Tonight “Project Runway” returns home to New York City.
But can the long-running reality series — snagged from Bravo in a drawn-out legal battle and roundly criticized in its first outing on Lifetime — return to form?
Here, two former contestants call out Season 6’s most-cited criticisms, while the show’s executive producers defend themselves. This time, they insist, they’ll make it work.
Season 6 was a boring copy of the Bravo original.
Season one winner Jay McCarroll, who will appear on the coming season of VH1’s “Celebrity Fit Club,” has choice words about the show’s move to Lifetime. “You know how Pepsi is always trying so hard to be Coke and it’s almost Coke but it’s not Coke?” he told The Post. “The show’s like Pepsi.”
Season 2 contestant Kara Janx echoed his sentiment: “It lacked spark,” she said. “It felt so generic.”
Despite barbs like “snoozefest” flying on Twitter, the show’s ratings mostly held up. The season opened to the show’s highest numbers ever and it quickly became Lifetime’s highest-rated series, attracting an average of 3.3 million total viewers, down from the show’s Season-5 high of 3.6 million, according to Lifetime.
“This past season really was transitional, but all those concerns will be put to rest,” promised executive producer Jane Cha. “We have our groove back this season.”
Michael Kors and Nina Garcia were MIA
The show’s judges — he a world famous apparel designer, she the fashion director for Marie Claire — offered their snarky-but-sage runway-side commentaries only occasionally last season.
“That’s probably one of the biggest criticisms we had,” said executive producer Sara Rea, who justified their absence as a scheduling conflict with the European runway shows. “It was unfortunate timing.”
But when The Post asked if it had actually been because Lifetime couldn’t keep flying the pair out to Los Angeles from New York, exec producer Barbara Schneeweiss conceded, “Well, yeah, that, too.”
Tonight’s season debut has Kors and Garcia back where they belong, which is a huge relief to Janx, who found that Garcia’s judgments helped her grow as a designer. “I felt like Nina really got me,” she said. “The criticism is so essential to how you do your next challenge. I think [last season’s revolving door of judges] didn’t understand what the designers were trying to say because they hadn’t been with them through the process.”
The guest judges don’t know fashion
Last season’s guest judges seemed to be chosen more for tabloid notoriety than fashion expertise. And, in a suspect bit of synergy, three of the judges — Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson and Fergie — were stars of show producer The Weinstein Company’s then-forthcoming film, “Nine.”
But, according to McCarroll, Lifetime kicked it off all wrong. “Something goes awry when you start out a season with Lindsay Lohan,” he said.
Defends Cha: “We work hard to make sure the celebrities care about fashion and are really knowledgeable about it.” She explained that Lohan has her own clothing line, as does tonight’s guest judge, Nicole Richie.
“Oh, Nicole Richie,” McCarroll sighed. “Again, not an expert.”
The delay stole all the drama
The year-long legal battle over The Weinstein Company’s attempt to move the series to Lifetime (Bravo owner NBC Universal claimed it hadn’t been given a fair chance to negotiate a renewal) ended in Weinstein paying NBCU an undisclosed sum. But it came amidst production of the sixth season and meant that the fashion-show finale had to be kept under wraps for nine months before airing.
“It’s kind of like ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ ” said McCarroll. “They pull back the curtain and you see the wizard and you’re like, Oh, I know how this works.”