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Lifetime isn't going to just sit and watch Project Runway pass it by.

The female-favoring cable network has filed suit against Bravo parent NBC Universal, which in September successfully blocked Lifetime from going ahead with its planned winter premiere of the Peabody-winning competition series.

Now, of all the fashion faux pas, it's looking as if the show's sixth season won't begin until summer 2009, despite the fact that the entire Los Angeles-set cycle, minus two episodes, has already been shot.

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The seams of Project Runway are unraveling at record pace.

In seasons past, the only allegations of sabotage to emerge from the hit reality series stemmed from the designers themselves. But the wannabe couturiers apparently have nothing on the cutthroat conniving taking place offscreen—at least judging by new court documents courtesy of the Weinstein Co.

In a 23-page counterclaim filed in New York Federal Court Friday, the series' production company accused Runway's lame-duck network, Bravo, of intentionally failing to properly promote the fifth season of the reality hit and is seeking unspecified damages as a result.

Can't they all just get along make it work?

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File under: Why Lifetime Is Making a Federal Case Over Project Runway.

Last week's Leanne-Marshall-blue-gown-graced finale, as aired on Bravo, outdrew everything on Lifetime. And on the CW. Plus, some stragglers on Fox and NBC, and all reality and scripted shows on cable, save a special prime-time SpongeBob SquarePants.

If you added in the show's two finale-night reruns—and Bravo did for press-release purposes—Runway's audience swelled from 4.8 million to 7.2 million.

The just-concluded fifth season went down as the series' highest rated yet, as lawyers for Bravo—and now Lifetime—could probably attest.

Elsewhere, the numbers have gone from not so good to very bad for My Own Worst Enemy, plus nine other tidbits from the latest ratings stats: 

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The clothes changed a few times, but the attitudes remained the same.

Leanne said Kenley's looks were too "Holly Hobby" and amateurish for Bryant Park, while Kenley said that Leanne didn't know how to use color and had brought a boring collection to New York Fashion Week. And Korto thought that Korto had really nailed it.

But, personal opinions be damned, only one snazzy sticher-upper was named the winner of the fifth season of Project Runway tonight after the first all-female finale in series history. And considering plans for the series' move to Lifetime have unraveled like Jerell's chances of launching a bridal collection, we may as well soak up the couture while we can.

Hauteiness and all...

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That's it. You watched the Project Runway finale, read the recap and felt the warmth of Tim Gunn's embrace. Now it's up to you. Were you totally thrilled by the outcome, or did you think one of the other two designers should be cruising off in that hybrid vehicle?

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It's down to three designers.

We won't say which three—unless you go into the comments (in which case all bets are off). It was a pretty good episode, full of tears, surprise challenges and a shocking—to us, anyway—conclusion courtesy of judges Heidi Klum, Michael Kors and Nina Garcia.

Oh, and Tim Gunn riding a tandem bicycle, which was priceless.

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Fingers crossed the parties embroiled in Project Runway's network-jumping litigation will take the advice of Tim Gunn and make it work. Otherwise, it may not be just the losing designers we'll be bidding auf Wiedersehen.

The show could take upward of a year to return to the small screen following next week's fifth-season finale, according to the Los Angeles Times, because of legal wrangling between producers and networks.

The Weinstein Company was expecting to jump ship, taking Project Runway and a planned spinoff, Models of the Runway, to Lifetime, but the New York State Supreme Court put the kibosh on the plans, granting the Bravo-owning NBC Universal's injunction to temporarily block the show from airing on another network.

The move has not only left Project Runway—which is already well into production on its sixth season—without a network, but without a timeline.

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Leave aside the outcome—or better yet, discuss it in the comments—but this final-four episode featured some of the best critiques from judges Heidi Klum, Michael Kors and Nina Garcia we've heard all season, as well as an abundance of eye-rolling dismay from Kenley and others.

And then the tears. So, so many tears.

But quotes are easier to read, so take the poll and tell us which one was your favorite—and be sure to offer up some of your own in the comments.

Barbara Nitke/BRAVO

As Heidi Klum says, in the world of fashion one day you're in, the next you're out. Lifetime is learning that lesson the hard way.

A judge has granted NBC Universal a preliminary injunction that prevents the Weinstein Co. from moving Project Runway from NBCU-owned Bravo to Lifetime next year.

"NBC Universal is pleased that the court granted our motion for a preliminary injunction against the Weinstein Company," the media powerhouse said in a statement.

"The overwhelming evidence demonstrated that the Weinstein Company violated NBC Universal's right of first refusal to future cycles of Project Runway. After hearing all of the evidence, the court issued an order prohibiting the Weinstein Company from taking the show or any spinoff to Lifetime."

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