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7PM nearly left out the word ‘Project.’

It was lucky somebody decided to add the word 'Project' to The 7PM Project, producer Craig Campbell explains. It makes ditching the timeslot much easier next week.

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Up until about a week before it premiered, The 7PM Project was originally going to be titled 7PM.

Thankfully, somebody had the bright idea to add the word ‘Project’ to the show. Now that it is moving to 6:30pm the news-based show won’t have to undergo such a radical name change.

“Pretty much every show I’ve worked on with Roving we just go with the working title of the show, because we think ‘That’s what it will end up being called anyway,’” Executive Producer Craig Campbell explains.

“7PM was the working title of 7PM and that was literally going to be it, but for some reason in the last week or so. Suddenly we decided it might be better with something else around it and Project developed. It had been the day’s ‘project’, it was what we had been working on.

“So thank God we did!”

Indeed.

Campbell is now overseeing changes behind the scenes that will expand the show from 30 to 60 minutes. But while the staff numbers are increasing they haven’t exactly doubled.

“TEN have been really supportive in listening to what we need and what we have to do to keep the standard of the format going. The one thing we didn’t want to do is look like we were padding and making the show a little bit looser just to fill the time,” he says.

“There will be a bunch of new people coming on board because we’re chasing more content everyday. But it’s out there. There’s lot of stuff we leave on the shelf every afternoon in our half hour.

“By the time you go ‘There’s our three major stories and Dave’s funnies and a cross somewhere else’ suddenly your 22 minutes just goes. So it will give us the opportunity to explore a few things a little bit harder. And a little bit longer which I know will make a lot of people happier.”

When it launched in 2009 the show took several months to hit its stride. Stories were too frenetic. Numbers were dire. But TEN management under Grant Blackley and David Mott resisted calls to axe the show. Over the summer season it enjoyed later replays and -as many have since forgotten- one hour editions on Mondays and Fridays. So the show is no stranger to a longer format.

Those leaps of faith, together with some fine tuning and confidence from the on-air team, helped it forge an audience.

“We all grew up and got off the red cordial a little bit,” Campbell concedes. “Not everyone shares my ADD techniques!”

Summer programming experiments helped the show to hit the 2010 ratings year with more confidence. Things really took off with the combination of the end of Daylight Saving and the return of MasterChef.

“It gave us the chance to expose ourselves to new viewers and a different set of eyeballs,” he says.

“So when we came back in 2010 we were a little bit of a different show.”

Being off air during the Delhi Commonwealth Games hurt the show, and one that Campbell isn’t keen to repeat. Like its new competitors, The Project plans to remain on air over summer again, ensuring that not all the presenters are taking holidays at the same time.

“With the Commonwealth Games I think we learned a great lesson which is to never leave the seat. We just have to be here and on air,” he says.

Now the network is relying on its former experiment to rescue its failed News revamp. How times have changed.

Campbell is relishing the opportunity, mindful of the task ahead.

“It’s like being given a gift. Here’s an extra half hour of airtime, go and make more TV. That’s cool!” he laughs.

The revamped Project won’t be making radical changes. George Negus returns, while regulars including Jennifer Byrne and Steve Price will sit at the desk for the duration of the show.

“We’re very grateful to the likes of Jen and Steve and the ‘wise owls’ for coming to play with us. It’s given us, in David Mott’s words, gravitas.

“There will be more time for all of the things we do and segments that have been sitting on the shelf from the original pitch document will now get a chance to air their head,” Campbell explains.

“So we’ll be trying a few things here and there but without a sense of losing what we’ve learned in the last two and a half years.

“Some guests will be able to hang for two segments rather than just the four minute interview we had to squeeze in.

“The balancing act of The Project has always been humour, news content, public affairs and entertainment. So an hour gives us more chance to get that right everyday rather than worrying when we have a Steve Carrell on that it’s going to swamp over the news content and people who watch us for news will get pissed off with us.”

But what of his new competition, Today Tonight and A Current Affair?

“They have their place and they do their thing and they’re institutions really. We’re just going to do what we do at 6:30 and hope we find an audience,” he says.

“I don’t honestly believe at that time of the night someone is sitting down to watch the show. I think it’s on in the background while you’re cooking dinner or doing stuff around the house. Something may grab your attention and you sit and watch that segment, we may tell you something that brings you back to the TV.”

This year while TEN fiddled with its 6-7pm hour, the show has lacked a strong lead-in and there has been renewed competition from The Block.

“We can’t really compete with a Reality show with big characters, promos and a huge marketing budgets and storylines, but the thing we have going for us is if we are constantly there with a great product we can actually deliver something that people get hooked to and becomes a habit.”

“Rather than trying to look at the stuff we have no control over we just need to fit into where they need us to be and they want us to play.”

TEN will have four weeks to assess the performance in survey before Summer intercedes once more.

“Then let’s see what happens,” he muses.

In the game of Programming you never rule anything in or out. The network could yet decide to make more changes before the 2012 season begins in February.

Since the name has been changed, could the show wind up at 6pm?

“Now that I haven’t heard. Wow!” he gasps.

“They could ask us to go anywhere!”

The Project airs 6:30pm weeknights from Monday.

35 Responses

  1. Good luck to them. Hope the extended Project works. Hopefully this will be a lesson for the future so we don’t ever have timeslots in the names of programs.

  2. Craig, the public have chosen to watch something else.
    Some people are wondering why it is still on, given its poor ratings.
    I don’t care whether it’s axed or not. Ultimately that’s up to Ten

  3. I still don’t get why people are calling for it to be axed, there has never been so much FTA choice, if you don’t like The Project then go watch something else. Personally I’d rather this show then some lame 10 year old sitcom to fill the void.

  4. Can’t believe this is still on after 2 years of low ratings. Ahh only on Channel 10 can that happen. Wish they would listen to the people and the figures for a change and give ordinary folk something decent to watch at 6.30pm.

  7. David, do you know or can you ask if it’ll have to be G-rated now? Or will they profess to be a news programme now and avoid a rating altogether, allowing them to still make the occasional dirty joke?

    And dammit, no more Steve Price! His surname would reflect him well if you substituted the ‘E’ for a later letter of the alphabet.

  8. I really think if they do it right, give it more budget that this show will eat into TT and ACA as they are consumer affair shows. This show has more current affairs than the other two. I agree with Steve Sydney that Steve Vizard has to go. When he is on i turn off. They need to spice it up.Get a right winger on with a left winger some nights and let the sparkes fly.This show has the potential to be really good and i think it can beat TT and ACA.. I never liked Steve Price before but he has turned into a real surprise packet. He gets on well with the team even though he appears to differ politically.

  9. I really like this show. Sometimes I have it on in the background, sometimes I sit down to watch it properly. I really hope they do well with this change, it p*sses me off to no end when they cut interviews short – this will give them all the time they need.

  11. A show like this should have been an hour from the beginning – and it should have been given Negus’ timeslot, budget and resources (IE Negus should never have been commissioned.) Every single day they run out of time and are still talking as their feed dies. Now with an hour, maybe they can start w 15 mins of harder newsy stuff and finish with the lighter content. It is good to have a show like this in the mix, though…diversity!

  12. Wow, did it really get only 497,000 last night? I was thinking that Ten would be happy next week if The Project averaged 700,000 but after that figure last night, that seems too out of reach.

  15. “The 7pm Project: it’s official
    By David Knox on June 13, 2009
    It will be known as The 7pm Project.”

    “It will start on July 20th and it will look at the day’s news live everynight.”

    More like 5 weeks before it went to air they gave it the name, which is pretty normal.

    A week before is a bit much (remember all the promos on buses before it launched?)

    1. Thanks James I guess everyone’s memory blurs a little. I’m only going on the answers Craig gave to me in the interview this week. I guess it was still an eleventh hour decision based on whatever deadline the network gave them. But thanks for pointing it out. I have a pretty good archive!

  17. I’m a huge fan of the show although I too believe this will kill off the program which is a shame. Jennifer Byrne and Steve Price are ok but please get rid of Steve Vizard, his attempts at trying to get a punch line are awful.

    What’s the harm in TEN bringing back Neighbours? As well as New episodes of The SImpsons? Trying something new is fine (News Revamp) but if it doesn’t work then go back to what relatively did. Don’t keep extending shows and splitting the ratings over a lower average which attracts the TV executioner.

  19. It should work otherwise It’s back to out of date American Sitcoms way past their use by date for 10.All They really need is one main 5pm New Bulletin,Something for the younger generation at 6pm most likely one of those US or New Zealand Sourced teen dramas to see us through to 7pm and keep the project as it is but for 30 minutes.

    To their credit though Thanks for not giving up when the going got too hard for you lot and for giving us something fresh and new in the early evenings up against the likes of Home and Away and the Americanised Gap Filler over at 9 of all sorts.

  22. Good luck being up against the 2 current affairs shows. I don’t like their chances, they will get steamrolled and will get even lower ratings than what they get now.

  24. The thing I like about ‘The Project’ is they don’t take them selves to seriously, unlike ACA and TT. They have a good mix of entertainment and news.

    But IMO the TEN news needs to be cut back to the original 1 hour, then have The Project on at 6pm and something else on at 7pm.

  25. I believe there are cracks appearing between Carrie and Charlie as both want to be be the main person on the show..watch the lack of warmth between them now…and the expressions of anger and disdain

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