Ten axes The Project after 16 years, goes for 6pm current affairs

Ten has confirmed it will shut down The Project later this month after 16 years and more than 4500 episodes.

Ten says it will replace the “news delivered differently” panel with an hour-long news and current affairs show that will go head-to-head with Seven and Nine’s news bulletins at 6pm. That show, reportedly called Behind The Lines, will be followed by game show Deal Or No Deal at 7pm.

Sam Taunton, Waleed Aly, Sarah Harris and Georgie Tunny

The change represents Ten’s biggest programming shakeup in over a decade. Until now it has differentiated its timings with news beginning at 5pm for an hour, followed by Deal Or No Deal at 6pm and kicking off The Project on the half hour at 6:30pm. Now viewers have a more aligned offering on the commerical channels, with no half-hour challenger at 6:30pm.

In a statement, Ten said the final Project would air Friday, June 27, and thanked the current and past hosts and creator Craig Campbell from Roving Enterprises. While the statement did not mention the future of Project stalwart Waleed Aly, there is widespread speculation that he and the other hosts will be leaving the network entirely.

Aly, whose editorial statements direct to camera shaped the editorial tone and content of the show from 2015, has been the show’s longest serving host.

The Ten statement said 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. ”

The change in content strategy was put down to the recent success of Ten’s local news bulletins and coverage.

“At the core of the changes will be an expansion of Network 10’s successful news coverage, with the launch of a new national one-hour 6pm news, current affairs and insights program six days a week to complement 10’s one-hour 5pm local news bulletins.”

“This reflects the successful growth in audiences to Network 10 local news bulletins and coverage. Our focus continues to be on serving our free-to-air audiences with more of the content they are increasingly watching.”

It could also be that a national current affairs program free of format costs, several high-profile panellists and a six-day-a-week live audience is cheaper to make than The Project.

The Project was launched by former executive producer Craig Campbell in 2009 as The 7pm Project. Campbell co-owns production company Roving Enterprises with Rove McManus. In 2017 it expanded into New Zealand, where The Project NZ aired on TV3 under licence from Roving Enterprises. The New Zealand version was cancelled in 2023 by Warner Bros Discovery.

Campbell stepped away from the Australian production in 2021. The current executive producer is Chris Bendall.