It’s not often that the host or mentor of a reality competition series will straight-up talk about hating a particular season, but Project Runway’s Tim Gunn has always been a straight shooter. In a recent interview, the longtime mentor revealed that shooting this fall’s Season 14 was brutal. Here’s why he hated everything about shooting this season:
I’m telling you... I hated Season 14. Their audition videos from home, you know, they’re sitting by a pool, they’re taking us into their closet with all their designer clothes, and I just thought, they’re not hungry!
Over the course of its run, some seasons have featured contestants who are more innovative then others. Whether the contestants are good or not so good, Gunn has always been on hand to offer advice—of both the friendly and blunt variety—and to help the competitors when the going gets rough. But if there’s one thing that Tim Gunn hates, it is unmotivated whiners. There’s a reason his catchphrase is “make it work,” and apparently the contestants during Season 14 just weren’t cutting it.
Gunn also told EW that part of the problem may have been his lack of involvement in the auditions this season.
I wasn’t at the auditions [this] season for the first time ever, and I blame myself, because I wouldn’t have put up with a lot of it.
Honestly, since we don’t get every moment with the contestants, it’s hard to tell what many of them have been doing that could irritate him so much. I mean, yeah, there have been plenty of mistakes this season when contestants have not understood the challenges or attempted designs they weren’t comfortable with. (Remember Lindsey’s disaster during the Finding Neverland challenge?) But this kind of thing has happened during many, many seasons of Project Runway, although I will say the abundance of pasty use this season has been a bit overboard.
Gunn does admit that not everyone was crap and that there were a couple of competitors he really liked. Since Season 14 has technically not finished its run on Lifetime at this point, it’s hard to tell if he’s talking about the likes of Kelly and Edmond, who have had a bunch of wins this season, or if he liked the attitudes of a couple of contestants who have already been kicked off the show. Although since Edmond received Gunn’s save, I’m betting he’s on Gunn’s “nice” list.
If you’d like to tune in to find out who takes it all, you can catch the Season 14 Project Runway finale this week. Project Runway’s finale airs this Thursday at 9 p.m. ET, only on Lifetime.
