Waleed Aly takes permanent Project chair
As tipped, The Project has its third permanent host as Waleed Aly joins Carrie and Pete.
- Published by David Knox
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As tipped, Waleed Aly has been confirmed as the third permanent host for The Project, joining Carrie Bickmore and Peter Helliar.
Aly, who has been a longtime part-time host, will replace Rove McManus whose four month stint comes to an end.
He assumes the role that has welcomed guest hosts following the departure of Charlie Pickering in April.
Aly, who recently won a Walkley Award for an opinion piece in Fairfax, is well-regarded within TEN. He resigned from his Radio National commitments two weeks ago and his Big Ideas show ended as part of ABC funding cuts.
Readers were evenly divided over the idea of his becoming a permanent third wheel, when TV Tonight tipped him to land the position:
- Love Waleed! Hope he gets the gig.
- I’d be keen for him to join the show. I think he’d be great 🙂
- I think Waleed is a good choice for an ongoing hosting role
I would be back for the Project if that happened….I like Waleed….have seen his work on the ABC and enjoyed what he did… - He is watchable but I just can’t seem to connect with him as a host, and don’t think I could all week.
- Don’t let him in. Having Waleed Aly makes me switch off The Project.
- I hope this does not happen. I am not a fan of Waleed and regard his views as exteme left wing.
- He’s not the strongest host and not the best choice for the permanent host. I have been watching the show pretty much every day since it started but if this happens, I’m afraid they’ll lose me as an avid watcher.
News Corporation is already drawing attention, positively, to his religious background dubbing him “the first Muslim to co-host a major prime time television show on an Australian commercial network.”
According to the man himself, “One of the things that has pleased me most about the whole experience with TEN and The Project is that it (religious and ethnic background) has never come up.”
The show takes a break after next week and Aly will begin on January 26th.
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- Tagged with Big Ideas, The Project, Walkley Awards
49 Responses
@Elle: Andrew Bolti is a conservative guy anchoring a conservative shows. The projects byline is news but not as you know it ladi ladi dar.
I used to watch this show five nights a week when Pickering and Co where on it. I never particularly liked Carrie, but I understand there’s gotta be a female. I think anyone’s better than her honestly, even though I know she won that Gold Logie.
When Dave left I didn’t watch as much but when Pickering left I barely now ever watch it. Going by the ratings of this show which average 200k less than last year I think those people are with me. I doubt I will ev watch again now that Aly is on it. Big ideas was okay, but this. Ewww.
The commentators who are complaining about Waleed’s alleged left wing bias seem to have absolutely no problem with Andrew Bolt’s rabid right wing bias. Oh how I laughed and laughed.
Good luck to Aly Waleed & The Project – hope that having him as a co-host will make a few more people think
Hydra, if new sources need to be unbiased, how do you cope with all the Murdoch newspapers? You could argue that most commercial news sources are already unbalanced in this country, and not to the left. If this show is mildly biased in that direction (which is debatable) it’s probably only noticeable as a contrast to the right bias of most other news sources.
Never been a Project watcher, unless a guest I wanted to see is on, and didn’t watch while Rove was on as I can’t stand him.
But, now I’ll have to watch more regularly, now Waleed’s on, the only problem left is Helliar! if they get rid of him I might watch even more.
The Project is a mostly comedy styled news program. Waleed is suited to covering serious events with his views to match. With the show’s comedic format and Peter Helier, Waleed is better use elsewhere.
Hiring a Walkely winner for a news/ news discussion show, That’s so crazy it just might work.
To Ryan’s comments about the 3/1 male female split, I do agree that for the run of The Project that’s what’s occurred. I wonder if they have started to think about that. It does seem to me lately there have been more nights where it has been a 2/2 male, female split. If memory serves correct it was four nights this week with a 2/2 split. Rove’s last night the week before was a 1/3 male female split. I hope and suspect this is a sign of things to come.
In my opinion Waleed is the best person for this job, whether they be male, female, white, brown or anything else.
I like Waleed but I don’t know if this is the best decision. Time will tell. Anything is better than Rove.
@Qubec: That’s exactly how I would describe Steve Price.
Waleed Aly for the Project? Would be a switch off for me.
I will no longer be watching the project ever again and I’m sure I’m not the only one. He is a horrible presenter with a cringeworthy style. Matt Dorian should have been host. They will lose thousands of viewers and it won’t be long before he or the show gets the axe. What a bad bad bad decision by ten
2 words F(swearwords) yes
Congrats to him on the role. I would have to agree with the comments by Qubec and have noticed that the show although definitely left-leaning has started to move too much to the left where it simply is unbalanced. For a show that claims to be a news and light entertainment program, there needs to be a balance especially in the news side. For those making comparisons with The Bolt Report, that program claims to be a political discussion show. And obviously you know what your going to get if you tune into that. A bit more of an attempt at balance is needed from The Project rather than distortion and selective reporting of news events.
Can someone explain the term ” Extreme left-wing views ” ?
Can’t see this being long term, he just looks out of his depth most times and his extreme left wing views will turn more people off than will bring in.
This is terrific news 🙂 I might have to start watching the Project again now that he’s permanent. Love Waleed.
Not a huge fan so despite sticking since Day one this could be the end of my love affair with The Project….
Aly is very difficult to connect with and more often than not ends up coming across overly agressive and dogged – not the ideal traits of a TV host of a light/news based program.
Not sure whether the religious and cultural slants have much relevance. Over the past year there have been hosts of several different religious backgrounds and cultural backgrounds (being considered ‘white’ doesn’t mean you automatically share the same culture/religion and heritage! Just like people of Asian background share vastly different culture/religion and heritages…)
The project has had bad ratings the past few months and that’s with Rove, I doubt they will gain any new viewers with this guy, why not another woman considering it’s usually a 3 man 1 woman show
Don’t let him do any interviews. Cringeworthy.
“There is a growing lack of balance in their presentation of the news that is making me like the show less.”
If “balance” is a pre-requisite for topical / ‘current affairs’ TV shows, then “The Bolt Report”* should be banished to the mines of Moria where it belongs**.
(* And plenty of others…)
(** OK, so ratings-wise, it is…)
Good on him, well deserved. Now what about Thursday and Friday?
Good news, Waleed will bring a bit of gravitas to the show. It’s become pretty silly in recent times – too many comedians all trying to outdo each other.
I really like Waleed, I think he’s very smart and charismatic. But based on his appearances on The Project before, I don’t think this is exactly right for him. Something just seems a little “off” when he’s in this role. Maybe this will change now he has the permanent position and he grows into it? I hope he does.
Congratulations to Waleed. I think he will be great. I just hope the haters dont like him for reasons other than his religious and ethnic background’
I like Waleed, he presents well and can hold the main anchor’s chair. And it’s nice to see some ethnic diversity on Australian TV. But his presentation skills are only worthy as a one-off replacement host. As a full time host, I’m not on board. I agree, I just cannot connect with him. He tries too hard with jokes, which clearly isn’t his forte. Likewise, I agree that his views are extremely left wing, dogmatically so. He lets this be known in any political story and will no doubt continue to do so. This is a growing trend on The Project. The last few weeks have been rampant with anti-Liberal Party, left wing bias. There is a growing lack of balance in their presentation of the news that is making me like the show less. The only differing opinion they have on the show is Steve Price, who’s treated like some old fuddy duddy right wing extremist by the others.
A lot of positive comments online this morning following this announcement. Along with the new host, I hope the set & graphics get a refresh while they’re off air having a break.
Congrats. I am not huge fan And once a week host has been ok. 5 nights I just don’t know about. But I say one thing. You are smart. And your opinions I can listen to. But please don’t shout and when you think your funny cause you not. The shouting over others is just annoying just like Charlie was annoying when he did it. Lemo does not and Pete doesn’t. There is no need for it. It is just like a little boy wanting all the attention. Thanks