Nothing spices up a good reality show like a little controversy.
Not that the third season of “Project Runway” (9 p.m. Wednesday, Bravo) needs spicing up. Despite some fears from fans that the third go-round of the show might be missing the magic of the first two seasons — and I was one of the nervous “Runway” geeks, I must admit — this season is proving to be every bit as addictive as the previous outings.
Need proof? After I returned from two weeks at a Los Angeles television convention, followed by a European vacation, “Project Runway” was the first thing I cued up on my TiVo when the fog of jet lag began to lift.
I can see why the Web sites devoted to the show were in a tizzy over the Aug. 2 episode — the one in which Keith Michael was ejected for breaking the “Runway” rules. Michael’s ejection, his colleagues in the episode’s team challenge soldiering on without him and Angela Keslar’s triumphant win after being painted as this year’s design-challenged villain: It was not only gripping stuff, it was “the most watched telecast in Bravo history,” according to a press release from the network. More than 3.4 million viewers watched “Runway” last week, slightly exceeding the show’s shocking Season 2 finale.
The show was careful not to accuse Michael of cheating, but he was found to have several fashion books in his possession and went AWOL from the production for several hours after the books were found. Both things are against the show’s rules.
Not surprising, there was some squawking from Michael after he was bounced halfway through last week’s episode. On a Bravo blog last Thursday, he countered that all his fellow contestants knew that he had the fashion books for weeks, and that the books weren’t there to help him with “Runway” projects.
“One of the books was the most detailed pattern book you would ever see about menswear [and it] had nothing to do with anything on the show. I brought it because I was working on my menswear line at the time,” Michael wrote.
Well, what a ninny. It’s clearly forbidden in the “Runway” rules to have any kind of fashion books, and why on earth would a contestant on the show spend any time (if he or she could find a spare minute, that is) working on an outside project? Not a smart move at all.
In any case, the show’s producers felt bad about canning Michael; on his blog, Bravo executive Andy Cohen called the designer “a frontrunner in a crowded field of talent.”
“Our decision about whether we could keep him in the design competition based on having the books was unfortunately sealed by his ditching” a planned promotional taping, Cohen wrote.
“Runway” guru Tim Gunn admitting to being stunned at Michael’s ejection. “What confounded me about Keith is that he does not need a book like this!” Gunn wrote on his blog. “He’s an exceptionally talented designer and he’s equally adept at construction. Why-oh-why-oh-why?”
Indeed, Michael was a serious contender — but there are a lot of them this season. The design talent on display is, on the whole, better than what we saw in Season 2. As Gunn told the Tribune in June, Season 3 showcases an overall “stronger designer and . . . a stronger level of execution.”
And there are characters aplenty, not just a typically fascinating peek at creative minds in action. There’s bearded Bradley Baumkirchner, a sweet, spacey guy who appears somewhat dazed by the proceedings but knows what he’s doing with a needle and thread; frantic Vincent Libretti, whose design aesthetic appears to be rooted somewhere between “Star Trek” and “I Dream of Jeannie”; rock-star designer Jeffrey Sebelia, he of the distracting neck tattoos, abundant confidence and sizzling design skills.
Last week Keslar did redeem herself and thankfully didn’t inflict another poufy skirt on viewers, but the designers I’m watching are the hip Uli Herzner, the quiet but innovative Michael Knight and the flashy, fun Kayne Gillaspie. I have every hope that there’s far more fabulousness to come from them and their fellow competitors this sizzling “Runway” summer.
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moryan@tribune.com
