"Project Runway" returns for another round on Lifetime this week but changes are in store as the reality mainstay expands its format to 90-minute episodes.

When it premieres its eighth season Thursday, "Project Runway" will move to 9 p.m. and expand its running time to 90 minutes. That comes as little surprise: Ratings for the show were down in season seven, its second season on Lifetime, with 2.9 million watching the premiere episode compared to 4.7 million who tuned in to see the season six premiere. The show's peak came in for an episode in its third season when 5.4 million viewers tuned in.

Host Heidi Klum says the show's format will not change; when stories naturally run longer, those segments of the program will be longer.

"It's not like we have to do 15 minutes of sewing, 10 minutes of judging," she said in a teleconference last week. "We might show more of the Q&A in one episode or more of when we're doing our chat in the director's chairs. Sometimes it's so intense and there's much back and forth, so there may be more of that. It really takes a natural journey on each episode of what we'll show more of."

More time also gives the show more opportunity to lay the groundwork for why judges make the decisions they make.

"I'll often hear, 'We don't understand why you picked that person over this person,'" Klum said. "Elimination day is all day and can go on four or five hours, but in the show it's only 10 or 15 minutes. This gives us the freedom to show certain things longer than we could before."

("Models of the Runway," a spin-off series, will not be back.)

Klum said the new season will not shy away from "big personalities" among the contestants.

"One designer always wears very over-the-top clothes and looks very funny," she said without naming the new, peacocking contestant. "We have a chuckle when we see him coming onto the runway. It's a great batch of designers. Very opinionated, a strong team. It's a real battle between four or five designers that are very good, which I love. It makes it more interesting."

After so many seasons, Klum said it is a chore to come up with new design tasks for the contestants, but she said everyone on the show pitches ideas. One challenge she suggested involves the designers making outfits to go with a Philip Treacy hat. She got the idea when she ran into the designer at a party.

"He brought 15 of the wildest, most avant-garde hats and each designer chose a different hat and designed something that goes with their hat," she said.

Nowadays, "Project Runway" clones litter cable channels, most notably Bravo's "Work of Art," which uses a pretty identical format and is from the original "Runway" producers. Klum said she's not concerned.

"I think in a way it's a pat on our back," she said. "It is a compliment. When we started the show eight seasons ago there wasn't anything like it. Ultimately if other people do a better job, we have to be on our toes and make sure to come up with great challenges and make sure we give our viewers our take on the show and make it better and better. I don't see it as a negative at all. ... Even if you're a successful show, you have to work very hard to stay on top."

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