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Now the real competition begins.

Thank God.

And that goes for both the stellar “Top Chef” and the mediocre “Project Runway.”

This week, “Top Chef” shed the most annoying dead weight ever and “Project Runway” premiered the first half of its two-part finale.

In the case of “Top Chef,” the elimination of a chef who should have been gone MONTHS ago, meant that even though we’re a few episodes from crowning a winner, the gloves are finally off.

I’ll give you three chances to guess who that dead weight is. If you need a hint: R-O-B-I-N.

Hallelujah.

Robin, lest you remember, is the aging, new age chick with a burgundy Susan Powter haircut (points if you remember her!). She’s self-taught, which is not a knock, but because of it she wasn’t as experienced as everyone else and it showed. In fact, her lack of training had been glaring of late because Robin had chosen to accentuate this fact by trying to play up to the level of the other competitors rather than make food she was comfortable with.

Last week, she used fresh garbanzo beans and squash blossoms for the first time for an elimination challenge despite the fact that she often cooks vegetarian food and should have rocked the Natalie Portman challenge. Then, this week, she decided to make something she’d never made before that most of these chefs were making in their teenage years: panna cotta.

I’ve never made it either, but after checking out recipes online, I’m confident I can handle simmering together milk, cream, sugar and gelatin.

Robin, however, couldn’t do this and then gave an explanation to the judges that had the effect of digging her own grave: She said she was trying to play up to what the other chefs were doing, but failed in both the execution of the difficult part (some sort of sugar stained-glass that didn’t make it to the plate) and the easy part (panna cotta, duh).

And so, after weeks and weeks of being just good enough to avoid being sent home, Robin has finally left the building. I like to picture her Friday the 13th activities to include doing yoga somewhere while babbling about the virtues of garbanzo bean flour before the guy next to her picks up his mat and moves across the yoga studio to get away from her incessant talking. Yeah, I have an active imagination.

So now, on “Top Chef” we’re down to a very talented five: Kevin, the Voltaggio brothers (Bryan and Michael), Jennifer and Eli.

Here’s hoping Jennifer and not Eli gets a spot next to the clear favorites — Kevin, Bryan and Michael — in the finale.

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Speaking of finales, thank goodness for the first half of “Project Runway’s” big finish. And I don’t just mean that because this season is finally coming to a close.

Yes, I have something positive to say.

I was skeptical that anyone from this season could put together a runway collection that wouldn’t be incredibly embarrassing. The talent level, as I’ve said before, has been quite lacking in the show’s first season on Lifetime. Now, that said, I was pleasantly surprised by all three of the designers’ collections.

Yes, I think they were good. Clothes I might actually wear, too. (If I were 5-foot-10, of course).

So the designers and their good-looking collections show up in New York only to find out two things:

1. Carol Hannah is sick and presumably will show up later.

2. Althea is still mad at Irina for Irina pointing out that Althea copied her.

Um, no offense, Althea, but Irina is dead-on right. Shouldn’t she be the one who doesn’t want to talk to you?

Methinks your anger is masking your embarrassment over the fact that she was right.

So, Carol Hannah finally pops her highlighted little head into the work room on the second day, forcing Althea and Irina to stop trying to be cordial and dovetail memberships to the “dang, she showed up!” club.

And they should be scared, because in my humble opinion, Carol Hannah’s collection is really the most impressive. From what I’ve seen, she has a ton of versatility and color in the collection.

Whereas Irina’s collection, an ode to New York, is very stereotypical of New York: Black, black and more black. And the coolest part of it, hand-painted T-shirts, were redone at the last second because she (DUH!) copied copyrighted art to use as her prints.

Althea, meanwhile, made a whole bunch of really strange outfits with no cohesion unless you include elements of ugliness. Oh, and, there was another incidence of Irina noticing some of herself in Althea’s designs. I thought Althea might slap Irina, but again, she’s RIGHT. (Can’t wait for next week when it seems Althea steals Irina’s makeup idea).

Of course, their collections aren’t done. The designers got a visit from Tim and Heidi that came with a message: Make a 13th runway look. They would get extra money and some help from, no surprise, the most recently eliminated designers: Logan, Christopher and Gordana.

Tim drew names for the order of partner-picking, and I must say, there are some interesting pairings. Althea went first, and perhaps forgetful of how mad she was at him for “copying” one of her designs, picked Logan first to work with her. She says she did it because they worked well together on a previous group challenge, but she also clearly upset Carol Hannah who has an, um, “connection” with Logan. (Wonder what Althea’s wallflower boyfriend thought of her choice?) Next, Irina picked Gordana because of their recent friendship, but perhaps forgot that they worked horribly together on a previous challenge. (What is with all this selective amnesia?) And finally, Carol Hannah ended up with Christopher, which is actually perfect because they’re both self-taught and Christopher’s confidence is so low that he can actually be bossed around by sweet little Carol Hannah.

I guess we’ll have to see what happens in the finale, but after seeing the collections, I think the only thing that can beat Carol Hannah is her own stomach, which was still infected with some sort of awful flu bug during the closing moments of Thursday night’s show.

Here’s hoping she can pull through and avoid vomiting on any of her beautiful designs.

Random thoughts:

• Eli’s “Circus Circus”-inspired concoction looked absolutely disgusting. I really thought he might go home and allow Robin to survive yet another week. He’s one lucky cat.

• Note to Irina: If your dad doesn’t respect your choice of careers, he won’t care that you win “Project Runway.”

• Even though Michael won this week’s challenge, I really think Kevin’s going to win it all.

• Man, Carol Hannah is a trooper. I hope she wins it all and gets a date with Logan once she’s fit to eat something again.

• Althea’s hair is totally going to fall out at some point if she keeps bleaching/flat-ironing/styling the heck out of it!

• Also, how cute was that house Carol Hannah was living in? Like a postcard!

• I really can’t believe Irina was stupid enough to steal copyrighted images to put on her shirts. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

• I can’t believe I have more to say about “Project Runway” than “Top Chef” — wow. What a time to get good, “PR.” Late much?