Just last month, we watched helplessly as Lifetime snatched Project Runway from NBC/Bravo with a $150 million deal for the rights of the very successful fashion design reality series. While everyone assumed that the whole production is moving to Lifetime, NBC signed on Project Runway producers Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz to an exclusive contract for NBC Universal.

The producers from Magical Elves shall be developing scripted and unscripted shows exclusively for NBCU, which means that Lifestyle will have to put together their own team to handle Project Runway, once it begins with its new network later this year. Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn are reported to stay on the show, but Nina Garcia and Michael Kors have not renewed any contracts as of the moment, despite reports that they are indeed moving to Lifetime.

As for Magical Elves executives Cutforth and Lipsitz, they'll be working on NBC for the next couple of years, and they seem to have no problem with that.

“We have found NBC Universal to be great creative partners,” Lipsitz said. “This deal represents amazing opportunities on multiple platforms, not just in unscripted television but in the scripted and digital spaces as well.”

As for Lifetime, they believe that the absence of the Magical Elves from Project Runway is no problem at all.

“They have been terrific producers and we wish them well,” Weinstein spokesman Matthew Frankel said of Cutforth and Lipsitz. Lifetime also assured fans that they will be doing their best to carry on the success of their show, saying in a statement, “It's the nature of television that outstanding series change some of the producers over their run. Project Runway's success has been a collaborative process among many brilliant 'designers,' and that will continue.”

Moreover, Lifetime is happy to know that Garcia and Gunn are considering the move as well.

“We're thrilled that Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn, the heartbeat of the show, and executive producers Jane Cha and Desiree Gruber, are all moving to Lifetime and that production will continue to be overseen by John Miller and Barbara Schneeweiss of the Weinstein Company,” Lifetime said.


-Valerie Anne del Castillo, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Los Angeles Times, Zap2It
(Photo courtesy of Bravo)