Source : the age
Network 10 has axed its long-running current affairs show The Project as part of a major programming overhaul aimed at rebuilding its early evening viewership.
Network president Beverley McGarvey informed staff of the decision in a meeting at the broadcaster’s Melbourne headquarters on Monday.
The Project hosts Sarah Harris and Waleed Aly. The pair are leaving Network 10 with the axing of The Project.
The Project’s final episode will air on Friday, June 27, ending a run of almost 16 years and more than 4500 episodes. Hosts Waleed Aly, Sarah Harris and Hamish Macdonald will leave the network, while comedian Sam Taunton is expected to continue as a guest on Ten’s light entertainment shows.
In an all-staff email, McGarvey also announced the creation of a national, one-hour “news, current affairs and insights” program that will air six nights a week, from Sunday to Friday.
It is understood this program will be hosted by respected journalists Denham Hitchcock and Amelia Brace, whom Ten recently poached from Network Seven as part of a broader hiring spree to beef up its news and current affairs offering.
It is likely some Project staff will be redeployed to the new show, which will be overseen by broadcast news vice president, Martin White. Ten is expected to confirm the title and launch date of the program within the next week.
The Project (clockwise from left): Susie Youssef; Georgie Tunny, Sam Taunton, Rove McManus, Hamish Macdonald; Sarah Harris and Waleed Aly.
The one-hour 10 News First bulletins – which have grown their audiences by 12 per cent over the past year after 10 reappointed local presenters in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide – will remain at 5pm, while game show Deal or No Deal will shift to the 7pm slot.
The Project debuted in July 2009, when it was titled The 7PM Project. After a wobbly start, its blend of news, comedy, editorials and campaign journalism proved a hit with audiences, regularly exceeding more than a million viewers in the five major capital cities alone.
It has won 11 TV Week Logie Awards, including viewer-voted gold Logies for host Aly and former presenter Carrie Bickmore, as well as a Walkley Award for Macdonald and a Yooralla Media Award of Distinction.
But the series has not been immune to the broader challenges facing Australia’s free-to-air networks, including competition from streaming services such as Netflix, a 24-hour news cycle fuelled by social media, and the fragmentation of free-to-air audiences across a growing array of multi-channels.
Charlie Pickering (middle), with Peter Hellier and Carrie Bickmore, at his last show of the 7PM Project in 2014.Credit: Eddie Jim
Last week, The Project attracted between 238,000 and 357,000 viewers nationally – numbers that one senior industry figure, who was not authorised to speak publicly, described as unsustainable.
“The Project has delivered enormous value to 10 over the years,” the television veteran said. “It was very ‘on brand’ for the network, it punched above its weight with younger demographics, and it was a terrific vehicle for cross-promoting Ten’s other shows. But one of the most important jobs of early evening programming is to deliver decent lead-in audiences to the next show. If there aren’t enough viewers in the early evening, it makes it that much harder for those 7.30pm programs to succeed.”
Like all Australian networks, Ten faces intense competition for advertising dollars from tech giants such as Meta and Google.
“The less revenue you have, the smaller your budgets become, which makes it difficult to keep doing what you’ve always done,” said one TV executive.
The cast from the TV program The 7pm Project Ruby Rose, Dave Hughes , James Mathieson , Charlie Pickering and Carrie BickmoreCredit: Ten
“Every show has a natural life cycle, though, and now is the right time for Ten to try something new. They’ve thrown everything they had at The Project, but we’re living in a very different world compared to 2009 [when it debuted].”
Aly told this masthead that The Project “kicked down the door of how news could be done”.
“In some ways it looks more conventional now than it used to because it led the way,” he said. “It showed you could bring dry stories to life for an audience that might otherwise have ignored them. I’ve spoken to so many people who said it was the way they could do news as a family, the way they could engage their kids and get them thinking. And by and large, it took its audience to a more compassionate place. That’s a pretty mighty contribution.”
The Project’s executive producer, Chris Bendall, said the show had given a voice to the disenfranchised and championed important stories and causes, including protecting Australian wildlife, helping farmers rebuild after floods and fires, fighting to end violence against women, and providing more than $3.5 million to families burdened by extreme medical hardship.
“Campaigns on marriage equality, a nationwide ban on single-use plastic bags, and returning a fair price to dairy farmers from supermarkets are just a few of the issues we have put on the national agenda,” Bendall said.
“The Project has always been a show that’s unafraid to tackle the serious issues, but one that’s never taken itself too seriously.”
Among The Project’s high-profile former hosts are Bickmore, Dave Hughes, Peter Helliar, Tommy Little and Lisa Wilkinson.
Harris told this masthead that when she started working in television, she was about the same age as The Project is now.
“There aren’t many jobs where you get to tell very human stories, and interview politicians and celebrities all while having a laugh – or ugly crying – in front of a live studio audience every night,” Harris said.
“I’ve had a blast [but] it’s time for me to take a breath and spend some time with my boys,” she added, while joking, “keep an eye out for my OnlyFans page!”
Roving Enterprises creative director Craig Campbell, who created The Project, noted the series had hosted “countless Australian actors and musicians”, helping showcase the local entertainment industry.
McGarvey, Bendall, Aly, Harris and Campbell each thanked the hundreds of staff who have worked on the show over the years.
McGarvey praised Bendall for being “unafraid to push hard discussions important to the nation and to everyday Australians”, while commending Harris’ “warmth and wit … and dogged commitment to do justice to every story”.
She described Aly as committed and compassionate, bringing “weight and depth as a co-host and always providing intellectual rigour and eloquence … several of Waleed’s groundbreaking interviews and commentaries on complex issues have changed the way many Australians understand the world around them”.
McGarvey said that Campbell “ensured that The Project supported and created public debate, educated and entertained and helped lead many important conversations which encouraged profound and necessary change”.
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