Live Blogging Project Runway: The Season PremiereWelcome back to the online party that's more uplifting than a pair of stiletto ballet shoes! Project Runway is back, and we're live-blogging the premiere episode in the comments. Join us! How time flies: It seems like only yesterday we were swearing and throwing things at our television screens after the judges inexplicably handed last season's crown to Gretchen the Egregious instead of the Mondo the Marvelous. But it was a long time ago … nine whole months! Enough time to gestate and give birth to renewed love for the show we can't live without, right? So let's get to it.

If you haven't participated in one of these live blogs before, here's all you have to do: Settle down in front of the TV with your computer handy, wait for the show to start (at 9 pm Eastern on Lifetime), and then use the comments section below to post a running commentary on tonight's episode. The rest of us will be doing the same. It's easy! Easier than dancing in stiletto ballet shoes, anyway. Also, there's a "Season 9 casting special" on at 8, so you may want to live-blog that too if you show up early enough.

Here are a few quick impressions of this season's contestants, based on the video clips about them that Lifetime posted online. First: There's a lot of them! They chose to start with 20 designers this season, four of which will be eliminated on the first episode—just to be needlessly cruel, I guess. And there seem to be a lot Southern and Midwestern designers this year—from places like Kentucky, Colorado, Minnesota, Georgia, Louisiana and Missouri . Also, as far as I can tell, there doesn't appear to be a "token straight guy" this season, which I think would be a first for this show.