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Aired winter 2013 · Filmed in Manhattan

New York

The team-format season. Project Runway opens its eleventh cycle by abandoning solo competition for an extended run of designed-by-committee challenges before the field reverts to individual work.

Filmed
New York City
Premiered
Jan 24, 2013
Lifetime · Thursday 9/8c
Format
Team format · Manhattan workroom
extended team-challenge structure
Host
Heidi Klum
Heidi Klum's eleventh season at the helm
On this page6 sections
  1. 01The take
  2. 02The shape of the season
  3. 03Where it sits in the canon
  4. 04What to watch for
  5. 05Adjacent in the canon
  6. 06Also appears in
01The take

The nerve the canon rewards.

The structural experiment. For a long opening stretch the workroom is a team room, and the editing has to track alliances instead of designers.
02The shape of the season

An extended team-format opening.

The team-format season. Project Runway's eleventh cycle opens with an extended run of group challenges, holding the workroom in committee structure far longer than the show's occasional team episodes ever had. It is the boldest format swing of the Lifetime classic era, and it reads as one — the editing tracks alliances instead of individual benches, and the runway shows carry collective fingerprints. A divisive experiment the canon respects for its nerve, even where the structure fights the format.

03Where it sits in the canon

The #10 slot.

Slot #10 of 21 in the Project Runway Editor's Canon. Season eleven is the structural swing, and the canon rewards the nerve. Project Runway opens its eleventh cycle with an extended team format, holding the Manhattan workroom in committee structure far longer than the occasional team episode ever had. The editing tracks alliances instead of individual benches, and the runway shows carry collective fingerprints. The experiment is divisive — the structure fights the format in places — but it is the boldest thing the Lifetime classic era attempts, and a swing that misses interestingly outranks a catalog cycle that plays it safe. tiered.tv places it tenth on ambition, with the structure's friction noted honestly.

No spoilers. Every page is reviewed before it goes live.
04What to watch for

3 moments, no spoilers.

  • Ep 1 · Team draft

    The season's defining structural choice lands immediately — watch how the workroom reorganizes around groups, and how the editing shifts to track alliances instead of individual benches.

  • Ep 5 · Mid-team run

    By this point the team format has settled into a rhythm. Notice which designers the structure surfaces and which it submerges — the read on a designer changes inside a group room.

  • Ep 8 · Format pivot

    Around here the season's structure shifts gears. Watch the workroom energy change as the competitive frame moves underneath the cast.

06Also appears in

Cross-references.