There’s much talk about PROJECT RUNWAY not airing a new season for a while thanks to the 5,432 lawsuits circling the show right now, and I have to say… that ain’t necessarily a bad thing.

Let’s face it, when it comes to television shows — like everything else — absence can truly make the heart grow fonder. With WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE, ABC learned the hard way how easy it is to take a show from heavenly hit to premature burial by proving that there is, in fact, such a thing as too much of a good thing. And while the producers of RUNWAY haven’t yet run the premise into the ground, this past season was, at best, lackluster. Maybe taking a year off wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

One of the things that has always made SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE such a pleasure is that it only rolls around once a year, making it a summer treat we truly look forward to. The same has been true of BIG BROTHER (with the exception of this past year, when two cycles ran practically back-to-back due to the writers strike).

So yes, saying a temporary “auf Wiedersehen” to Heidi and company isn’t necessarly a bad thing. For now, we’ll file PROJECT RUNWAY under “gone, but not forgotten,” and look forward to welcoming it back… eventually.