The Thursday, October 12 episode featured one of its most shocking eliminations as one contestant, who was named as the winner of last week's challenge, was booted after proven cheating.
- Oct 13, 2017
AceShowbiz - The Thursday, October 12 episode of "Project Runway" season 16 featured one of the Lifetime show's most shocking eliminations. It didn't take long time for viewers to get the answer of things which were left on cliffhanger in the previous episode, which saw designer Michael Brambila walking off the runway after host Heidi Klum announced Claire Buitendorp as that week's winner as the shocking elimination was done in the first 15 minutes. Crazy!
It turned out that Claire was unfairly recreating designs, according to fellow contestant Margarita Alvarez. After the situation was explained to Heidi, judges Zac Posen and Nina Garcia as well as guest judges Yolanda Hadid and Sophia Stallone, Heidi stood by the initial result and announced that contestant Batani-Khalfani was out.
In the waiting room, Michael tried to explain to Claire that he's just overly passionate about design and wanted everyone to play fair, before Claire unexpectedly outed herself. She admitted she measured a tank top for the Good and Evil challenge, much to her own downfall. Tim Gunn, who entered the room shortly after, caught Claire red handed.
Tim confronted Claire over the cheating scandal by asking her, "Is it true that you've had a measuring tape in your room?" and "Is it true that you've been measuring garments in your room?" to which Claire answered yes to both questions. "All right, Claire, we must rescind your win and send you home," Tim said.
And just like that, Claire was eliminated. Batani returned to the competition and Brandon was named the winner of the challenge.
"I'm very regretful that I even considered holding onto something I shouldn't have had," Claire said of her being booted. " 'Project Runway' has been something I wanted to be a part of since I watched it when I was in my early teens. These are the worst possible circumstances to leave this competition. But that's how my story's going to end."
