Lifetime's Project Runway scores big with viewers

In the war between the cable channels, score this week for Lifetime over Bravo. The battle for Project Runway had been a legal wrangle that delayed Lifetime getting to show the fashion reality series until last Thursday, but when it finally appeared it was a ratings bonanza. Project Runway was the highest-rated series premiere in Lifetime's history. That's 25 years!

And Bravo had to be burning up over the fact that in the same time period, The Real Housewives of Atlanta lagged behind in total viewers. For the record, Project Runway had 4.2 million watchers compared to the Housewives' 2.8. According the Lifetime, that number was 32% higher than the Season Five premiere, the one on Bravo.

As someone who watches both, the reason for this could be time-shifting. I wasn't worried about missing Housewives because Bravo is nothing if not diligent about repeating their reality shows all week -- and weekend -- long. If you miss it once, you'll catch it two or three times later.

Still, the key to Lifetime's continued success with Project Runway will depend on the quality of the show. As I posted earlier, I found the series unchanged in the network switch. As Tim Gunn might say, Lifetime has "made it work" and it's likely to keep on working in its new home. Andrea Wong, Lifetime head honcho, told Variety, "We'll keep the pedal to the metal in terms of promotion."