How do you let the execs behind your show know that you're pissed about all the sweeping changes that they're making? If you're Cindy McCain critic Tim Gunn and have the uncertainty of what lies ahead for Project Runway, you start sniping away at the brand any opportunity you get.

While Runway's fifth season begins the march to its end on Bravo on Wednesday, Gunn, who has signed to remain with the show when it moves to Lifetime, can be seen planting seeds of negativity:

"We don't have a Christian," says Tim Gunn, "Project Runway's" mentor and style guru, as he considers the latest crop of scissor-happy designers and harks back to last season's wunderkind and breakout star, Christian Siriano, 22.

"Runway's" fifth season, still in production and returning to the airwaves this week, has 16 new contestants, none of whom has grabbed Gunn by his elegant lapels in quite the same way.

"This season has an entirely different DNA," says Gunn. "They're from different parts of the country and their personalities are so potent that I'm exhausted when I leave them. They are excellent as designers and as technicians, but they're doing a lot of second-guessing. They'll say, 'What do you think, Tim Gunn? And what do you think the judges will think?' I feel sort of drained."

Not that Gunn is entirely a Debbie Downer about the show:

Gunn, for one, says he's ready to move on. "After five seasons, I think it's time for us to embrace a new threshold," he says. "As much as I love and would die for the Magical Elves producers, I really am a change agent. I think it can be a healthy thing to have new producers come in and look at this, unencumbered."

[NYP]