How some viewers thought of Gretchen's win, despite not liking her win. Where she had to be shredded into pieces by viewers when she was just taking advice from Michael & Nina to improve her collection.
Korina from Season 13 got this from her fellow designers (minus Char at first) and fans when she broke down on stage after she reveals that she was receiving hate mail from the show's fans telling her she was a terrible person and that she needed to kill herself.
From Season 8: Was Michael Costello playing for the cameras for audience sympathy or was a genuinely misunderstood Nice Guy?
Anya from Season 9. Half of the viewers see her as the deserving and talented winner of her season, while other see her as an overpraisedManipulative Bitch who mostly wins thanks to the other competitors helping her at the workroom.
Sandhaya from Season 13. (Episode 5) After she collected money from the other contestants to buy some fabric in Mood (the only person to did that), some viewers wonder that her finding Tim to soothe her feelings in Episode 2 was genuine or calculating.
Did Kara Saun deserve to win Season 1 and only lose due to the controversy surrounding her shoes? Or did Jay have the superior collection regardless of Kara Saun's shoes?
Between Leanne and Korto, who has the best collection in Season 5?
In Season 13, is Korina's decision to leave the workroom instead of helping Char bad because Korina missed a chance to redeem herself in everybody's eyes or good because Korina avoided a situation that might become ugly?
Was Tim Gunn justified in his irritation with Swapnil for his procrastination habits and admission to not doing his best in the latter half of Season 14, or was he being too hard on a designer who had continually put out good work and only just began to slip up? After that episode was aired, many of the fans reacted with a "That was it?" after Tim's Cluster F-Bomb was advertised as a mayor event, even before the season properly began.
The Season 14 winner is divisive, as some fans think that Ashley's plus sized collection was beautifully done and deserved the win, while others felt that the collection was mediocre compared to Kelly's. It doesn't help that both count as an Ensemble Dark Horse.
Consolation Award: Lotsof people have alleged that Daniel Vosovic's win in the 2009 All-Stars competition was actually a consolation award for his second place finish during Season 2. It didn't help that he had just written a book with a foreword written by Tim Gunn and an interview with guest judge Diane von Furstenberg. On the other hand, Season 5's Korto repeatedly stated that she expected to win the all-star competition as a consolation award for finishing second in her season.
The Fan Favorite award functions as this as well, though, on two occasions, it was given to a designer who also won his or her season. (The award wasn't given for the eighth series, apparently because snubbing Mondo Guerra was very on-trend that season.)
The announcement that Season 17 was returning to Bravo. The initial reaction was positive, since it's agreed amongst fans and casual viewers that the best seasons of the show were 1 to 5, right before the show migrated to Lifetime. But then the reception turned mixed when it was announced that Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn were leaving, despite Nina García staying, and Christian Siriano stepping up as the mentor.
Creator's Pet: Season 8 winner Gretchen Jones, Season 9 finalist Joshua M.
A better season 9 example is Anya. Many, many viewers predicted her win from day one. Rules have undeniably been bent for her, and garments that would have sent other designers home in a heartbeat didn't even land her in the bottom two. Heidi Klum even said during one judging that she wanted to see Anya win. The judges' weird little conversation, for the benefit of the audience, after making the decision not to eliminate Anya from the final four despite her self-admittedly terrible mini-collection. "Do you feel good about our decision?" "Yeah, I think we made the right choice."
Season 10's Christopher Palu has had this accusation leveled at him, and in the final episode of the season wound up being subverted, since he not only didn't win, he was the first of the final four eliminated and the judges did not mince their words at their disappointment in him.
Anthony Ryan in the All Stars 2 season. It's thought that the judges made him win most of the challenges to give him the prize, although there were more deserving wins for some of the challenges and Anthony's elimination in his original season was widely considered a Shocking Elimination, so some viewers considered it Anthony being Vindicated by History. Recappers Tom and Lorenzo also predicted his win early on for this reason. To be fair, his final collection of 7 is actually decent despite having only 4 days......If you just don't compare it to (mostly) Uli's.
Patricia from Season 11, with Heidi even flat out admitting it. Ultimately does not get her the win due to Nina and Michael overruling Zac and Heidi.
Amanda for the first half from Season 13, she was given a huge share of airtime and was consistently praised by the judges week by week despite some of her designs not being the best.
To the second half, Char. Thanks to the Tim Gunn's save, she simply cannot be eliminated- no matter how her designs are mostly bad and boring.
Sam in All Stars Season 5, at least if you ask the other contestants. At least one judge (often Issac Mizrahi) would praise his designs even when they ended up in the bottom and he always ended up safe.
Critical Dissonance: Fans and judges mostly disagreed on who had the strongest design, but a striking example occurred in Season 9. One of the most prominent Project Runway blogs holds a vote after every episode asking who the fans think should have won the challenge that week. Viktor Luna won this poll five times in a row, but the judges only named him the sole winner of one challenge all season. He also steamrolled the "Who deserved to win the whole season?" poll with 55% (compared with the actual winner, Anya, who received 22%).
The same blog also polls readers on "Who deserved to be auf'd?" every week. Josh M was picked four times but not only didn't get eliminated, he actually took second place for the entire season!
Elimination Houdini: Several, including Santino (Season 2), Blayne (Season 5), Christopher (Season 6), and Josh M (Season 9).
Wendy, bottom 6 times, managed to ride all the way to the finals despite lacking her POV and a manipulative attitude, though the judges didn't even bother to consider her collection when it came to choosing a winner.
To a lesser extent, Austin. Despite having 2 wins, other times he was either safe or in the bottom, as much as Wendy.
Anya, going into Fashion Week in Season 9. The last four designers all had to preview sample outfits from their final collections to determine which three would be contenders for the top prize. Anya's was clearly terrible in concept and execution (which she admitted herself). Instead of eliminating her, they put all four designers through.
Jeffrey in All-Stars 3 has been in the bottom three times in a row for creations the judges just loathe for either being over-thought or just plain unflattering, yet he has been safe each time, possibly just because he previously won Season 3. The third time, with the obvious worst outfit of the bunch (poorly constructed and having his model's breasts and bottom exposed), the judges actually decide to send no one home for no explained reason. He was finally auf'ed at the Marge Simpson challenge, after he won the previous challenge.
Season 13's Char Glover, her getting the "Tim Gunn Save" not really based on her designs up until that point, but just because she was the Nice Guy of the cast. Thereafter, she was mostly a middling performer because her technical skills, and knocks out fellow designers Alexander & Korina who both say outright Char no longer deserved to be there since she was already eliminated. Even more glaring, during the 'Real Women' challenge Char got an unprecedented extra ten minutes to complete her look at the behest of Tim Gunn so that her model would not be exposed and embarrassed, the other designers irritated that Char basically got two Tim Gunn Saves that she did not deserve. note Even Tim has admitted afterwards this decision was a mistake, not so much because he gave Char the extra time (it was moreso because the cast were dressing people off the street and he did not want someone who was not a model to have their body exposed and possibly humiliated), but because he gave Char the time and didn't give it to anyone else. During the reunion he says outright the only fair thing would have been to give 'everyone' an extra 10 minutes, not just Char.
Project Runway All Stars Season 5 has Sam. Many fellow competitors have pointed out that Sam just plays up to the judges' tastes and doesn't put a lot of effort into his work. He has ended up in the bottom more than three times without being eliminated, but even when he sends out a bad design, at least one judge ends up liking it (usually Issac Mizrahi).
Ensemble Dark Horse: Can arguably be a number of designers, but Tim Gunn, originally just an adviser for the designers, has become beloved by fans for his charm, kindness, and insight. And as of Season 8, his willingness to call somebody out on their Jerkass behavior. See Crowning Moment of Awesome.
Dmitry of Season 10 was also this to a section of the fans, and in this case the dark horse won.
Ashley Nell Tipton of Season 14 has become this, so much that her not winning a challenge pushes the fandom's Berserk Button.
The elimination catchphrase itself has a fan nickname, as fans have come to use the term "auf'd" when referring to elimination in general, be it who was eliminated or might be eliminated.
From Season 7, some fans took to referring to Mila Hermanovski and Maya Luz as “Bangs Sisters”, "Bangs the Elder" and "Bangs the Younger", due to their extremely similar bang hairstyles.
As for contestants, Ivy from season 8 has rapidly become known to fans as both Poison Ivy and Hivy, whereas Gretchen is now commonly called Wretchen.
Judge Nina Garcia told a story during the Season 4 reunion about a fan who saw her in the street and called her "Mean-a Gar-zilla".
Recappers Tom & Lorenzo nicknamed the overly-delicate Olivier "Precious Moments."
They also refer to season 10's Sonjia as "Tootie"
In season 10, following Dmitry's My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels moment, many fans have taken to calling Ven the "one way monkey".
And Dmitry himself has been nicknamed "Loki" by much of tumblr; others refer to him as "Professor Snape" or "Comrade Snape." After working with Elena, both were nicknamed “Boris and Natasha.”
Tom and Lorenzo quickly dubbed season 12's Timothy "Sustainicorn" after his self-proclaimed eco-friendly philosophy and self-proclaimed love of unicorns.
Alexandria of season 12 has been called Not!Uli by some fans due to them looking very similar and both being from Germany, to the point that you can confuse the two.
As for Christopher and Gunnar, clearly, Sonjia grabbed them both by their neckbeards and hissed “Go suck each other off in the men’s room if you have to, but I am NOT having you two bitchy white boys with crazy hair fuck up this challenge for me!” It’s the only explanation that made any sense.
Friendly Fandoms: With RuPaul's Drag Race, due to a significant overlap in viewership and both shows featuring a large number of LGBT contestants, plus Santino Rice first came to prominence on this show and several guest judges have appeared on both shows.
Iron Woobie: Anthony Ryan, despite his Keet behavior, hasn't had the easiest life, and in fact survived testicular cancer and as a result only has one testicle. The initial judges were also very impressed when he revealed that he was actually colorblind, which they considered especially extraordinary considering that they wouldn't have guessed unless they told him given the quality of the colors he chooses.
It's Short, So It Sucks!: When the show decided that the contestants have to create an outfit (Which includes gowns, red carpet dresses and pants) in 1 day, because it will strongly reduce the quality of the design made by all contestants bar ones with exceptional sewing skills.
The later seasons have been criticized of doing this a lot more, which resulted in a very boring and uninteresting runway, compared to more fascinating results in the first 5 seasons.
In some countries, it can be worse. Notably in the Israel edition, where the winner admitted that in some challenges they had to do a gown in 6 hours, and a swimwear in 3 hours.
Jerkass Woobie: Both Joshua M and Bert of Season 9 wound up here for some viewers when they talked a bit more about their lives, Joshua by revealing that his mother had died and he hasn't been able to say goodbye to her, and Bert by revealing that he'd lost his partner to AIDS and was a recovering alcoholic. It didn't excuse any of their behavior, but it did make it more obvious what made them tick.
Like You Would Really Do It: Season 14, Episode 12. Many viewers anticipated that Tim will use his save on Edmond, after the elimination in the final challenge. The absence of the eliminated designer's "pack up your stuff" scene was too noticeable.
"Blood orange. She's so pretentious. Shut up, It's fucking red."
From Season 1: "I didn't take the bitch's dye!"
Season 2 has several:
"WHERE THE HELL IS MY CHIFFON?!"note More context: It's still a mystery who yelled it. And also it was said in the middle of a big fight in the workroom. Good Mood Whiplash.
"I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY, NINA!"
"It's a mothafuckin walk off."
"What happened to Andrae?"
"I think this lace in this color is like sea weed that has come out of the swamp." "Thank you." "That's not a compliment." "I didn't take it as a compliment." note 'Nina just got owned' meme. Nina Garcia attempts to insult Christopher Palu's design, only for him to thank her for the critique. She assumes Palu took it as a compliment and tries to get another dig at him, which he immediately shoots down by flatly noting he knew it was not a compliment. Fans love to use this as a sign Nina Garcia has no class.
Wendy from Season 1. Even today people still remember her as the Manipulative Bitch. Even she tried to redeem herself in the All-Stars 2.
Kara Saun from the same season. Shoegate, nuff said.
Morgan Quinn is still seen as a nutcase unprofessional model.
Santino from Season 2 in a minor level. During the reunion and the Finale, all of the other designers still remembered Santino's constant smack-talk. Thought Chloe and Daniel V. eventually have forgiven him and people still like his funny side, it's still the most outstanding thing from the season.
From Season 3, we have a lot:
Keith having pattern books. Even during the reunion show, the others were quick to call him out, especially Heidi.
Bert of Season 9. As the season went on he relaxed, became better friends with some of his competitors, started telling sly jokes about his time at Studio 54, and eventually evolved into Cool Old Guy status. By the time of his elimination, significant portions of the fandom were enraged that he was auf'ed before Laura or Josh M.
And the second All Stars season seems to be doing this to Joshua M. He's far less of a Jerkass and is shown being friendly to his season mates.
Same can be said about Ivy, who decided to be The Atoner this time around, specially when she headbutted with Laura.
The show's move from Bravo to Lifetime, probably due to the insane time constraints, or the nature of the challenges.
All Stars Season 4 is not well received by viewers, thanks to the cast having only 2 contestants not being in Season 10 onwards and the end product of the challenges are rather uninspired. However, some viewers think it only gets bad halfway through the season, when a lot of the nicer and arguably more interesting designers get auf'd, leaving behind a blander and more unlikable cast.
In Season 3, Alison was auf'd for a "Daisy Duck" paper dress, instead of Vincent's "refrigerator cardboard" dress.
In Season 8, Mondo's loss to Gretchen is widely regarded as this. Tim Gunn practically invoked the trope by name, having referred to Nina Garcia and Michael Kors as "crack-smoking" based on their support for Gretchen.
In All-Stars Special, Uli's collection was a big step-up from her flowy-beach dresses, but the judges eliminated her because they were expecting her Signature Style, when she had been criticized for repeating herself in her original season.
Season 1, many had to agree with Wendy regarding Kara Saun cheating in the finale.
Korina in Season 13 points out that one particular outfit does not allow the model to move- and the producers were giving her the villain edit due to this. Granted, some of Korina's other comments may have been less than kind. BUT an outfit should allow the model to walk in it without risking falling down with every step.
Also, Korina's aggravation over having to compete in an hour-long sewing challenge with Char and ultimately getting eliminated in it. While she was quite mean in regards to her insults towards Char, she was correct that Char had already been eliminated and saved, had never won a challenge, and had been a very middling performing before and after she was brought back, whereas Korina had top looks previously. Also, she had a point in the challenge itself, Char grabbed the only sheet of stretch jersey fabric available (which is very easy to work with), which gave her something of an unfair advantage over Korina who had to work with less forgiving fabric scraps.
In the Reunion Episode of All Stars season 4, Sonjia makes the bitter-toned complaint that former winners shouldn't be in All Stars. She finished second to Dmitry, who also won her season. When you consider that every All Stars season including former winners has gone to one of them, you start to think Sonjia might be right.
Take That, Scrappy!: Bound to happen whenever a particularly hated designer gets put through a Humiliation Conga, especially if it results in their elimination.
Tear Jerker: You couldn't help but shed a tear when Mondo, who was so secretive about the inspiration for his pattern, revealed that he was HIV+ on the judging floor. He had carried this secret for 10 years and never told anybody Basically, that whole episode (Season 8-10) was the biggest tearjerker so far in the history of the show.
Daniel Franco refusing to throw his teammates under the bus and honorably offering himself up for elimination during the second season's team lingerie challenge.
Bert of Season 9 revealed that he'd lost his partners to AIDS and was a recovering alcoholic definitely helped soften his image, and after that he seemed to open up more to the other designers.
Joshua M, who had been and even after continued to be a Jerkass, talking about being unable to see his mother when she was dying and unexpectedly breaking down during a Confession Cam interview. You realize his mother's been dead for two years while he's sobbing like it was last week. After his Jerkass behavior in that episode and the previous one, more cynical viewers saw the tears as a plea for sympathy.
Everyone was in tears when Justin was about to be sent home in season 12, including Tim Gunn. This turned to Tears of Joy when Tim decided to use his save to allow Justin to stay.
All-Stars seasons subverted this. Georgina, Izaac and Joanna were good replacements for Nina, Michael and Tim, but Angela and Carolyn weren't as entertaining as Heidi. Alyssa Milano has largely resolved the host issue.
After Michael Kors stepped from his Main Judge position, many fans are divided whether or not Zac Posen is as entertaining or insightful as Michael.
The Spin-Off Project Accesory (only lasted one season), Models Of The Runway (lasted 2 seasons), Under The Gunn (disliked by most viewers).
The Scrappy: Several, including Angela (Season 3), Gretchen and Ivy (season 8)
Wendy in Season 1, she was disliked due to her throwing her teammates under the bus, using tactics over focusing on designing (which was questionable in a Talent Show) and was chosen in the finale over Austin (who was a fan favourite). Still, she was not really a bad fashion designer, just a dressmaker who was lacking in innovation.
Vincent gave Angela good competition for that title in that season, with the biggest being ranting at a cameramen for an unfinished bed.
Kenley in Season 5, had a laugh that was considered annoying to everyone and her design skills are more inclined in skills than innovation. What seals the deal for her is in the "Inspired By The Nature" challenge, where when she was in the bottom she acted extremely defensive to the judges criticism and alienated everybody.
Season 7 also had this reaction from the fans against Jesse, because he argued with his team partner Ping about her choices as Team Leader and made her cry... When he was clearly on the right this time, she was being closed minded with the direction. He only got Rescued from the Scrappy Heap when he got eliminated, and all his Haters migrated to Emilio instead.
Olivier seems to be hated as much as he's loved, especially after his Freak Out over having to design clothing for real women with BOOBS and complaints about not working with models and instead with "fat people" (or people bigger than Size 6), not to mention people who dislike his accent and think he's faking it. At least one blogger's referred to him as "the personification of the color beige" and was all too happy when he was eliminated.
Joshua M, and his behavior during the After the Runway solidified it, in part because he managed to be a one-man Spotlight-Stealing Squad with his insulted reaction to being called out for his Jerkass behavior.
Ven, due to his behavior of him constantly complaining about the fact that his client was plus sized and didn't seem to get why his behavior was a problem (to the point of making her cry) not to mention being rather hypocritical since he's not exactly a model sized guy himself. It was made worse when, after the episode ended, Ven went on to his twitter account and continued speaking badly of his client, and even accused Project Runway producers of editing the show to try to make him look bad.
All Stars 2 season, Laura Kathleen's behaviour (mostly flaunting how she rich she was) made it to the point that she was hated even more then Joshua M., whose entry further up the page can attest to the level of hatred he earned in their original season.
Timothy in season 12 from the first two episodes alone due to his holier-than-thou "eco friendly" platform, which he never shuts up about, despite the fact that the judges have rightly pummeled him for missing the point of the show and being a massive Hypocrite (for example, he forced his model to go barefoot while he wore sparkly women's shoes on the runway next to her). To contrast, Gretchen was also a sustainable designer and still managed to produce great work and never tried to push "sustainable design" or anything like that.
Ken of season 12 for a lot of viewers. Tellingly, an article on an online news site for his home town did a poll about what people thought of him, 61% (at the time of this writing) selected "He's rude, obnoxious and dismissive of other designers" and 24% selected "he needs to go home." Ouch.
Also in a minor scale Helen, who mostly did the same dress over and over and landing in the Top 3 with it, stirred up drama (in many occasions she provoked Ken and Sandro), cried and complained a lot. Also not helped that her tweets towards recappers Tom and Lorenzo were outright immature and obnoxious.
Korina has been dubbed the "Mean Girl" of Season 13, many fans bashing her for her bad attitude and instinct (Most prominent in Heidi's challenge). This gets worse when she exploded when she had to face against Char for a 1 hour sew-off in her final episode, who she deemed inferior since Char got the Tim Gunn save previously, and lost against Char. When she's brought back days later as an assistant to none other than Char, she's pissed and admitted that she wouldn't be any help to Char before excusing herself and leaving. At this point, even the other competitors have called her out on acting like a crybaby.
To a lesser extent, Char, which is sad since she was very likable. This is due to speculation that she was saved by Tim Gunn for being the Nice Guy of the season, and not for her talent. That, and the fact that despite being inexperienced with sewing and making poor design choices, she just seems immune from being eliminated less the judges admit that Tim Gunn was actually wrong in saving her.
Blake from Season 14 is starting to be one, since he constantly boasts about how adorable he is. What seemed to seal the deal was his racist remark towards East Indian contestant Swapnil, saying "I don't speak Indian, so I don't know how to say it in English", when Swapnil was clearly talking in English. Granted, as of Week 5, calling out Ashley's team for their behavior has is enough for some fans to consider him RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap, but his elimination the next episode prevented him from fully redeeming himself to most of the fans.
Joseph from Season 14 has quickly become one by the third episode, where he kept his Genki Girl teammate Merlene from acting on her usual quirks, taking over their design and refusing to use any of her ideas, then throwing her under the bus when they ended up in the bottom. The fact that he wasn't in the bottom two, but Merlene was due to his bus-throwing, did not help matters.
Amanda Perna of Season 14. Apart from having one of the worst records of any contestant on the show - she spent 3 consecutive weeks in the bottom before being eliminated - she was spiteful, passive aggressive, and constantly complained that being in the bottom was never her fault.
Thw Twins, Shaun and Claire, from season 16. They are constantly helping each other and often episodes have one constantly calling the other over when they're struggling. They annoy all the other contestants with how they run around the workroom wildly during crunch time and with how loud they can get. One or both of them are also constantly freaking out and they are often very catty towards other designers' work despite one of them almost always being in the bottom three.
Austin Scarlett (Season 1), Shirin Askari (Season 6), and April Johnston (Season 8). Also from Season 8, many consider McKell's elimination as one of these, as fans seem to agree that McKell's dress was not the worst of the bunch and felt she deserved to stay over at least 3 others who were saved. When she had to go, Tim assured her he stood by his statement that he found the dress adorable.
Daniel Franco in season 2. He led a team that produced a beautiful set of well-constructed lingerie that was nonetheless felt to be "boring" by the judges, while Santino was guilty of some very poor construction in the other team's taste-challenged and Stripperiffic designs, which the judges felt to be edgier and therefore more interesting.
Also Nick Verreos was one of the favorites of Season 2, and even the designers in the Reunion show admitted that they expected Nick to make it to the Finals. Him winning along with Oscar in Under the Gunn was one of the few redeemable qualities of the Spin-Off.
There are some cases where viewers thought that the some decoy collections can be strong contenders to win the show.
One of the best example is in Season 2: Most fashion critics (including Fern Mallis) thought that Kara Janx (Who finished 4th) had it in the bag with her collection. She is also the reason why the show started to publicize decoy collections.
Another example: Season 7's Jay Nicolas Sario collection was very well-received, causing many fashion journalists to peg him as the favorite to win the season. In reality, he and fellow designer Mila Hermanovski had a head-to-head competition that determine which of them would advance to the third spot in the finals and came up short in 4th, which would be aired 2 months later.
Another example: Season 13, where fans consider Fade, Sandhaya and Korina collections neck & neck with Sean and Amanda.
In Season 9, Laura's collection was so good that many were shocked to learn that it was actually a decoy. Even in one of the Show Specials, she received the award for "The Best Decoy Collection".
In season 9 there were manyBig NOs during the Piper Lime challenge, when fan favorite Anthony Ryan was eliminated instead of Smug Snake Joshua M. Twitter practically exploded when that happened.
Viktor Luna placing third in the Season 9 finale caused an uproar.
Rami's elimination in the All-Stars season, against Austin's design that was considered dated by many people.
April (Season 8) was raked over the coals by the judges for daring to show a "panty" short with a Phillip Treacy hat; fast forward to Resort 2011 — a half dozen designers showed similar panty shorts for Fashion Week.
Also, Ben from Season 7 with his "jock strap front" trousers.
Alison from season 3 was roundly criticized for styling her model's hair into the shape of a bow. Fast forward a few years, a famously fashionable pop star wears the same look◊ and influences other famous women◊.
Nina Garcia to Santino in the "give a competitor a makeover" challenge from Season 2: "Who wears jumpsuits anymore?" Jump to 2009 and suddenly they're a big trend. Not only that, but when Gretchen from Season 8 sent one (in drab, depressing navy blue) for the Macy's challenge, in a cut that wouldn't be flattering to anyone, guess who won that challenge?
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: After many considered that Season 6 to 16 suffered from Seasonal Rot because of their move to Lifetime, people were skeptical about the show returning to Bravo.tv without Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn. To everyone's surprise, Bravo's Project Runway (or technically Season 17) was widely praised by critics and viewers.
Wangst: The more you don't like a designer, the more likely you are to view their occasional breakdowns and drama as this.
What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The show actually has merchandise aimed at preteen girls. The show itself isn't for them, due to swearing (most of it censored), adult themes like drinking, and references to things kids wouldn't know about such as A Chorus Line. It doesn't help that Tim Gunn would later voice Baileywick in an actual show aimed at girls, Sofia the First, or that they did an episode in collaboration with the American Girl franchise to promote their BeForever reboot.
During Season 8, Michael Costello was picked on by the other competitors because many didn't agree with his wins, often commenting between them that he should be leaving soon. Then his backstory was revealed on interviews: He was raised in a very conservative family, had to obey his parents into an arranged marriage, from which he fathered two children, but only got to keep Giovanni because his ex-wife took his daughter and haven't been in contact ever since. Then he came out as gay, prompting his family to disown him until he got casted into the show. The moment when he lost his spot in the final three was his Heroic BSoD, crying and mumbling that he wanted to make his parents proud again.
Mondo from Season 8, see Tearjerker.
Korto Mormolu, both in Season 5 and All-Stars, being so close to winning a season, THRICE
Ashley of Season 14. Bullied when she was younger for her weight (and also feeling that she couldn't fit because of her size and dyslexia), she had a hard time dealing with being chosen last in the fifth challenge. Then when she finds out that her team planned on throwing her under the bus if they lost, it's heartbreaking. Luckily the plan backfires on them and Amanda is sent home instead, but Ashley flat-out states that she learned that she can't trust anyone. It's one of the biggest Tearjerkers in the season so far.
for Season 2's reunion, highlighting "Light up, It's just Fashion", "Tim Gunn, Tim Gunn, when he calls your name you're done. What happened to Andrae-" and "Daniel Franco, Where did you go?" featuring Nick.
