What's a post-Sex and the City Sarah Jessica Parker to do? Go behind the camera and produce! She's been shopping around the reality series American Artist for a few months and, in Bravo, has finally found herself a buyer.

This is good news for Parker. And bad news for Bravo.

Parker's show will be produced by her Pretty Matches production company and Magical Elves, the power duo Dan of Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz behind every Project Runway so far (but not the Lifetime version). Most anything Magical Elves touches turns to gold, from Runway to Top Chef. (Project Greenlight not so much; they are taking over Top Design.) After the fall out from The Weinstein Company moving Runway to lifetime, Bravo smartly signed Magical Elves to an exclusive production deal at Bravo; Parker's Artist, which was paired with Magical Elves from the beginning, is the first incarnation of the pact. Cutforth and Lipsitz know the genre well, and impeccably execute their so-far full-proof reality competition styling. So it makes sense that Parker's show will be Runway-style, with contestants showing off their artistic creations, with one going home each week. SJP has the right hands involved.

But for Bravo, the series appears to be a misstep. Sure, it will follow the tried-and-true Runway formula, but it's the network's latest desperation act, having exploited every possible avenue — fashion, hair, dance, modeling, interior design, and cooking — and now going to the extreme. As with any of these shows, casting will be a huge factor, but unlike Runway, where the single criteria was "able to make clothes," American Artist could potentially include artists of all mediums, including painters, photographers, sculptors, and knitting grandmothers. Then the show will look more like a hodgepodge of talent, a la, um, America's Got Talent, than the formulaic approach of Runway. What Bravo does have working on its side, however, is the visual nature of the competition. With Top Chef, Bravo and Magical Elves skillfully managed to communicate taste through a visual medium. It'd be hard to screw up a TV show about visuals.

[THR]