(S08E01) With 17 contestants wandering around New York City, it's pretty difficult to get names with faces on 'Project Runway' unless the people are stand-out caricatures. I already know that I will grow tired of Ivy Higa's interviews, especially if they end with silence and her saying "word" or "period" to emphasize the end. The only other characters I could even recall from the beginning swoop was Casanova, because of his clothes, accent and expensive pants, and Peach, who came off as one really tough cookie.

The contestants meet themselves in 'The Real World' fashion and eventually the contestants end up at Lincoln Center. Heidi and Tim announce that the 17 contestants are in the last round of auditions, similar to the season 2 semi-finals with muslin. Their challenge is to create an outfit that incorporates a piece of clothes from the contestant to their left. One assumes the last person on the line gave theirs to the first, though wouldn't it be amazing to have Tim's jacket or Heidi's dress?

We get our regular product placement, this year being Brother, HP, and Mood as always. Mood fabrics provided fabric this challenge, forcing the contestants to consider picking up too much fabric. With only five hours, one person even considers making a long dress.

Tim goes around to critique some of the work and unlike the previous seasons where we only see the bottom three and top three designers, Tim talks to a handful of middle-of-the-road contestants. McKell gets positive criticism and just gets suggestions on how to use the epaulets (which I don't recall ever seeing again). Nicolas gets praise for doing sportswear as evening wear. Casanova hugs the vulgar line. April gets called out for having an inside-out jacket. Worse than April, Jason is criticized for putting on a kimono backwards. Basically, he made a Snuggie. Peach had a great quote to Tim to his fabric: "...oh look, it died." Mondo gets criticism that his dress skews matronly.

The models arrive, have 10 minutes of fitting and an hour of hair and makeup. This season's BlueFly is PiperLime.com. Next thing you know, the show will be sponsored by Claire's. Peach has no ideas at all for hair or makeup, Jason stares at his model's breasts, and Kristin forgets her model completely. As Tim calls all the models and designers, Casanova accomplishes a first: his model's not dressed. Luckily for him, he had a small bra and skirt.

Heidi welcomes the contestants and threatens to eliminate them all. Along with a newly titled Michael Koors, and Nina Garcia, our guest judge is the well-dressed actress Selma Blair. Since there were 17 dresses going past, it was obvious that at least 10 of the dresses wouldn't be focused on, but I thought that some of the looks were interesting. Peach's dress was a bit simple with a slight touch of tulle in the back. Andy had a good vision with the whole black outfit and the Asian styling on top. I was worried about A.J's piece, but because he looked like Season 2s Daniel Vosovic, I assumed he'd be fine.

Heidi announces that 10 contestants (A.J, Andy, Valerie, Sarah, Peach, Kristen, Michael C., Mondo, Michael D. and Christopher) are all safe. I was a bit taken aback that Mondo managed to get past after having both a matronly styled dress and clashing colors. Sadly, I didn't even realize there were two different Michaels. Couldn't one have gone by "Mike" to create a slight difference? The judges also had a unanimous winner: Gretchen. While I personally loved her dress, pretty but simple dresses will not win the show and I hope she pushes the envelope in the coming weeks.

The remaining six contestants all represented the bottom. Ivy was called out for having bad accessories, throwing a blouse in the shredder, and making "pants out of pants." Jason and his Snuggie were criticized for having pins and staples in his dress, making little changes, and looking like a hairdressing cape. April's deconstructed look was too deconstructed. McKell had horrible styling (though one of the many gay men complimented her on a fabulous look during the runway) and the dress wasn't flattering. Nicolas' dress bored, but he had a good concept. Casanova had every word in the thesaurus for "bizarre" thrown at him and he just squinted and leaned in to listen. Nina Garcia also proved her Spanish-speaking skills for once. I wonder if Ping last season would have been better understood if there was a Chinese-speaking judge,

After deliberation, where the judges repeated the same thing, somehow April, Nicolas and Jason breeze by. McKell is eliminated. I was a bit shocked seeing both Ivy and Casanova in the bottom two; watching their interviews were at least memorable. Both are saved, in the hopes that one of the two could be a Santino for the rest of the season. Ivy wonders if 'The Ivy Show' will ever succeed. Somewhere in the shuffle McKell is sent home, even though Tim liked the dress.

The rest of the contestants get to go to their apartments and have a good night, since the next day they will have a one-day challenge instead of a five-hour one.

While I'm still getting adjusted to this new 90-minute style, getting rid of 'Models of the Runway' seemed like a good choice. Out of all the contestants, I have some first episode love for Peach, but seeing her high amount of exposure early on makes me worried that she will go home in the coming weeks. I also wonder if the fact that Kristen forgot her model will be a tragic foreshadowing for her. As for the eliminated McKell, the dress was okay, but not a standout. At least the other competitors tried to have an interesting vision. But then again, the first elimination is always a crap shoot.

Did you think the elimination was fair? Leave your comments below.