My wife loves Project Runway -- and I'll concede that watching it with her is something of a guilty pleasure on my part. I really don't care about the clothes -- the show is simply funny.

NBC knows that they've got a great ratings grabber with their Bravo hit -- which is why they are headed to court to make sure they keep the show.

NBC Universal, the parent company of Bravo network, has gone to court to try to keep “Project Runway,” one of the biggest hits in cable television, from moving to Lifetime this fall.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in state court in Manhattan, NBC accused the owner of “Project Runway,” the Weinstein Company, of violating its rights by making the deal with Lifetime.

The suit asserts Harvey Weinstein, the chief executive of the Weinstein Company, promised NBC that it would have an opportunity to match any offer to the rights of “Project Runway” and that instead, Mr. Weinstein concluded a deal with Lifetime on Feb. 7, even though he continued to negotiate with NBC Universal for two more months.

In a statement, NBC said “NBC Universal has continuing rights related to ‘Project Runway,’ including a right of first refusal to future cycles of the series, which the Weinstein Company unfortunately has refused to honor.”

The Weinsteins, through their lawyer (Al Gore's dishonest shyster, David Boies), claims that there is nothing to the NBC suit -- but that strikes me as a bit of a stretch. Assuming the claim of a February agreement with Lifetime followed by two months of sham negotiations with NBC is an accurate one, it is clear that the Weinsteins were not acting in good faith.

Besides -- I'd rather see this show move off the boutique channels and run on NBC itself.

Posted by: Greg at 09:48 PM | Comments (28) | Add Comment
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