Sarah Jessica Parker apparently enjoyed her guest judging stint on Project Runway, she’s moving to produce her own reality competition series according to Variety:

Sarah Jessica Parker’s Pretty Matches shingle is teaming with reality factory Magical Elves to create a “Project Runway”-type show for the art world.

Potential skein would pit a dozen aspiring artists against one another, following the group as they attempt to produce various kinds of artwork — from painting and photography to sculpting and industrial design. Pieces would be rated by a panel of judges, as well as by the contestants themselves.

I actually am completely addicted to Project Runway. The challenges remind me of the types of strange assignments that you’re given as a student in an art related field (I was in film and photography, my husband studied architecture) and the contestants have a lot of real talent. Add Tim Gunn, stir, and you have a great product.

Top Chef actually managed to replicate the formula. The chefs are talented, and Tom Collichio is a winner. The challenges seem a little more random, but still all in good fun. But after Top Chef, the whole idea seemed to go downhill quickly. Top Design? Shear Genius? It’s just not really capturing the original spirit.

So not only am I not impressed with the idea of another reality competition show from the same people, but I’m completely baffled by the topic. Art? Forcing artists to do painting, photography, sculpture, etc? Okay, there are a lot of artists out there who can do almost anything they put their minds to. But many of them are naturally talented at one thing or another. Industrial design, photography, and sculpting are entirely different skill sets.

I can’t imagine this show working, or even being remotely interesting to the general public. The “art world” is a rather nebulous place, full of stuff that those outside it don’t really understand (and don’t really want to). This seems like a complete misstep from start to finish.