamptons, is to present the air of trying very little and having everything come to you. (Or is this an old idea? Am I being naive?) No wonder real UES ladies think the show is "a joke". It's not half as entertaining as Orange County, mainly because I recognize the landmarks and personalities and can detect that it's not, in fact, representative of anyone except a few gaudy idiots. At least Orange County is far away and mystical. Are all the mothers there drunk child neglecters? Sure! Why not? But in New York, in places I've seen and experienced often, it just doesn't seem authentic, or even worse, exciting. Sure these women are "real" in that they exist, but as for "New York", well, they may as well live in Coto, CA. Needless to say, I'll be watching every episode. Below find video of crazy Ramona (who's a bit of a Mrs. Malaprop: "Double duo!") putting goop on her face and drinking champagne, and the countess LuAnn ordering her maid Rosanna (the hero of the show) around the house while packing for the Hamptons.

BRAVO PARTNERS WITH FOUR LEADING DIGITAL CABLE OPERATORS BRINGING INTERACTIVE AD-SUPPORTED VOTING AND POLLING TO "PROJECT RUNWAY"

Cox, Charter, Comcast and Time Warner Cable Team Up With Bravo For Industry First

NEW YORK, NY - December 3, 2007 - Bravo today announced a partnership with Cox, Charter, Comcast and Time Warner Cable to bring ad-supported viewer interactivity to the fourth season of "Project Runway," marking a groundbreaking industry initiative that was previously limited to just one digital cable operator at a time. Now, four of the country's leading multi-platform distributors will offer the same ad-supported advanced advertising application across multiple markets, giving viewers in select cities the opportunity to respond to trivia questions and vote for their favorite "Project Runway" designs and contestants during the show using their digital cable set-top box remote controls. The interactivity is possible through the deployment of interactive television applications in conjunction with Navic Networks' technology.

"NBC Universal is committed to putting technology and resources towards advanced advertising partnerships between our networks and our partners in multiple markets," said Brian Hunt, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Sales Strategy, NBC Universal TV Networks Distribution. "We're excited to offer our advertisers a national footprint opportunity as interactive television applications are implemented in an open standards format."

The interactive overlays during "Project Runway," sponsored exclusively by Brother International Corporation, provide a measurable in-program opportunity for the advertiser. Brother is the official sewing company of "Project Runway" season four.

"It's natural for viewers to interact with their TV's using their remote controls and we're confident this application and timely deal will engage even more viewers and continue to grow the series' loyal fan base," said Lisa Hsia, Senior Vice President, New Media, Bravo.

Throughout the fourth season of the hit series, trivia and polling overlays will appear seamlessly over the program. Using Navic Networks' technology, these overlays are synchronized to occur at precise content-relevant moments during the one-hour show, and the viewer's votes are compiled in real time and revealed during the show. The real time voting and polling will be available to Cox customers in Phoenix, Tucson, San Diego and Las Vegas; Charter customers in Los Angeles; Comcast customers in West Palm Beach and Palm Beach; and Time Warner Cable customers in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The fourth season of "Project Runway," set in the glamorous and rigorous world of New York's fashion industry, opens the door for fifteen budding designers to break into the fashion business. Each Wednesday night at 10 p.m. ET/PT, contestants are whittled down to the finalists who will show their own line in front of an audience of fashion industry movers and shakers at New York Fashion Week. In what will prove to be the most exciting season yet, some of the biggest names in fashion, sports and design will guest star this season on the series. Host supermodel Heidi Klum heads a panel of industry luminaries, including judges Michael Kors, top women's and men's wear designer, and Nina Garcia, ELLE magazine's fashion director, as they decide who is "in" and who is "out." Tim Gunn, Chief Creative Officer, Liz Claiborne, Inc. will once again act as a mentor to the contestants as they navigate weekly fashion challenges.

About Bravo
Bravo is a program service of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment, a division of NBC Universal one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Bravo has been an NBC cable network since December 2002 and was the first television service dedicated to film and the performing arts when it launched in December 1980. For more information visit www.BravoTV.com.

About NBC Universal TV Networks Distribution
NBC Universal TV Networks Distribution, a division of NBC Universal, one of the world's preeminent media companies, drives the company's cable strategic development and growth including video-on-demand, pay-per-view, HDTV, TV EST (electronic sell-through), TV Wireless distribution and retransmission consent, and oversees the cable distribution, marketing and local ad sales of sixteen properties (Bravo, Chiller, CNBC, CNBC World, MSNBC, mun2, NBC Weather Plus, Oxygen, SCI FI, ShopNBC, Sleuth, Telemundo, Telemundo Puerto Rico, Universal HD, USA and the Olympics on cable).

###

But last night, they kicked off the only beautiful woman. She was named Simone Le Blanc. Now we're left with a bunch of gays (most are jacked! some are obese!) and some lady who described a cut of her dress as a "haiku." Blarg!

So the exiled chef was Brian Malarky, the ADD koosh ball of a chef. He's soft and harmless and kind of retarded. Good riddance. But really, Dale won? Le Bernardin's Eric Ripert picked Dale as the winner? Over technical perfection or Texan heart, he picked Dale, whose plate admittedly looked like a carnival? Also, that he slept with cowboys is A) probably not true and B) too much to know. That he was dumped right before the show, however, is completely believable.

We were so upset by the wan depravity of it all that it was not until this morning that we realized: Dale might really win. Last week, we thought maybe he was a genius. So sad! Now we must admit that yes, Dale, though every fibre of our body rebels against it, is a genius. Or maybe he just has Asperger's.

Not that we're abandoning Hung, whose tale of immigrant woe brought us close to tears. Nor are we hanging Casey out to dry. Her decision not to use her own personal stash of spices (as a result of her victory in the quickfire challenge) was ballsy and laudable. But if M. Ripert says Dale's elk is perfect, it is perfect. Dale might actually have game. (GET IT? ELK? GAME???)

I was shocked and saddened to see that 69% of the audience polled wanted to see Hung go home. Sure, he's pompous and arrogant and selfish. But why are those behaviors, lauded in other competitive arenas, so spat upon in "Top Chef"—which is, at the end of the day, no less brutal a test of man-on-man action than any a boxing match or island-stranding?

Dale's continued presence on the T.V. has also made us rethink our question to you last week of who will be victorious. So once again, vote for your choice. Not if they deserve to win, mind you—but if you think they'll win.

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