FROM THE CAT WALK TO THE CHAT WALK: 'PROJECT RUNWAY' GOES MOBILE WITH NEW TEXT MESSAGING INITIATIVE

FROM THE CAT WALK TO THE CHAT WALK: 'PROJECT RUNWAY' GOES MOBILE WITH NEW TEXT MESSAGING INITIATIVE

'Adopt-a-Character' Campaign Allows Fans To Interact With Their Favorite Designer and Download Wallpaper And Voicetones; Launch of campaign pegged to Emmy-Nominated Series Premiere on Wednesday, July 12 on Bravo

NEW YORK - July 10, 2006 - If you want to know what Project Runway designers are thinking when host Heidi Klum says, "You're out", look no further than BravoTV.com and your mobile phone. Timed to coincide with the highly-anticipated Wednesday, July 12 season three premiere of the four-time Emmy-nominated "Project Runway", Bravo will launch an extensive mobile messaging effort that gives fans a chance to hear personal messages from the participants in the Emmy-nominated series. The announcement was made today by Lisa Hsia, Senior Vice President, New Media, Bravo

Beginning Wednesday, July 12, fans will have the option of receiving three in-show text messages per week from all of the contestants. This Project Runway sneak peek will reveal all there is to know about what's really happening behind the scenes and can be accessed free of charge by texting "PR" to 27286.

Then, beginning Wednesday, August 9, fans can step up the interaction with their personal favorites through the "Adopt-A-Character" program at BravoTV.com. For $1.99 per month, viewers can "adopt" their favorite designer, and receive three text messages per week from the designer, and a chance to hear their innermost thoughts as the series' action unfolds. Viewers can "adopt" more than one designer at a time with each additional fee. The $1.99 fee will also allow fans to access a special downloadable option (a wallpaper of the contestant in the first month, a special "voicetone" in the second month) in addition to the in-show messages. Once your favorite contestant has been eliminated, the personal messages will stop, but other contestants can be "adopted" at any time for an additional $1.99 per character. Viewers who remain part of the winning contestant's texting fan club until the end of the series will be awarded a special to-be-named Project Runway downloadable.

For those who want even more details about the designers, host Heidi Klum, design mentor Tim Gunn or the challenges presented to the contestants, the Project Runway WAP site features bios, topical and episodic polls, a mobile store and EXCLUSIVE behind-the-scenes photos and Q & A's with the contestants. Fans can access the site by texting 'BRAVO' to 27286 ('BRAVO').

"Project Runway is absolutely made for this kind of campaign," noted Hsia. "Our viewers are incredibly passionate about this show and they have an insatiable appetite when it comes to knowing every single detail about our designers, challenges, host and judges."

In addition to record setting ratings, "Project Runway" continues to drive traffic to the BravoTV.com site. Since its launch, the series has garnered an impressive 87 million page views and 2.2 million unique visitors and remains one of the most popular sites on the web. Tim Gunn's "Take Section" on BravoTV.com alone garnered 9.1 million page views and the "Tim's Take Podcasts" have gotten 600,000 downloads.

The "Project Runway" series is co-produced by The Weinstein Company and Miramax Television. Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz of Magical Elves ("Project Greenlight," "Last Comic Standing") are executive producers of "Project Runway." Rich Bye is also an executive producer of "Project Runway" for Magical Elves. Heidi Klum is host and executive produce. Desiree Gruber and Jane Cha of Full Picture are also executive producers. Barbara Schneeweiss oversees the production on behalf of The Weinstein Company.

Bravo is the cable network that plugs people into arts, entertainment and pop culture with original programming, acclaimed drama series, movies, comedy and music specials, and by showing a whole different side of celebrities. Currently available in more than 80 million homes, Bravo is known for breaking exciting new personalities, shaking up the way we look at style, media, fame and Hollywood, pulling back the curtain on the creative process and making influential and inventive original programming. Its critically acclaimed and award-winning original programming includes "Blow Out", "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List", "Inside the Actors Studio," "Celebrity Poker Showdown," as well as the 2004 Emmy winner for Outstanding Reality Program, "Queer Eye" and the Emmy-nominated hit competition series, "Project Runway."

Bravo is a program service of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment, a division of NBC Universal one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Bravo has been a NBC Cable Network since December 2002 and was the first television service dedicated to film and the performing arts when it launched in December 1980. For more information visit www.bravotv.com.