Network Ten axes The Project after 16 years on air
Network Ten has officially axed the current affairs program The Project amid dwindling ratings.
After nearly 4,500 episodes and almost 16 years on air, the final show will be broadcast on June 27.
Hosts Waleed Aly, Sarah Harris, and Hamish McDonald will reportedly leave the network.
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News.com.au
40 minutes ago
- News.com.au
‘Preachy': The truth behind The Project and Q&A's brutal axings
Once hugely influential within Australian culture, The Project and Q&A at their heights were able to make headlines and not only spark but also further conversations within society. Sadly for Channel 10 and ABC, those days are long behind them, and this week, both networks finally decided to put the ageing shows out to pasture. Launched in 2009 as The 7pm Project with co-hosts Carrie Bickmore and comedians Charlie Pickering and Dave Hughes, the panel show won Gold Logies for Bickmore and for co-host Waleed Aly. By the time Covid-19 had the world in its grasps, viewership had begun to crumble, and year-after-year Network 10 was forced to deny that its once ratings behemoth would be coming to an end. When the news finally became official last week, it was hardly a surprise to many. But that doesn't make it any less devastating for the hundreds whose jobs are now in question at Channel 10, as well as those at ABC now that its own long-running current affairs show, Q&A, is also being axed from the airwaves. 'ABC has a fixed budget, it has to go begging to the government if it wants more,' said media analyst Steve Allen, director at Pearman Media Agency. 'It has to run everything on the smell of an oily rag, they're running multiple radio and television networks all off a smaller budget that most commercial networks, apart from maybe 10, don't have to operate off,' he told 'But the common theme here is that programs have to perform,' Mr Allen continued. 'They have to attract an audience; for entirely different reasons if we're talking Channel 10 and ABC. But at their core they have to be popular. It's more than a decade since The Project was at its height of viewership. Seven and Nine, their news shows are ratings behemoths. They're in the top five programmes every night of the week. 'It's incredibly hard for anyone to compete in that hour or hour and a half, whether that's SBS, ABC or Channel 10. And that's the problem The Project faced. Its ratings aren't going up. Since its stellar cast faded away bit by bit they've tried all sorts of personality and host combinations none of which really worked,' he added. As advertising dollars have continued to decrease over the years, forcing free-to-air broadcast networks around the world to tighten their purse strings and shift their entire business models to compete with streaming, Mr Allen explained that it's likely Channel 10 saw The Project's timeslot as an untapped revenue stream. 'It's contracted out to Rove Productions and one has to assume that they were making money out of it. So I would imagine that Network 10 thought if they take it in-house then they can use the profit margin that was being made to spend on something different.' Some critics have suggested that the death of shows like Q&A and The Project is down, at least in part, to audiences growing tired of having a so-called 'woke agenda' being pushed onto them. But this theory feels narrow-minded, reeks of political point-scoring and fails to look at the real issues behind their demise. After all, The Project featured Steve Price throughout almost its entire run, who regularly butted heads with the likes of Waleed Aly and Sarah Harris over hot-button issues. And we can't forget the storming victory Labour had in the elections last month, dragging the Liberal Party over hot coals on their way to a hugely historic victory that demonstrated very clearly that social media echo chambers aren't indicative of the wider Australian culture. While shows like The Project and Q&A have floundered, more straight-news based current affairs shows like Nine's A Current Affair and ABC's Australian Story have continued to succeed within the shifting landscape. Living within a world where we're bombarded with unsolicited opinions across social media on everything from our own lives to those of celebrities, perhaps the fundamental crux is that when viewers tune into a current affairs shows, what they desire more than anything is news presented to them without any form of bias along with it, regardless of the side they personally stand on. As the demise of The Project became clear, some corners of social media blamed it on the show being 'too left-leaning' and desperate to 'push the woke agenda', while others on the polar opposite side tweeted that it was just a mouthpiece 'to push right-wing agendas to a left-wing audience'. It seems clear that this is why these shows are failing, doomed to be just another relic of TV's past. They hark back to a period in our culture when nuance was not only integral to conversation but valued. We live in a world nowadays where everything is so black and white that it's made merely flirting with the grey area nigh impossible. Shows that attempt balance now feel doomed to try and court both sides, only to end up being abandoned by both. 'Both shows had become stale and lost the essence of what they once were,' said TV Blackbox's Rob McKnight. 'The Project turned from a light show to a preachy show and Q&A left behind the core of what it stood for.' It seems Network 10 have come to the same realisation, with their announcement of The Project's replacement 10 News+, making very clear that one thing viewers won't get when tuning in is any form of opinion from its presenters. 'At the heart of everything we do is delivering news and current affairs that matter to you,' said the announcement. 'No filler. No opinion. Just the facts.' All that's left to see now is whether that sentiment can resonate with viewers so Channel 10 can finally bag themselves a win. As more and more legacy shows begin to fall into obscurity, all eyes are slowly turning toward morning television, an institution for many around the world, including here in Australia. Once a pioneer of the format with Good Morning Australia, Channel 10 has failed to achieve success in the timeslot since the show ended in 2005. Its follow-up show, Studio 10, was brutally axed at the end of 2023. While its rivals have continued to succeed with shows such as Today and Sunrise still regularly reaching millions every weekday, some critics have suggested that it could be the next timeslot to face struggles. Mr insisting that Australia's morning shows have 'nothing' to be concerned about, at least for the time being. 'The audiences for Sunrise, TODAY and ABC News Breakfast are very strong and both TODAY and Sunrise generate plenty of revenue,' he said. 'These shows also help the networks have local programming and connect with audiences.' While initially it may seem all doom and gloom for Channel 10 when it comes to its numerous cancellations over the years, from The Project to their failed attempts at The Traitors and bringing back Gladiators where other broadcasters like the BBC succeeded, media analyst Steve Allen says that the ailing network appears to have finally hit bottom, and now the only way is a slow climb back up. 'Peak night audience across Seven, Nine, Channel 10 and SBS has actually gone up for the first time in a decade,' he shared. 'Not by much, but that's unheard of in recent times. If it has finally bottomed out, then crucially, it means the dollars that these networks have to spend won't erode any further.'
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
The Project hosts Waleed Aly and Hamish Macdonald reflect on the show's axing
Network 10's The Project is a show that has made Waleed Aly a household name. "I'm astonished I got to do this," Aly told ABC News. "The chances of anyone getting to do something like this are so improbably small. "The fact that it got to be me is something to be thankful for and I think that's the only way I can look back on it in the long run — is to be grateful and a little blown away that I got to do that." After 16 years and more than 4,500 episodes, The Project will air for the last time on Friday, June 27. Aly says the show has been an unequivocal success. "And I know that because international guests would constantly tell us that. "They were blown away by it, they'd go 'I can't think of anything like this' and they would say it in a way that they were really impressed and maybe they were just being diplomatic, but it happened too often for that to feel like that was the case." In the time it's been on air, The Project has won 11 Logies and one Walkley. But much of the discourse since news of the show's demise broke has been around the declining ratings. According to the OzTAM combined 5-city metro ratings, The Project (which was previously named the 7pm Project), attracted an average metro audience of 677,000 in 2009, the year it debuted, peaking at 786,000 the following year. This has declined to an average metro audience of 188,000 in the year-to-date figures for 2025. Aly says The Project hasn't been immune to the structural decline in ratings across the board in television. But he says ratings aren't the main issue for TV. "And once upon a time, ratings and revenue were the same thing. "The problem is that they're not really any longer. "There has been a flight of advertising dollars from legacy media to social media and tech. "So, where people once might've spent money on advertising on TV or radio, now they're going to spend it on Meta or Google. "That is because they offer advertising based on unbelievable amounts of data that they've farmed from users. "I think there are very serious ethical questions surrounding that, but that's what's happened. "That's what we've allowed." He says with the advertising dollars that once held up legacy media gone, he's expecting serious cost-cutting to happen across the media landscape over the next little while. "Some of it will be visible, some of it won't," he said. "I think eventually it will all be visible. "I hope I'm wrong about that." Network 10 has announced it will revise its early evening program schedule, making way for a new national "news, current affairs and insights" program, which will run for an hour from 6pm six days a week. "I think The Project leaves a hole that won't be filled," Aly said. "And I think it's a hole we'd be better without. "It's probably not the first show you could say that about and it certainly won't be the last, unfortunately. Aly feels for the talented staff who'll lose their jobs, and that's something fellow host Hamish Macdonald agrees with. "[It's] a really tough outcome for many wonderful professionals who I've had the privilege of working alongside both in front of and behind the cameras," Macdonald told ABC News. "I want to thank them all — and the wonderful audience for making The Project such a unique experience. "It has been a genuine privilege. "It's hard for me to imagine a more creative, rewarding and stimulating work environment. He says The Project sparked conversation and attracted strong reactions. "The Project is a show that, good or bad, everyone seems to have an opinion on, which probably says something about its ability to engage," he said. Macdonald has also worked on Q+A, which the ABC has discontinued after 18 years on air. Publisher and founder of marketing industry analysis newsletter Unmade and co-presenter of MediaLand on Radio National, Tim Burrowes, says the demise of The Project comes down to economics. "So, this new show, while still in the news and current affairs space, will be cheaper to make, so that's ultimately what it's all about. "I don't see that particularly as a failing of The Project. "It reflects what's happened to broadcast audiences generally. "There's just so much more choice for the public now with streaming and everything else than there was when it launched.
Sydney Morning Herald
12 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
It was once agenda-setting, appointment viewing. What went wrong for Q+A?
At its best, it helped set the national agenda. 'When management moved Q+A to Thursdays [in 2021], before shifting it back to Mondays, it disrupted what's meant to be a habit-based show,' says one high-profile ABC presenter. 'Cutting the number of episodes and putting the show on hiatus in the middle of the year only made things worse. It's hard enough to attract viewers as it is, without expecting them to chase you across different time slots or come back to you after a mid-year break that makes no sense.' One producer notes that Q+A led the way in terms of social media innovation, running a live feed of Twitter comments from viewers before archiving its account on the platform, now called X. 'Before Twitter became a sewer, it was a huge asset to the show,' the producer says. 'But by 2020, when Hamish [Macdonald] took over as host, it became so bad that he had to leave the platform. Stan Grant [who was appointed Q+A host in 2022] copped the most horrible, racist abuse, and you can imagine all the vile comments directed at the female presenters.' Peter Meakin – who spent five decades leading news and current affairs coverage at the Seven, Nine and Ten networks – suspects social media made some politicians more cautious (and therefore, more likely to bore viewers). Loading 'It used to be a sport for them to go on air and spar with each other,' Meakin says. 'You might get a few letters saying, 'That was disgraceful', but not the instant groundswell of hatred you get now. They're more scared of putting a foot wrong.' In a statement, ABC news director Justin Stevens said, 'Discontinuing the program at this point is no reflection on anyone on the show. We always need to keep innovating and renewing.' Stevens said the ABC would produce more news documentaries, and would make its Your Say election initiative – which allows audiences to suggest questions for politicians – a permanent feature. ABC managing director Hugh Marks later announced around 40 redundancies and 10 contract positions that would end early. He also flagged changes to the audio division, separating the sport and capital city network teams into a simpler structure. The ABC's content division will be renamed ABC Screen, led by content director Jennifer Collins. But McEvoy insists the national broadcaster must do more to fill the void created by Q+A's cancellation. 'The ABC always needs to be trying new things, but I don't think an online survey can really give Australian citizens the chance to question decision-makers and politicians – or hold them to account,' he says. 'Engaging Australian citizens in a moderated but open discussion on national issues is a core part of the ABC's obligations as a public service broadcaster … the toxicity of platforms like X that encourage outrage makes the role of a moderated forum like Q+A even more important.' Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who was once a frequent guest on the program, believes Q+A was at its most compelling when it resembled a dinner party. 'It was all about having the right mixture of guests,' he says. 'In its heyday, if you were interested in Australian politics and you didn't watch it, you were concerned you might miss out on something.' Loading Since Jones left Q+A in 2019, the program has had several hosts including Macdonald, David Speers, Virginia Trioli, Stan Grant and Karvelas. 'All formats, after a time, start to feel a little tired,' says Trioli, who now hosts the ABC's Creative Types arts program. 'But I'm a huge fan of the Q+A format. It was a mighty program and one of the most important in terms of news, current affairs and public discussion in this country. 'People say they want accountability and they like to feel that issues are being put directly to politicians, but I think sometimes the audience can struggle with the reality of that,' she adds. 'You will get arguments, or politicians spinning their wheels and avoiding the question, while the host is trying to get them to answer – and that can make things awkward, uncomfortable or combative. It's a crapshoot every time, but the producers worked their guts out to do an amazing job.'
