Law Roach Says There's 'No Tyra Situation' After Project Runway Clash

There is "no Tyra situation at all." That was Project Runway judge Law Roach's answer when asked about fellow judge Tyra Banks, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet at the 78th Emmy Awards. He kept it short. He kept it warm.

Roach and Banks both serve as judges on season 22 of Project Runway, the long-running fashion contest in which designers sew to a weekly brief and one or more go home each episode. Their working relationship came under scrutiny after episode five, when a sharp on-air disagreement between the two made it into the final edit. The show lives on those decisions.

The moment came during feedback. Roach told Banks, "You're overstepping." Banks replied, "No, you're overstepping. You're overtalking everybody." A little later, as they talked over each other, Banks added, "You're making no damn sense." The lines were short. The tone was tense. And for viewers at home, it looked like a real rift.

Roach said it was not. He told the Reporter that he arrives ready to disagree, and that pushing back is part of what a judge is there for. To make the point, he said he has also had fights with Heidi Klum and with Nina Garcia, his fellow judges. In his telling, the organised back-and-forth, even when it gets loud, is the job.

The current panel mixes new and familiar names. Garcia returns as a judge, while Christian Siriano returns as mentor, the in-workroom guide who advises the designers through each challenge, according to Freeform. Banks joined Roach at the judging table for season 22, completing a lineup that has to reach a joint decision every week, even when its members see different things on the runway.

Roach addressed the episode on one of television's busiest nights. The 78th Emmy Awards were hosted by Mariska Hargitay. The ceremony aired live from the Peacock Theater on Sept. 14 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock, with the red carpet providing the usual stream of cast interviews and quick denials. Cameras catch plenty in those few minutes.

For fans, this means the argument can sit where Roach puts it. Not as a feud carrying off screen, but as judging-room behaviour that boiled over for a few minutes on television. No walkout. No absence. Just a disagreement that made the edit. The designs move forward. The judges disagree. Then they return for the next brief.