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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.

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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. Consider this you are a parent of school aged children.Given how TEN and ABC don’t even do News Programming for the Schools anymore how else other than the 7pm project are they supposed to get their Media on a daily or weekly basis and would you allow them to even watch the crap that is Home and Away or 2.5 men.I wouldn’t

  2. as long as it stays grounded and doesn’t sensationalise things Too much, i know it does a lil already, but with it’s feet firmy on the ground I’ll still watch.

  3. Awesome stuff 7pm, it’s a show that goes places many other news shows wouldn’t dare. The even better thing is the humorus way in which it goes about it.

  5. No critique from me tonight on this – well done Charlie, Carrie and Dave – and the team from 7pm Project. You have survived and thrived. You will continue to perform beyond Master chef. Keep up the good mix of guests, subjects and panelists. Nice to have cheery, interesting content every night! Onwards and Upwards.

  6. thanks ten for sticking it out with the 7pm project my family love the show it appeals to all ages. my family range in age from 12 to 48 and we watch it together every night

  7. Good on them. Glad ten stuck with it it’s a heck of a lot better than the spearman project, the white room, Australia Verses and any other new/ original show created in the past year.

  9. Please get rid of the whip around… the people who do it aren’t funny and always try too hard. I would be happier if Kitty just took care of the whole thing, she is the shining star of the show for sure.

  10. 7pm Project should ditch Roving Enterprises – nothing good can come out of a company run by Rove. The on-air team aren’t much better. Carrie is awful, Charlie isn’t even there half of the time and Dr. Andrew doesn’t even present the health segment anymore, which to be frank is the whole point of having a doctor on the show. The Metro Whip Around presenters are as funny as a roll of toilet paper, and the same can be said for Kitty Flanagan. To be honest it baffles me how people find her segment funny. As Aaron said below, good concept, bad team.

    Anyway, that’s just my opinion. Feel free to disagree.

  11. I never watch it, so I didn’t know the hilarious Kitty Flanagan was on!
    Is she on the same day every week? I could record that day and scan through all the other crap just to watch the wonderful Kitty.

  12. I think Congratulations should be acknowledged. I hardly watch it, except over Summer sometimes, but it has found its feet 🙂 Go fresh Aussie ideas 🙂

  14. I’m surprised you didn’t mention Dr Andrew Roachford, he’s one of the best parts of the show! He should permanently replace Charlie.

    Also agree with the other comments, I love Kitty Flannigan’s segment.

    They should get Andrew G back on the panel occasionally.

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