‘Project Runway’ struts to ratings record in Lifetime premiere

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Grabbing ‘Project Runway’ is beginning to look like a triumph for Lifetime.

The fashion design reality series began its long-delayed sixth season Thursday, delivering 4.2 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. That’s the program’s highest premiere number yet and a whopping 45% increase compared with last summer’s Season 5 launch on Bravo.

‘Runway’ is being closely watched because the move to Lifetime resulted in a nasty lawsuit between NBC Universal, which owns Bravo, and Weinstein Co., which makes the show. NBC said that in cutting the deal with Lifetime, Weinstein had violated its contractual rights. The suit was settled this year after Weinstein agreed to pay NBC an undisclosed sum.

The settlement finally cleared the way for Lifetime, which had been barred by a court injunction from airing the series.

Andrea Wong, president and chief executive of Lifetime, said in an interview today that the network was thrilled with the ratings and that ‘Runway’ will be a ‘key part in the evolution of our brand, to bring more relevance and a more contemporary feel’ to the network.

The network worked hard, she added, to make sure existing fans of ‘Runway’ could still find the show. At the same time, Lifetime wanted its core female fan base to sample the series, which had plenty of ups and downs in the ratings during its stint on Bravo.

Those efforts appear to have paid off -- and may damp speculation that the Lifetime move and the resulting lawsuit had permanently damaged the ‘Runway’ franchise.

-- Scott Collins