Channel Ten’s The Project, a groundbreaking news and entertainment program which made a success of “news done differently” in prime time has been cancelled by the network after 16 years and 4,500 episodes.
It will air for the last time on Friday 27 June and will be replaced by a new national one-hour 6pm news, current affairs and analysis show after Channel Ten’s local 5pm news bulletin.
Launched in 2009 as The 7pm Project with co-hosts Carrie Bickmore and comedians Charlie Pickering and Dave Hughes, the panel show won a 2015 Gold Logie award for Bickmore and for later co-host Waleed Aly in 2017.
Aly, who joined in 2015 and is still on the desk with co-hosts Sarah Harris, Georgie Tunny, ABC radio presenter Hamish Macdonald, Sam Taunton, Susie Youssef and Rove McManus, gained a lot of attention for his Something We Should Talk About editorial segments.
Project creator Craig Campbell, whose company Roving Enterprises (co-owned by McManus) produced the show for Ten, said in a statement on Monday that 16 years ago he could not have dreamed the unique entertainment show would become part of a “grown-up news cycle”.
“We have an extraordinary team making this show every day and I know this news will hit them hard,” Campbell said.
The show won 11 Logie awards and one Walkley award. Network Ten highlighted its primetime contribution to progressive conversations about marriage equality, animal welfare, disability awareness, the NDIS, and domestic and family violence.
“The show has successfully balanced humour and heart with poignant discussions about current affairs and celebrity interviews that had the whole country, and sometimes the world, talking,” Ten said in a statement.
“The impact that The Project has had on the media and entertainment industry, countless careers, as well as on Australian society and culture, cannot be overstated.
“For the hard-working team still involved in delivering The Project, both at Network 10 and Roving Enterprises, we say a heartfelt thank you.”
Sunday co-host Macdonald wished everyone involved in the new show all the very best.
“I’m looking forward to watching,” he told Guardian Australia.
“It is a tough day for a lot of really wonderful professionals who I’ve had the privilege of working alongside both in front of and behind the cameras.
“I want to thank them all – and the wonderful audience for making the Project such a unique experience.”
The show’s ratings softened in recent years as younger audiences abandoned free-to-air television, and the program has been targeted by sections of the media for being too “woke”.
Before its cancellation was announced on Monday, The Australian’s media diary labelled it a “woke nightly gibberfest”.
Media criticism of The Project and former co-host Lisa Wilkinson intensified after the broadcast of an interview in 2021 with former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins about an alleged rape in parliament house.
While The Project did not name the alleged rapist, Higgins’ colleague Bruce Lehrmann later claimed he was identifiable and sued Ten and Wilkinson for defamation.
Sources from the Project – who spoke on condition of anonymity – told Guardian Australia the fallout from the interview, which included a sprawling $10m defamation trial, undoubtedly damaged the show even though Ten and Wilkinson won.
Lehrmann has maintained his innocence, and at his criminal trial in 2022 pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent, denying that any sexual activity had occurred. He appealed the defamation judgement, with that appeal hearing set down for August.
