📺 'The Project' Has Been Axed After 16 Years

After 16 years and 4,500 episodes, The Project is coming to an end.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jersey and Amanda jam Nation. I was watching the project
last night and I couldn't believe my years.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
After sixteen years and what nearly four and a half
thousand episodes, the project will very soon be no more.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
It's a huge It is for everybody. You know what.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
My first appearance on this show was as a Dave
Hughes funny. I fell over during a media scrum outside court.
But I am so grateful that I got to sit
on this desk and play.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
TV with all of you.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
It's been such a fun thing to do.

Speaker 4 (00:37):
A lot of people have been talking about the demise
of the project for as long as it's been on TV.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
I always thought that it would be around.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Sixteen years is a long time for a program, And
as you said earlier, Brennan, it's never good news for
anyone who works in the media to see a show
go because, as they acknowledged on the show themselves, there's
a crew of a whole lot of people who earn
a living making that show. And they've got rent, they've
got kids, they've got groceries to buy. We don't jump
up and down when a post office closes. I mean

(01:05):
we do jump up and down when a post office closes,
as we should, but so it's no joy in a
show like this finishing. It's interesting because when it started,
it was a news outlet for a younger audience. News
done differently is what they've always said. But that audience
is getting older and people a younger audience now aren't
turning to TV for their news. The situation has changed.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Influences and TikTokers, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
But it's interesting in also having worked at Channel ten
for a number of years, for example, with The Living
Room and Dancing with the Stars, the project has never
rated particularly highly and Channel ten have always backed it
and I've admired them for that, but the implications of
that is that any show that comes after them is
struggling to meet the ratings of other networks.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
I didn't help the Living Room, did it?

Speaker 3 (01:50):
That's right, and so we got judged on that and
Dancing with the Stars they're expensive shows to make. So
Channel ten kind of needed to decide do ratings matter
or don't they because if that pocket doesn't matter, what
about the shows that come after it. It seemed that
the ratings did matter, So I don't know what they're
going to replace it with. Channel and ten usually has
shows that skew younger. It's got things like have you
been paying attention to the cheap seats? And it's got quirky,

(02:13):
younger skewing shows. So what do they replace it with.
I don't know that there's stories that there may be
an investigative journalism show, so who knows, but I wish
everyone on that show. Well it's sixteen years is a
really good run, but I'm sad to see it go.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
I always thought that while the project existed, we're safe,
meaning what, well, you know, if you're a if you're
you know, there's other ducks on the pond that can
get aim taken at them.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
You know, the media landscape is changing very much.

Speaker 4 (02:42):
Stuff is changing, and it's not like the big money
that there used to be about Caylin Jackie. I've taken
all the money, but it's not like what it used
to be. And I'm always surprised about how long we've
been doing this for because like when I first started here,
I don't think it was going to last a week.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Well you almost didn't, but you know.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
It's been good and if you like doing it.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
But I always found my problem with the project was
I just felt that the name never made sense. I
think it was doomed from the beginning.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
You've never liked the name.

Speaker 4 (03:13):
I remember the time saying, oh, we've got the seven
pm Project, and that's a placeholder of a name.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
And I went, well, the name Betty of Blacktown. She
doesn't she's not into clib she's not into quick stuff.
Just tell me what I'm getting, like, just news, that's
what it is.

Speaker 4 (03:29):
You can't be the project to me, sounds like a
show that was never it was never fully foured.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Well, they had great graphics, so to you that.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Interesting as you say, it started at seven o'clock. The
show didn't used to go for an hour. I'm wonder
if an hour. I mean the news services on Free
to Wear go for an hour an hour, but six
thirty to seven thirty is a big ask for a
show like that. So when for example, Better Homes and
Gardens on a Friday night would start at seven, Living
Room would start at seven thirty. So, as I said,
I wonder what happens to me? I wish everybody well quality.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
You can't be too clever. That's the thing with the media,
and that's but.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
This was for a younger audience. Who wanted that. They
wanted savvyuky I.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Don't want savvy. Is what media executives think.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
It lasted sixteen years, and you can't tell us whether
it worked or not. It lasted for sixteen years. You
were never the audience. It was never for you.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
No, I guess I wasn't.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
No, But you know, I'd been on the show a
lot of times and I found it was too overly produced.
Just frankly, well, there's a lot of times I'd go
on there, I go, why are we talking about?

Speaker 3 (04:28):
But you've come from radio, which is fed by the city.

Speaker 4 (04:30):
But what I do is like when people say, come
up with an idea here and I say it's dreadful, Like, well,
that's dreadful, we're not doing it.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
I don't think those guys had that, say the host
just saying, well

Speaker 3 (04:40):
I would say sixteen years is a sign of a
very successful show.