Mark your DVR reminder calendar. (What, you guys don’t have one of those? It’s actually quite helpful, especially in this jam-packed season of Lifetime Christmas movies.)

After announcing the show would be pushed to 2012 days before its initial November premiere date, Lifetime has finally found a way to “make it work” for Project Runway All Stars. (Sigh. Saying that just reminds me that Tim Gunn won’t be involved in this season, and that will never “work” for me.)

The series, which features thirteen of the most memorable non-winning designers from past seasons, will premiere Thursday, January 5 at 9pm on Lifetime. And those designers are:

  • Kenley Collins (Brooklyn, NY) – Season Five, Second Runner-up
  • Michael Costello (Palm Springs, CA) – Season Eight, Fourth Place
  • Gordana Gehlhausen (San Diego, CA) – Season Six, Fourth Place
  • Mondo Guerra (Denver, CO) – Season Eight, Runner-up
  • Mila Hermanovski (Los Angeles, CA) – Season Seven, Second Runner-up
  • Kara Janx (New York, NY) – Season Two, Fourth Place
  • Elisa Jimenez (New York, NY) – Season Four, 10th Place
  • April Johnston (Savannah, GA) – Season Eight, Fifth Place
  • Rami Kashou (Los Angeles, CA) – Season Four, Runner-up
  • Austin Scarlett (New York, NY) – Season One, Fourth Place
  • Jerell Scott (New York, NY) – Season Five, Fourth Place
  • Sweet P/Kathleen Vaughn (Pasadena, CA) – Season Four, Fifth Place
  • Anthony Williams (Atlanta, GA) – Season Seven, Fifth Place

Despite missing Heidi, Tim, Michael and Nina, the All Star season boasts its own star-studded panel: host supermodel Angela Lindvall, world-famous designers Isaac Mizrahi and Georgina Chapman as judges and fashion tastemaker and mentor, Marie Claire Editor-in-Chief Joanna Coles. Guest judges for the season will include the iconic Miss Piggy (Muppet mania lives on!), supermodel Miranda Kerr and producer Pharrell Williams.

And with the All-Star season comes an all-star prize package. The winner of PRAS (what an ugly acronym for such a fabulous show!) will win an exclusive designer’s boutique in select Neiman Marcus stores and on NeimanMarcus.com, $100,000 dollars in technology and office space to help grow their business from HP and Intel, $100,000 cash from L’Oreal Paris, a feature spread in Marie Claire, for which he or she will serve as a guest editor for one year, and a sewing and embroidery studio provided by Brother International.

That’s a whole lot of incentive to do whatever it takes to send the fiercest garments down the runway. And sew it begins…

Who will you be rooting for when Project Runway All Stars premieres January 5?

(Image courtesy of Lifetime)

Meghan Carlson

Senior Writer, BuddyTV

Meghan hails from Walla Walla, WA, the proud home of the world’s best sweet onions and Adam West, the original Batman. An avid grammarian and over-analyzer, you can usually find her thinking too hard about plot devices in favorites like The Office, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and How I Met Your Mother. In her spare time, Meghan enjoys drawing, shopping, trying to be funny (and often failing), and not understanding the whole Twilight thing. She’s got a BA in English and Studio Art from Whitman College, which makes her a professional arguer, daydreamer, and doodler.