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Aired summer 2025 · Filmed in Manhattan · The Freeform relaunch

New York

The Freeform relaunch. Project Runway leaves Bravo for the first time in its modern era and brings Heidi Klum back to the host chair after eight seasons away, with a rebuilt judges' table finding a livelier, more personality-driven register.

Filmed
New York City
Premiered
Jul 31, 2025
Freeform · Thursdays, streaming next-day on Hulu
Episodes
10
Format
Network relaunch · host return
first mainline season off Bravo
Cast size
12 players
twelve designers, judged by a rebuilt panel
Host
Heidi Klum
Heidi Klum returns after an eight-year absence
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. 06In this canon
01The take

New York.

The comeback. New network, returning host, same Manhattan workroom — the show resets around a face the audience already knows.
02The shape of the season

A rhythm worth tracking.

The Freeform relaunch. Project Runway leaves Bravo, bringing Heidi Klum back to host after eight seasons away alongside first-time judge Law Roach. The premiere's team-house twist gives the season a livelier, more personality-driven register, even as a shorter runtime leaves less room for the workroom to breathe. The canon reads it as a genuine reset rather than a retread — energetic and uneven, pitched at a wider audience than the craft-first cycles it follows.

03Where it sits in the canon

The #16 slot.

Slot #16 of 21 in the Project Runway Editor's Canon. Season twenty-one is the show's biggest reset since the Bravo-to-Lifetime years, and the canon reads it as a genuine jolt rather than a retread. Heidi Klum's return energizes the format immediately, and first-time judge Law Roach brings a blunt, single-question critique style that sharpens the table's voice. But the compressed runtime pulls focus away from the workroom process toward interpersonal conflict, and the panel itself reads less settled than the show's steadiest cycles — Nina Garcia's reduced presence across the early run undercuts the continuity the table usually provides. tiered.tv places it sixteenth because the relaunch's ambition is real, even where the execution still has real seams to smooth out.

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

3 moments, no spoilers.

  • Ep 1-2 · The houses

    The two-part premiere splits the cast into competing team houses for a Disney-themed group challenge before the season shifts to individual eliminations. Watch how the format frames the room before anyone's on their own.

  • Mid-run · The panel

    Nina Garcia's presence thins out across several early episodes while Klum and first-time judge Law Roach anchor the table. Notice how the critique register shifts when the panel's makeup changes week to week.

  • Late run · The single lens

    Roach's judging philosophy sharpens into a recognizable through-line by this stretch — a single blunt question applied to every look. Watch how it reshapes the critique language the panel had been using all season.

06In this canon

Its Editor's Canon entry.

Project Runway S21 — New York — tiered.tv