Project Runway’s ratings increasing rapidly; Austin is not “completely gay.”

Project Runway’s ratings increasing rapidly; Austin is not “completely gay.”
Bravo has another sleeper hit in Project Runway, its Heidi Klum-hosted clothing designer competition series. Critics are calling it “addictive” and a “guilty pleasure”, and ratings have been increasing exponentially in recent weeks. The January 4 episode had strong ratings, “jumping 323 percent above the show’s 18-49 and 256 percent above the 25-54 viewer totals of a week earlier,” a press release said. That episode “averaged 732,000 adult 18-49 viewers, up dramatically from the previous premiere episode’s total of 173,000.” But last week’s episode had 1.178 million viewers, a huge jump of about one million viewers. A Bravo release says it was “the second-highest telecast of the season for Bravo in 18-49.”

In addition to generating ratings, the series has a cast that’s generating its own buzz. One of the show’s stars, if he’s not the star, is 23-year-old Austin Scarlett. Despite his flamboyance (The Guardian called him “A cross between Quentin Crisp and a pipe cleaner,” which just barely begins to describe it), Austin isn’t gay. Well, not completely. “I’ve had girlfriends in the past. I think everyone always assumes that I’m completely gay, and I do identify myself with the gay community, but I don’t know. I know this sounds very cliche, but I’ve never even considered that to be a real issue for me. I just am who I am,” he told Time Out New York, according to blog Timmy Ray. Meanwhile, designer Kevin Johnn apparently has a profile on a web site for finding Russian brides. What this means, I have no idea.

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