After nearly 16 years, more than 4500 episodes, 11 Logies and one Walkley, the team behind The Project is set to deliver the news of the day for the final time.
Earlier this month, top bosses behind Network 10’s prime-time current affairs program told staff the show would be wrapping up production – with the final episode airing on June 27.
Like viewers across the country, the program’s current panel of hosts, including Sarah Harris, Waleed Aly, Hamish Macdonald, Sam Taunton, Georgie Tunny and Susie Youssef, were also left reeling at the news.
“There’s no show like it in the world,” Waleed lamented to ABC News after its axing.
The OG cast
Premiering in July 2009, The 7PM Project, as it was formerly known, began as a half-hour news program – co-created by Rove McManus, through his production company Roving Enterprises, and presented in a casual and digestible way with commentary from its hosts.
The original panel of Carrie Bickmore, Charlie Pickering and Dave Hughes took to the table five nights a week to discuss the hot topics of the day – with the trio joined in that first season by Ruby Rose and James Mathison.
“I was absolutely terrified before the first episode because we were doing something that hadn’t really been done before,” Dave, 54, would later recall to news.com.au.
“It was serious news with jokes slammed right in the middle of it. It was really different and I was certainly concerned that every time I opened my mouth during that first episode that I was going to ruin my career.”
Likewise, Carrie, 44, agreed that those first couple of weeks were “terrifying” for her.
“I was so stressed out that I thought that I might actually have a panic attack or a heart attack live on air,” she also told news.com.au.
With the first guest being MasterChef Australia winner Julie Goodwin, the show’s debut episode garnered an impressive 1.285 million viewers.
They went viral
While the internet obviously wasn’t what it is today when the show first aired, The Project has always had a way of creating moments that go viral. In 2012, Carrie mispronounced the word “Qantas” as “C–tas” while reading out the day’s news headlines, with the hiccup causing chaos on set as the anchor and her fellow co-hosts erupted into laughter.
“That web address you’ll need is youtube.com,” Charlie, 47, quipped after the entertaining blunder. He was right, with a video of the moment going viral on YouTube and garnering 250,000 views at the time.
More recently, an interview that host Sarah conducted with Hollywood actor Austin Butler racked up millions of hits. The segment last year helped the humble Aussie program go viral again, after Austin laid on the charm, causing a flustered Sarah scrambling to compose herself.
“You do this thing where you look into people’s souls … I’m getting it now,” Sarah told the big-screen star. Locking eyes with the host, Austin responded with, “You have a piercing gaze, too.” The flirty exchange prompted one viewer to post, “He needs to be locked up.”
They brought the LOLs
With comedians like Dave and Peter Helliar fronting the show over the years, there was naturally going to be plenty of laughs.
In one episode, the presenters acted out B-roll moments while one of them read the news when the production couldn’t do cutaways. In another, a chat with Robbie Williams culminated with the singer planting a smooch on an unsuspecting Peter.
The show was always jam-packed with such moments of light-heartedness and humour, which made a nice reprieve from some of the more heavy-hitting news stories.
… and even more laughs
The Project really did redefine what a news program could look like with its refreshing take on current affairs. And in between more serious stories about storms and sexual assaults, the team always found a way to make the live audience – and viewers around the country – laugh with their human interest items.
One clip of a monkey in a zoo flinging poo onto an elderly visitor left even the four seasoned presenters in stitches. “It’s the greatest thing I have ever seen in my life,” Peter declared of the clip.
Interviews with icons
From sports stars and Spice Girls to a world-first chat with Olympian Rachael “Raygun” Gunn last year, The Project managed to pull everyone from A-listers to politicians to its desk for an interview.
And while there has been a plethora of famous guests during his time on the show, long-time host Waleed’s favourite was a surprising one. “I’ve often said that one of my favourite things I get to do on the show is interview Elmo,” Waleed previously told TV Week.
“Everyone else who works on the show seems to have done it a lot of times, but I’d never done it and when he walked in, I was blown away.”
News, not as you know it
When the show first hit the airwaves, it was billed as “news, but delivered differently”, promising to dissect the day’s biggest stories with humour, heart and brains. And the show did just that.
However, it also made its mark by tackling issues head-on with impassioned pleas from its presenters – most notably, Waleed, who became known for his powerful monologues about important issues after taking the reigns from Charlie in 2015.
During his first year on the program, the host went viral for his message about the growing problem of terrorism and extremist group ISIL, with the clip viewed more than 16 million times and attracting praise from people in all corners of the globe.
