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Happy birthday 7PM Project

It was the show they said would never last. Today marks 12 months on air for the team from The 7PM Project.

It was the show they said would never last….

Today The 7PM Project notches up its first birthday on air.

For most of its run in 2009, and indeed even part of 2010, there were many summoning TEN to axe its news-comedy show helmed by Charlie Pickering, Carrie Bickmore and Dave Hughes.

On any other network it would arguably have been ditched long ago. But TEN and Programming Chief David Mott stuck to their guns and gave the Roving Enterprises show room to find its feet. A little boost from MasterChef at the same time as Daylight Saving ended durely didn’t hurt.

Now the show is a success for the network, tackling some subjects that commercial current affairs steer away from. While it isn’t always perfect, at the very least it is raising topics to a youth audience that might otherwise be ignored in such a timeslot. It even picked up a Logie Award for Bickmore.

Along the way the roles of James Mathison and Ruby Rose seem to have diminished, and it isn’t anywhere near as breathless as its early weeks when it tried to cram too much in. Regular guests including George Negus and Denise Scott are a welcome addition. Watch for those creative segues Dave Hughes has to come up with to link funny video footage to the story that has preceded it -a tall order. Friday’s Metro Whip-Around is the perfect bite-size surprise package.

Last Friday night the show even won its timeslot -not the first time it’s happened, but a rare achievement.

It will be interesting to see how the show fares from next week without MasterChef attached to it, but clearly it has found an audience who understand the product, which is a lot more than could be said twelve months ago.

Happy birthday all…

43 Responses

  1. Its crazy that its still on, I find it amusing that the “Host” is hardely ever there these days.. Please bring back something like Humphry or something buy the rights from ch 9 anything lol

  2. What, no comment about Steve Price being a regular?

    BTW, kudos also for bringing commentators from SBS and the ABC to add their views- and even promoting their shows!

  3. Wishing the team a very happy 1st birthday and hope there will be many more to come. I may not watch it every day but when I’m home, I make sure I do. Great work, Ten.

  4. This is an interesting take on the days news.I sometime watch if there is an important story that Ten’s own 5pm Bulletin does not quite fully cover and find Home and Away to be the biggest pile of crap ever And 2.5 Men a cheap excuse for Channel 9 not to use a game show up against 7PM project like they did in the Seinfeld days.

  5. Glad to see this is still around. Very best alternative to the dross that Nine and Seven dish out at 7.00pm… would love the re-install of the late evening repeats.

  6. I do like this show as an alternative to 2.5 men and home and away and the inclusion of Dr Andrew Roachford is great yet they continue to persist with an unfunny “Hugheseyy” and an even unfunnier Carrie

  7. Well done 7PM Project. I’ve watched it from the start, hoped Ten would stick with it when others called for the axe, and it’s paid off. Great show. Sure Dave Hughes is still the weak link with his fumbling over lines and constant “yeah” and the end of each sentence. But the show is great, and the guest panelists each night are great. Kitty Flanagin on Tuesdays is my favourite segment.

    Happy Birthday 7PM!!!

  8. Bravo Channel 10. All creative projects take time, at every level, if it was that easy to drop an instant hit, everyone would do it. Every time I see an early Seinfeld, I marvel at how quickly development happened, more recently 30 Rock. And I think its arguable that the hybrid genre of 7pm, night after night, is even more challenging, so well done and it just restores faith in networks that they stuck with it.

  9. They should send a big bottle of champagne to the cast and crew of MasterChef. Very happy for them but lets be honest, the never would have survived without MC.

  10. Hip Hip Hooray!
    I don’t watch the show due to timing, but it’s great that TEN stick to something fresh and give it a chance. Nine or Seven would’ve killed it long ago and trot out re-runs.
    And that is why TEN is number one! (at least in our household)

  11. Happy birthday 7PM Projuect. Yes, it is true that it is still finding it’s feet after a year but a very refreshing show for timeslot. H&A is boring and 2&1/2 is same same. Good on TEN for sticking to their guns with this one!

  12. Congrats to the 7Pm Project – an interesting take on the day’s news.

    It takes time for any show to find its feet and grab an audience and that Ch 10 stuck with it shows their faith in the product and its ability to rate.

    In this instance, the channel, the hosts and the behind the scenes team all deserve a round of appaluse for sticking with it through thick and thin.

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