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Aired summer 2008 · Filmed in Manhattan

New York

The last Bravo run. Sixteen designers, a creative team at full strength, and a season that arrives knowing the network handoff is coming but doesn't let the inflection point inside the workroom.

Filmed
New York City
Premiered
Jul 16, 2008
Bravo · Wednesday 9/8c
Episodes
14
Format
Standard format · 16 designers
final Bravo-era season
Cast size
16 players
Sixteen designers — the Bravo era's most-repeated headcount, tied with S2.
Host
Heidi Klum
Heidi Klum's fifth season at the helm
On this page5 sections
  1. 01The take
  2. 02The shape of the season
  3. 03Where it sits in the canon
  4. 04Adjacent in the canon
  5. 05In this canon
01The take

The Bravo era's confident exit.

The high mark before the move. The Bravo era closes on a season that plays its strengths without flinching.
02The shape of the season

Back up to sixteen designers.

The Bravo era closes on a high. Sixteen designers, a workroom that has been running the format for four years, and a creative team that knows exactly what the show is. The judges' table reads relaxed in a way that only comes from repetition, and the runway critique is quick without feeling rushed. The off-camera context — a network move pending, the format on the move with it — never gets inside the season. A confident final Bravo run.

03Where it sits in the canon

The #03 slot.

Slot #03 of 21 in the Project Runway Editor's Canon. Season five is Project Runway's Bravo era closing on a confident note. By summer 2008 the production crew had run the format for four years, the judges' table read from muscle memory, and the runway critique had the speed of repetition without losing the weight. The casting energy is strong end to end, the workroom operates at its full sixteen-designer scale, and the off-camera context — the pending move to a new network — never gets inside the season. The canon places it third because the season is the clearest evidence of what Project Runway looks like at full strength, executed by a team running its own show.

No spoilers. Every page is reviewed before it goes live.
05In this canon

Its Editor's Canon entry.