PASADENA, Calif. — At a time when millions are sheltering in place — laid off from jobs or working from home without a reason to change out of pajamas — Amazon’s “Making the Cut,” streaming Friday, offers escapism made more enticing by the show’s stars: Former “Project Runway” mainstays Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum.
With two episodes debuting each Friday through the April 24 season finale, Amazon’s “Making the Cut” is more international — contestants are from countries worldwide with episodes set in Paris and later Tokyo — and supremely self-indulgent.
While some viewers complain about too many commercials, streaming series can hang themselves when given a more leisurely running time. “Making the Cut” indulges in watching contestants in forced sightseeing outings and forced conversation as Tim and Heidi go on a “date night” to the Moulin Rouge. And that’s after an introduction where they break the fourth wall, cooing to viewers about their excitement over their new show.
Yes, a bigger Amazon budget is evident with all the travels and eye-popping settings for runway shows (the first one uses the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop) but that’s all gingerbread atop what viewers tune in to see: designers and their creations.
The good news is the fashion competition at the heart of “Making the Cut,” as in “Project Runway,” remains strong. The competitors are mostly serious designers. They’re not gimmicky distractions to be laughed off stage (except maybe one).
The prize is bigger than “Project Runway” ($1 million on Amazon’s new show) and the eliminations are staged somewhat differently. Instead of being “in or out,” designers are either told they’re “making the cut” or not.
Despite episodes with long-ish running times, “Making the Cut” doesn’t show the judges offering post-runway critiques to every designer, just the top two and bottom two.
As head of the judging panel, which includes Nicole Richie and Naomi Campbell, Klum tells contestants the judges have already conferred and basically decided contestants’ fates, but she encourages them to try to change their minds, saying, “A conversation can change everything.”
The biggest difference from “Project Runway” is that designers, now with the help of a seamstress, create two outfits each week: one runway, one ready-to-wear with the latter available for purchase on Amazon.com.
“Finally our audience can shop,” Klum said in January at an Amazon news conference during the Television Critics Association winter 2020 press tour. “That was very important for me that we’re gonna go with a company, such as Amazon … in order to have that component for these designers, because that was never possible before. You see something, you want it, but you can’t have it. So here, you have a winning look every week and people can buy it around the world.”
Gunn said if “Project Runway” was the undergrad program, “Making the Cut” is the graduate or Ph.D. program.
“In ‘Project Runway’ we talk about how a sleeve is set into a bodice — you don’t hear a conversation like that happening on ‘Making the Cut,’” Gunn said. “It’s more about how does this mini-collection you’ve designed for this particular episode’s assignment fit into your larger view of your brand? And it really is about finding the next global brand. And we do.”
More COVID-19 TV fallout
Late last week AMC pushed back the April 12 premiere of two-season limited series “Walking Dead: World Beyond” to an undetermined date later this year. In addition, AMC says current events won’t allow for post-production completion on the season finale of “The Walking Dead,” meaning season 10 will end with what was intended as its penultimate episode on April 5.
The Daytime Emmys, set for June, have been postponed indefinitely while the Academy of Country Music Awards, originally set for April 5, have been moved to 8 p.m. Sept. 16. A new date has not been announced for CBS’s Tony Awards telecast, previously set for June 7.
Earlier this month filmmaker Ken Burns announced his “Baseball” series was available for streaming at PBS.org and on the PBS app. Now PBS has also added “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History,” which will be followed by Burns’ “The National Parks” (June 11) and “The War” (July 23).
CBS All Access, home to “Star Trek: Picard,” “Star Trek: Discovery,” “The Good Fight” and filmed-in-Pittsburgh “One Dollar,” has expanded its seven-day free trial to 30 days for new subscribers (use promo code GIFT).
Amazon Prime Video opened a collection of children’s programming — including “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” “Peg + Cat” and “Odd Squad” from Pittsburgh’s Fred Rogers Productions — for free to those who do not subscribe to Amazon Prime (to access you’ll need a free Amazon account).
Fox will air the “iHeart Living Room Concert for America” (9-10 p.m. Sunday, WPGH-TV), hosted by Elton John and featuring Alicia Keys, Backstreet Boys, Billie Eilish, Billie Joe Armstrong, Mariah Carey and Tim McGraw broadcasting from their own homes CBS’s ”Homefest: James Corden’s Late Late Show Special” (10 p.m. Monday, KDKA-TV) will be broadcast from Corden’s garage featuring John Legend, Will Ferrell, BTS and David Blaine, among others.
NBC’s ”New Amsterdam” shifts to 9 p.m. Tuesday next week, wrapping its season on April 14 after dropping a flu pandemic-themed episode. Production shut down three episodes short of the show’s full-season order due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” returns with new episodes next week produced remotely by the show’s staff and crew.
Ratings for all kinds of television – from local news (up 8% in Pittsburgh the week of March 9 per broadcastingcable.com) to streamer HBO Now (up 40%) – continue to rise since social distancing and stay-at-home orders began in localities across the country in mid-March.
Channel surfing
Subscription streaming service Hulu is now available on Comcast’s Xfinity Flex and will be rolled out on X1 in the coming weeks. … Netflix renewed reality shows “Rhythm + Flow” (for season two), “The Circle” and “Love is Blind” (both for seasons two and three) and ordered a new Marie Kondo series. In “Sparking Joy” Kondo will tidy one small town (details at tidymytown.com).
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