More news in The Project
The Project will devote the first fifteen minutes of its show to combat Seven and Nine's 6pm news bulletins.
- Published by David Knox
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The Project will devote more time to the day’s headlines, in a move to combat Seven and Nine’s 6pm news bulletins.
The first fifteen minutes of the show will tackle the day’s news.
From Sunday week the news-based show switches to 6pm as TEN culls its News back to one hour and reintroduces Reality formats to 7pm, beginning with The Biggest Loser.
”We’re under no illusions that it’s going to win the timeslot,” Chief Programming Officer David Mott has told The Age. ”But we’ll go for as many eyeballs as we can. The Project will reset our demographic from our 5pm news bulletin and lead into our franchises at 7pm, in the territory we once owned.”
In a separate interview he told the Herald Sun, “The Project is the perfect choice for a younger audience who still wants news, but not in the traditional sense.”
The move caught many by surprise.
Industry observers knew TEN could not leave its 6-6:30 timeslot untouched after last year’s moving feast. Switching Reality shows back to 7pm will give grief to Nine, especially given The Biggest Loser looks set to premiere before Excess Baggage. Nine had marked out the timeslot for Reality franchises across the year, but it’s likely to face the challenge aggressively.
ABC’s The Drum, currently being trialled at 6pm on ABC1, also has added competition.
But there are already rumblings from some disgruntled fans about the earlier starting time, with many noting they won’t be home by 6pm, and others forced to choose between The Project and Neighbours.
There are even rumours TEN could return Late News (Sandra Sully or nobody please), which would complicate life for SBS. It moved its World News Australia reports from 9:30 to 10:30 after TEN vacated the slot.
The next challenge for TEN is finding a female host happy enough to sit alongside the controversial Paul Henry on Breakfast. The longer it takes to announce the appointment, the more the rumours are gathering that Aussie female presenters are decidedly cool on the position.
Meanwhile The Circle looks set to return without confirmation of a new permanent co-host. The show is expected to draw upon its many guest presenters to join Yumi Stynes and Gorgi Coghlan next week.
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- Tagged with Excess Baggage, Neighbours, TEN News, The Biggest Loser, The Drum, The Project, World News Australia
33 Responses
Fingers crossed the rumours re: Ten Late News are true. It should never have been cancelled. But I agree David, if Sandra Sully isnt presenting it then forget it. It will die fast without her at the helm
Why don’t they go the whole hog and turn it into a mini Hey Hey and do 2hrs each night? Bring in local and overseas musical acts and turn it into something big….
I would Love Ten late news with Sandra Sully back on the air asap.
@ Rod…(January 12, 2012 at 9:57 am)…..totally agree and not just the ‘hip, intelligent young target audience’…we older viewers with our disposable incomes….also do the same thing….and want the same thing.
Yes 10.30 late news with Sandra Sully sooo needs to return! There is nothing to watch @ 10.30 and that was a great option.
The Project will struggle for the first half hour, but whether it is able to make up for that in the second half hour will depend on how the show runs. I think it is likely people will watch only parts of it, most of them the second half. Ratings break downs will be very interesting.
7pm was the best time for The (7pm) Project, 6.30 was OK as an alternative to ACA/TT, but it should have remained half an hour. 6pm too early – especially in summer. Alot of potential viewers are not home then, but are by 6.30 or 7.00.
Why have the 5PM news hour then, if The Project is doing the same thing again at 6PM? I don’t understand :/
This might just work now. I have watched 6 pm news on 7 for 30 odd years but love The Project. Now that they are giving me 15 minutes of news i will probably watch the full hour of The Project. This move could be a real game changer. It may take a little time to bed down but could shift a lot of viewing habits. seems like 10 now have someone who is smart working for them.
Good, now there is something entertaining on at 6pm. Hoping the Block is on before EB
at least the project will offer more of an alternative for ten at 6pm than its offerings over the past 12 months. that being said, it will take time to build numbers and ten will likely lose some viewers due to the time change.
Look as long as the don’t include a 10 min sport segment… I’ll be happy to take more News from The Project.
One thing that needs to be address is the way they send out comedians to report serious stories or ‘feel good/power of good’ reports.. leave that to Danielle Isdale, she’s had an excellent transition from 6.30 with George..
I’d love to see Sandra back.. but something tells me that they may try something new like putting Hamish McDonald late night..
@Andrew I really like your idea. The Project at the new time clashes with other things I want to watch. I’m not interested in anything else on that time either.
Though Nine could always run The Block first and mix things up a bit.
For this to work they need fresh talent, perhaps a 4th permanent host. These 3 are starting to get stale.
Well Ten have lost me at 7.00pm. I always used to go straight to The Project when turning the TV on when I get home at 7. I have no desire to watch TBL, Excess Baggage, Home And Away or whatever at 7.00, and I’m not home before 7.00 so The Project has lost me after 2.5 years.
Maybe they could re-run The Project on ONE at 7.00pm so that the people who don’t get home in time to see it at 6.00 still have a chance to see it. And let’s face it, it’s not like COPS repeats is compelling viewing on One in that timeslot currently.
Well i won’t be watching the Project anymore. I watch 7 News and then I want something to watch at 6.30. I’m not going to start watching the project after missing the first half hour. If it started at 6.30 i’d watch every night.
I used to watch Ten news at 5 before switching to Seven news, but when they extended the broadcast it meant it stretched out, sport started later, and weather wasn’t until 5.59 so it crossed over. Started watching Ten news less and less until they started putting Andrew Bolt on their news for commentary and i switched off Ten news altogether. Any word whether they’ll be keeping Bolt to commentate on political stories? As it is now i won’t be watching any news on Ten now.
Why not just bring Neighbours back on the main channel? It was getting 500k before they pulled it which is better than George Negus was rating.
Is it just me or is The Project stills looks a bit forced. It just doesn’t work for me – especially when they try to do serious stories.
Sorry Ten Execs, but unless The Project is going to give me the local Adelaide news at 6pm, I will be sticking with Channel Seven at 6pm. I do agree with Janey (I also think The Project could get a lot of viewers at 6.15 when Seven and Nine News go to sport which is boring to most people.) I will also be tuning in at 6.15.
All these ten execs need a reality check. All this talk about ‘owning’ the 7pm slot when they had reality there. The way I remember it is TBL always came third to home and away and 2.5men (r). then in the months they didn’t have stripped reality they totally bombed. This year it’s the same shows they had there on 2009 only they have aged 2 years and hither reality as competition.
I must say my eyebrows were also raised when I saw the new Sunday line-up quoted as “bold and irreverent” too by the new CEO. It’s a good line-up but it’s not a bold and irreverent line-up. I get that they want to retrieve those words but c’mon….
I never watch the news on Seven and Nine, but always watch The Project. I think this is a great idea, and it suits my early evening viewing perfectly. I also think The Project could get a lot of viewers at 6.15 when Seven and Nine News go to sport which is boring to most people.
I’ve seen some amazing stories on The Project, including the story on the Queensland Flood victims and rescuers one year on by Jules Schiller the other night. It’s a great show and more people need to stop criticizing something they’ve obviously never seen!
Note to Mr Mott: your hip, intelligent young target audience has been reading the news online throughout the day. If they’re watching TV, it’s because they want entertainment!
Ten have got this wrong. Seven and Nine News will thump the Project and then at 7pm The Biggest Loser will share their audience with Excess and the H&A viewership will not leave the show resulting in a slump of ratings for the BL and low ratings for EB.
David, Kathryn Robinson will be co-host of Breakfast on Ch10
Hmm – three people who don’t really know anything about the news of the day delving into it – nah – that won’t work. Especially when the Drum is on ABC 1 at the same time. (Am I the only person who thinks the Drum would do better at 6.30?)
Ditch The Project & put it out of it’s misery. Ten needs to give us a (good) bad soap in the vain of Hollyoaks or Eastenders in the 6 or 7pm slot?
Neighbours & H&A are way past there used by date by about 15 years each.
We soap addicts need something we can be proud of that’s Aussie.
The last time i was hooked on an Aussie soap was Pacific Drive.
Now that was really (good) bad tv.
Channel 9 teased us by saying Young Doctors would return only to be given a crappy doco series instead.
Same for 10 with Inside Out. Talk about building up our hopes.
Anyway we should be able to replicate an Eastenders style show right down to the local pub being the meeting place with Rowena Wallace being the first landlady. My thoughts…..