Project Runway fans are rejoicing, as Bravo's reality TV competition show is coming back ... albeit not to Bravo.
In reality television terms, Project Runway is a true OG — it premiered almost 20 years ago, at the dawn of the reality television era, in December 2004.
It debuted with a notable roster of judges, including supermodel Heidi Klum, fashion design legend Tim Gunn, and designer Michael Kors.
Project Runway deviated from many reality shows of its day by focusing on a fascinating niche — fashion design.
The premise of Project Runway was not entirely dissimilar to run of the mill competition shows, as each season featured 12 aspiring fashion designers as contestants, slowly whittled down to a small handful for a final competition.
Each week, Project Runway's aspiring designers would participate in challenges and display their pieces on the show's titular runway.
Finalists for each season went on to design an entire collection to unveil at New York Fashion Week, and the ultimate winner received a six-figure cash prize, mentorship, and media exposure.
Though popular with fans, Project Runway was passed around like a hot potato between networks — it debuted on Bravo, moved to Lifetime from 2009 to 2017, and then went back to Bravo from 2019 to 2023.
In October 2021, now-iconic fashion designer and former Project Runway winner Christian Siriano talked about the then-current state of fashion and the return of the show for a Vanity Fair piece.
Christian discussed the impact of the pandemic on the fashion world, as well as how a new season then-currently about to debut on Bravo might inspire designers and viewers with stay-at-home fatigue:
"Enter the return of Project Runway, which first made a splash in the early 2000s but has now been revamped for a new generation with Brandon Maxwell, Elaine Welteroth, Nina Garcia as judges and alum Siriano as host and mentor.
"With the 19th season of Project Runway returning to Bravo [in October 2021], Siriano believes that the series is back just in the knick [of] time for those artists and creatives who have suffered from a lack of 'inspiration and beauty' in the last 18 months."
Siriano, who understands the show from both the perspective of a contestant and later a mentor, explained how Project Runway encouraged innovation:
"I know people will always have their own opinions about the show, but really it’s kind of unbelievable what we see on it.
"We see young talent create such unreal things in two days from a flat piece of fabric and they turn it into three-dimensional form. It is very inspiring."
That was ahead of Season 19, and an "All-Stars" season of Project Runway, Season 20, premiered in June 2023.
Fans wondering whether Project Runway would ever come back finally got their wish this week.
Project Runway Has Been Picked Up By Freeform
It's Coming Back In 2025
On Thursday, entertainment industry trade publication Variety reported that Project Runway Season 21 was confirmed.
The outlet covered the change of networks, explaining:
"The fashion competition series will air on the Disney-owned Freeform network before being available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu.
"Debuting sometime in 2025, Season 21 will consist of 10 episodes, aired weekly."
Variety also noted that Project Runway was "embroiled in a messy dispute between networks and production companies after producers [at] The Weinstein Company announced that the show would move from Bravo to Lifetime, prompting a years-long legal battle."
Fans on Reddit's r/ProjectRunway were cautiously optimistic, with many fearing Freeform's budget was lower than Bravo's, a factor they worried would diminish the challenges and hamper designers.
Project Runway's return in 2025 is confirmed, but information about when Season 21 will air and the identities of the hosts has not yet been disclosed.
