In Season 3 of Project Runway, the judges couldn't decide who would be eliminated from the final challenge, so they sent all 4 designers to Fashion Week. A cheap ploy maybe, but I did like what all four of the designers were doing, and it seemed like a pretty fair solution.
In Season 4 of Project Runway, the judges couldn't decide who would be eliminated from the final challenge, so they had all the designers create a full line, then had a runoff between the two lower scoring designers to decide who would go to Bryant Park. I had a few choice
words about that. In a nutshell, I didn't think Rami's collection was as strong as Chris' (or Jillian's or Christian's), and that he should have been eliminated weeks earlier.
So, Season 5 final challenge is on last night. I figure this should be easy because I've never seen a bigger bunch of "all-over the place" designers. I'm not seeing consistency (except with Jerell, and we'll address that in a minute), I'm not seeing risk-taking, I'm not seeing quality. In fact, Tim and Heidi keep stressing that this is the most talented group of designers they've seen. Hmm...saying it ain't gonna make it so.
The final comes down to Jerell, Leanne, Korto, and Kenley. Kenley??!! Please. She needs to get over herself and realize that Tim is on her side. Totally ignoring his advice keeps landing her in the bottom of the group. Well, they did their runway show and Jerell and Leanne have the top scores. Naturally, one would think that either Korto or Kenley would be out. But in another cop-out, the judges "can't decide" (hint: get rid of Kenley. It's a no-brainer.), so they decide once again that no one is eliminated.
Okay, I figure we're in for a "design-off" between Kenley and Korto. At least there is precedent for it. But no, we're now going to have a four way runoff. Which means that Jerell - who won the challenge and has been pretty consistent is his designs throughout the competition - is now competing again for a spot at Bryant Park. So totally not fair.
Do I care who wins? No. Not with this group. Although I predict that it will be Jerell.
The real winner in all this? The PR producers. They've messed with it enough that I'm talking about it. And isn't that the real goal?