One thing we nearly forgot about this holiday season: The sourpatch of what remains of Project Runway, which the Weinsten Company tried to oust from NBC to bring to a more profitably Lifetime. And while no decision has yet been made, Lifetime is bracing for the worst.

In an economy where cash is king, Lifetime is being forced to advertisers who bought airtime during what was supposed to be November, then January, now who knows' debut.

Last summer, with no reason to believe that "Runway" would not air on the network, Lifetime sold it in the upfront for premium CPMs. Since then, the network has become entangled in a legal morass.

How much the current give-backs will affect its business was partly detailed in court papers the network filed. A failure to air the show–either in January or ever–will leave Lifetime "deprived of vital advertising commitments," the papers said.

Lifetime had planned to launch the show in November, but had moved the debut to next month.

For networks, having to give cash back is a bête noire. As a rule, they look for ways to keep the dollars in-house–to offer advertisers additional impressions or some other form of makegoods.

But in this case, Lifetime may have been caught between a rock (the uniqueness of "Runway") and a hard place (a sputtering economy) that has left it needing to accede to advertiser requests. [MediaPost]