It hit us last night while watching the season premiere of Shear Genius (yes, we watch it): is Bravo trying to drive Project Runway's stock down before it makes the leap to Lifetime in the fall? Though the cable channel is advertising its final season of the show (which premieres July 16), Runway's been unceremoniously bumped to a 9pm timeslot, while Shear Genius will claim Runway's traditional 10pm stomping grounds. In an even clearer sign that Bravo is loathe to give the lame-duck series more attention, the Season 5 ads are recycled clip jobs; though Bravo has always mounted a splashy new ad campaign for each iteration of its reality shows, it's apparently going to send Runway off into the sunset without shooting any new footage. Check out the half-hearted Season 5 clip after the jump.

Now that the new season of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List has begun, we've had a chance to spend some quality time with the comic and her much-trotted-around billionaire boyfriend, Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak. Sure, we know the two have already broken up, but observing them interact—behold the clip above, in which a Segway training session is as tender and romantic as a shared plate of spaghetti in Lady and the Tramp—at least gave us some inkling into what made their much-buzzed about relationship work while it lasted. But now comes the shocking!—OK, not all that shocking—news that Griffin and The Woz never, you know, actually...did it. From usmagazine.com:

Depending on where you lie on the whole "insufferable, OCD-afflicted, house-flipping boss from Hell"-loving spectrum, news that the second season of Bravo's surprise hit Flipping Out premieres tonight will either come as a delight, or warning. Either way, it bears mentioning. Back again is the series's polarizing central figure, Jeff Lewis, who last season memorably spent 45 minutes entering a compound-drink order that involved the use of an overhead projector, a laser pointer, and a periodic table of the elements. In the preview scene above, Lewis has quite remarkably succeeding in adding yet another Boy Friday to his revolving menagerie of assistants. One week in, New Chris still seems eager to attend to his boss's fucking insane demands. To wit: stocking the meticulously numbered and aligned contents of his sparse refrigerator. (Coffee-Mates: 6. Yogurts: 6. Jars of martini olives: 3. Lunatics running the asylum: 1.) Like we said, you can either deal with this, or you can't. Personally, we're waiting for the series's breakout domestic to get her own spinoff, Feeling Zoila.

TV is dying, right? We read about it online. Kids these days spend all their time on YouTube, and television is left to geriatrics watching Depends ads, right? But no! One word, friends: Cable. Just today, news came out that the executives at Discovery Communications, home of the Discovery Channel, are some of the highest paid in all of the media—their CEO took home $20 million, right up there with the Viacoms and Time Warners of the world. How did little old cable get so rich? Good timing, good programming, and a little bit of luck. Learn and marvel!

Hey kids 13-16! Do you like truffles? Do you make a mean osso buco or quick salad with radicchio and pancetta? Sure you do. All kids like food. Which is why Bravo, home to more reality shows than there are hours of programming in a day, is getting ready to start shooting Top Chef Junior, a cooking competition for epicurean, wine-swilling, back-stabbing teenagers.

Here we go again! VH1 (who else?) has just greenlit Scream Queens, a reality show in which 10 unknown actresses desperate to be the next Jamie Lee Curtis or Janet Leigh will compete for a starring role in an upcoming “major” Lionsgate film. And boy are they excited — one Lionsgate rep tells THR that “discovering new talent is always exciting,” while another chimes in by teaching us that “VH1 has had a tremendous track record in launching alternative programming that captures viewers' imaginations.” Yes, yes it does! Our brains have been expanded by Viacom's ongoing carnival featuring women degrading themselves in hot tubs and music execs attempting to Make A Band, Any Band Will Do quarter after quarter. But with a reputable horror studio behind Scream Queens and the fact that scary movies have launched more than a few major careers, this one may put its You’re The One That I Want and It Factor predecessors to shame. We look back at five recent Next Big Thing reality shows in an effort to place our bets:

Held last night in New York and scheduled to air next Thursday, Bravo's A-List Awards are billed as a night celebrating "the best in Food, Fashion, Beauty, Design and Weatherman Lap-Dance Dispensation." BravoTV.com has already started building buzz by leaking highlights online, including Lauren Hutton acceptance speech for a "beauty icon" award. In it, she first admits to having been "up for 46 hours," before launching into a stream-of- sleep- deprived-consciousness which encompassed, in no particular order, her thoughts of guacamole-preparation, the ozone layer, and the promiscuity-engendering properties of testosterone. So confounding was her monologue that during the commercial break, it took the combined efforts of Tom Colicchio, Santino Rice, and Carson Kressley just to pry apart the paralyzed furrows in a deeply perplexed Tim Gunn's brow. [BravoTV.com]

For any of you out there who still don’t “get” Kathy Griffin, we now present you with a single clip that will effectively prompt a lifelong love affair with the red-headed, fast-talking, Scientology-bashing spark plug of an entertainer that she is. On the Today Show this morning, giggly Al Roker had the pleasure of speaking with Kathy about her upcoming hosting job of Bravo’s inaugural A-List Awards and not-so-innocently asked her if there was really anything she wouldn’t do on camera, considering her reputation as a truthiness-telling comedienne who never holds back. What followed was a delicious and epic moment in television history, during which Roker was given a lap dance, off-screen staffers were overheard gasping, and images of a Roker/Matt Lauer/Halle Berry threesome in “the big bed” were thrust into our collective imagination.

Jackie Warner, star of Bravo's Workout and lesbian fantasy girlfriend to straight women everywhere, is in trouble for being mean on the show and getting called "a negative icon to the gay community." In response to complaints from Warner's former fans, salty green water purveyor and Workout sponsor Gatorade is ending its relationship with the program. The sports-drink giant told the angry mob: "We have notified Bravo we no longer wish to be associated with The Workout and will be pulling our commercials. Furthermore, we will not renew our sponsorship of this program in subsequent seasons." But wait! A new sponsor has stepped forward!

Jackie Warner, the personal trainer star of Bravo's reality show Workout and popular fantasy girlfriend of straight women, is facing a fan backlash for acting rude on the show. They're calling for a boycott! Apparently she fired a guy named Peeler (rudely), and now she's being branded as a "negative icon to the gay community." Harsh! Shouldn't that type of forceful condemnation be reserved for, you know, Perez Hilton? [LA Rag Mag]

Will cable network Lifetime ruin reality fashion television forever when it takes over Project Runway from Bravo later this year, de-snarking the show on behalf of overearnest spinsters and partnering with a third-tier fashion magazine? Bravo is working hard to make sure it doesn't have the chance. First it sued to stop the show from moving. Now Bravo owner NBC Universal has cut a deal with Runway's longtime executive producers for new shows. The deal would presumably enable Bravo to create something very similar to Runway if its lawsuit fails, assuming the poached producers never signed anything that would prevent a Runway copycat. In any case, the producers are definitely done with their old show. Reports the Wall Street Journal:

As Variety reports today, MTV just greenlit eight episodes of a new reality show called The Search For Elle Woods, in which ten blonde hopefuls will compete to play the lead in Broadway's version of Legally Blonde. Reminiscent of NBC's You're The One That I Want, that high-kicking monstrosity in which amateur dancing, singing, crying, laughing Great White Way hopefuls danced their little hearts out for the chance to star in last year's revival of Grease, this one will thankfully rely on judges instead of America to determine the winner. But after hearing the details behind MTV's production plans, our initial sense is that the summer series will be utterly unwatchable. Three reasons why this show should not go on, after the jump:

Joshua David Stein is back briefly to talk about Bravo's Top Chef whose eighth episode aired last night. As has been much chewed over, Lifetime, a channel for femiladies recently bought Bravo's Project Runway, a show for gays and also anyone else who is fierce and worthwhile. Fears have been raised, as mentioned in an article by former Gawker Mama Rose Doree Shafrir, that the show's edginess will be transmuted into some life-affirming pastiche of pastel Hallmark aphorisms and dime-store candy. This is probably true. But, last we heard, Top Chef was still property of Bravo television which is why last night's episode didn't make any sense: it was cheap; it was cliché; it was precious; it was pap. Also, is Gail Simmons pregnant?

The migration of Project Runway from Bravo to Lifetime is getting ugly, and not Harvey Weinstein ugly — partition of India ugly. The fashion show won't actually move until November, but things are already bad, so bad, between the trendsetting supergays who TiVO Bravo and the spinster homebodies who drink white zinfandel until they pass out on their cats in front of Lifetime. Wrote a commenter on Dlisted: "Being on Lifetime ... automatically makes [Runway] not cool, trendy, or creative. Bravo is funny and gay. Lifetime is timid and stodgy." Doree Shafrir's mom at the Observer rounded up other examples of anti-Lifetime fearmongering by Runway fans, then quoted a Lifetime VP saying, "We care about women — we put them first." PUT WOMEN AHEAD OF GAY MEN, HUH?? Oh, it's on, and even the inevitable Chistian Siriano-mediated peace talks may not be able to turn it off. A bullet-point summary of each side's strategic strengths, distilled from the Observer piece by a party not directly involved in the dispute, after the jump.

Remember when The Learning Channel was proudly cheesy? Back when they featured all those low-budget Baby Stories and Wedding Stories and any kind of Story that would set housewives' hearts aflutter? Well, it looks like those TLC-loving housewives are in store for something a bit more glamorous. According to the NY Daily News, diamond-drenched new mother of twins Jennifer Lopez is gearing up to invite us into her and vampire-like husband Marc Anthony's home to "deliver a slice of [Lopez's] life that audiences have never seen before, as she takes on her career and launches a new fragrance while trying to juggle her new responsibilities as a first-time mom." While we couldn't be more excited to watch Lopez cook enchiladas that Anthony will eventually purge, we're noticing a trend. Namely, that previously straight-laced networks like TLC and Lifetime have taken notice of Bravo's success and, thus, are beginning to follow their bold footsteps by greenlighting programs that strongly appeal to the gay and lesbian community.

Our culture cannot be so debased as to give a television platform to a woman who pretends to be a Star magazine journalist, one who claims to design handbags, and the third an heir to a Sun Microsystems dynasty that we've never heard of. But, of course, it has. That rumored reality television project, one of the few things that Star's Julia Allison has ever kept secret, has been greenlit by Bravo, we're told by people familiar with the cable network. The show, tentatively called IT Girls, begins shooting this summer.

The Circle of Vaguely Latino-Looking Reality Stars With Gay Porn Pasts continues with news (and accompanying suite of fleshy, very NSFW photos) that Step It Up & Dance contestant Michael, described by Bravo's official site as living by the motto, "life is my canvas, the beat is my soul, crank it up and watch me roll," has applied that same vigorous enthusiasm towards his modeling work on LatinBoyz.com. Despite The Ashton Cruz Zoo blog's semi-hysterical assessment of the photos as a "GAY PORN SCANDAL!!!," however, we doubt anyone tuning in to a dance contest hosted by Elizabeth "I'm Not a Whore" Berkley would be entirely shocked to learn that any one of the talented contestants might have at some other point impressed a different set of judges with the sheer technical skill of their tripoded pliés.

Some days we're so full of love for Harvey Weinstein that our weak, arrhythmic blogger hearts nearly explode. It was one thing last week when he brazenly moved Project Runway to Lifetime, pulling the rug out from a supposedly unwitting NBC. It was another thing entirely on Monday when Harvey rolled the rug up and started whacking NBC boss Jeff Zucker over the head with it:

Many and many straight, married gals get all hot and woozy when they watch sinewy lesbian Jackie Warner flex that sweaty six-pack on Bravo's reality show Work Out. "Andy Cohen, senior vice president of programming and production for Bravo, said: 'Straight women across the country are not only obsessed with the show, they are obsessed with Jackie.' Obsessed? 'I cannot tell you how many of the e-mails that we got from last year's ‘Work Out' reunion that were women saying, ‘I am married. I have never looked at another woman. I have a huge crush on Jackie,' Mr. Cohen said." But Jackie's all, meh.

Spring 2008 hasn't been kind to Harvey Weinstein and his little production company. First, his close friend Anthony Minghella passed away (prompting a highly critical piece penned by New York Magazine film critic David Edelstein), then he butted heads with the Marley family over his planned biopic on the reggae singer, and now the portly producer finds himself at the center of NBC and Lifetime's battle for Project Runway. Moments after Lifetime announced their five-year $150 million deal with the Weinstein Co. to take over the helm of Bravo's signature show, Jeff Zucker and his peacocked lawyers immediately responded by suing Harvey and his goons for breach-of-contract. And insiders at NBC aren't keeping mum about their feelings towards the money-hungry Weinstein: