Could The Project work in a late night slot?
Ahead of network Upfronts, rumours of radical programming changes.
- Published by David Knox
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Ahead of 10’s Upfront in October, there are rumours 10 the network might consider The Project in a late night slot.
Woman’s Day speculates the show might be moved in order to rejuvenate the network’s early evening slate, amid further rumours of Deal or No Deal and a 60 minute 10 News First.
The concept of a later Project is not such a crazy idea, where it might draw upon younger viewers and offer interviews with latest contestants eliminated from reality shows, instead of the following day.
Critic Colin Vickery told TV Tonight, recent hosting changes don’t seem to have worked any ratings magic which puts pressure on 7.30pm entertainment shows coming off a low base.
“I really don’t see how anything will alter if it stays where it is,” he said.
“Would a move to 9.30pm work? The biggest challenge would be to make sure that it starts at the same time each night.
“But as we have seen with Have You Been Paying Attention? a move to later at night can be liberating. A show can be edgier. It can be a bit more risqué. It can be a bit more adult. Maybe that is just the jolt that The Project needs to get its mojo back.”
It’s clear the network needs to address its early evening scheduling, but we’ll need to wait until Upfronts begin October 24th to learn how.
A spokesperson told Women’s Day “The Project will continue in its current time slot from 6.30pm to 7.30pm, Sunday to Friday.”
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- Tagged with 10 News First, Deal or No Deal, Have You Been Paying Attention?
36 Responses
Rebrand 10 to Paramount TV and start all over again
Moving The Project to a later timeslot sounds like a good idea, but maybe they should just put the idea and production of the show at a later timeslot and give it a whole new name, completely removed from itself at the moment. New show, same idea. Because half of the problem with The Project is that the brand is in tatters, and many people won’t watch it no matter what changes have been made.
If The Project moved to a later slot, I would never bother watching it.
Their expectation that changing the hosts would make a big difference to the ratings assumes that a) people were specifically turned off by the old hosts and/or b) the new hosts are known/liked enough to bring in new people.
The two panels are pretty similar, especially to an outsider. It’s a great panel for people who are already fans of this genre of show, but not likely to bring in many new viewers.
Other potential factors: do young people even watch TV anymore at this time/at all? How rusted on are viewers of A Current Affair/whatever 7 has on? Is there anything more fundamental about the Project that people are not vibing with?
So yeah, maybe moving it is a good idea, although I don’t see how a late night Project would be much different from HYBPA and Cheap Seats. (light entertainment news panel show) and if they’re not strategic, whatever they replace it with is likely to achieve similar if not worse results.
[This all my opinion as an outsider]
I’ll take a crack
5pm: 10News First At 5
6:30pm: Deal or No Deal
7pm: Flagship Programming (Mostly Stripped Reality but with some bigger weekly entertainment and drama shows (TGYH, Taskmaster,”)
8pm: Generally Entertainment (HYBPA, Gogglebox, Drama)
9pm: Proposed Late Project (perhaps with a different title)
10pm: 10News at 10
11pm: American Late Night Show (likely CBS’s Colbert Show, but give it a publicity push, with Colbert doing promos especially for Australia).
This is a good idea, but I’d drop the news back to 60 minutes, take Deal or No Deal to 6pm, and I’d move Neighbours up to 6.30pm on the main channel and give it time to grow.
As another ‘I can fix 10’ reader, here’s my 2 cents for their evening line up.
5pm News
6pm Game show. (Maybe something new)
6.30pm A comedy. (With all this new content surely we can do better than repeats)
7pm Reality show
8pm Dramas & Light ent.
9pm The Project
9.30pm A nightly show (could use same studio as the project and they have a musical act/band that plays as the set spins and switches from one to the other)
10.30pm News
PS. Let’s bring back the ‘seriously’ tag….seriously 😛
Ten need to really invest in their News Department, it’s a great springboard for ABC, 7 & 9 but Ten just seem to refuse real investment in it.
The Project hit the iceberg many years ago and then the very odd promo earlier in the year with Waleed playing guitar had the ship well and truly under water.
It is a brand unable to be resuscitated … but I do like the idea of a 30 minute nightly show (let it organically then grow to one hour), perhaps a title such as ‘GNA: Good Night Australia’ or ‘This is Paramount!”
The Project has tried to be news with come comedic angle. The comedy side just does not work for the younger demographic in my view. On the other side you have oldies who are bolt on die hards who sit down n watch the news. The truth is The Project is just not gaining share. For it to survive in a later time slot means it needs to be on at the same time nightly to gain a loyal audience. To me all reality shows need to be trimmed back to 60 mins max anyway.
Womans Daze…do people still read that?….I watch The Project late night…mostly….Pitting Neighbours against 7…9…News would be its death knell…
I like Hamish…Sarah…Waleed…and regular assorted guests…the comedians leave me a bit cold….Leave Sandra and New First at Five alone….don’t mess with an institution…
The problem for Channel 10 is they are not known for their news or current affairs. They are seen as the younger, more irreverent commercial station. Channel 7 and 9 have the news on lock. I think you need to try something different in that timeslot that will appeal to younger viewers or people who don’t regularly watch the news. I don’t know what that is, but I think the Project has had its day.
Ok I’ll have a go:
12pm The Midday Show
1pm Dr Phil (or a new talk/court show from the USA)
2pm CBS10 Eyewitness News
2.30pm The Price is Right
3.30pm General Hospital
4.30pm Bold and the Beautiful
5pm Neighbours
5.30 CBS10 Eyewitness News
6.30 Deal or No Deal
7pm Reality – 1 hour only.
8pm Scripted Drama
9pm The Project – News, variety, stand up, skitts and live music
10pm CBS10 Eyewitness News
And when Amazon cancels Neighbours, which after watching for a week is inevitable, have a local version of Wheel of Fortune at 5pm.
1. There’s no budget for a reborn Midday Show
2. General Hospital owned by ABC/Disney so unlikely it would be available to FTA 10
3. Where are the endless hours of paid cooking shows? 10 would never drop free programs to buy something
4. “CBS10 Eyewitness News” sounds like ‘Lipstick On a Pig’.
Neighbours need a whole new team of writers. It’s a disappointment. Promised much, delivering so little.
A harsh take on Neighbours, fans were in a spin over the first cliffhanger episode. You can’t realistically expect that on a daily basis though, so now it is how that plays out. I’m told there is more to come.
Would depend on the Hosts and how they approach it set wise, later at night a more laid back look would maybe be more appropriate. Really in saying that I’m thinking of how The Panel was from 1998-2007 and that worked quite well albeit one night a week. Could mix it up a bit and be part The Panel and part Graham Kennedy’s Coast To Coast or Newsworld/Robbo’s World Tonight, then again in a way I guess that is what The Project is now, so perhaps just a more laid back set.
Yes late night for sure but not with Hamish McDonald, his personality is so unrepeatable and somewhat cold, he just wants headlines and arguments.
I love the new comedians and other hosts though much better than before. Neighbours could sit later then but unfortunately it’s still a cheesy show, I thought they would up the anti and be a bit more like Home and Away or RFDS with solid actors, but they are now doing weird montages and the characters are so straight, they had a chance to change it back to the 80’s/90’s style of show but didn’t, must be the same EP or Producers/Writers.
Ten has been showing the Project late at night for years. They know exactly how badly it rates there. Not much on after 9pm gets watched. The Season final of RFDS has been bumped to 8:50pm Wednesday so that Seven can show an extra 30m of MKR on Tuesday. These days you can show M rated content at 7:30, but then HYBPA? would be going head on against MKR or The Block etc. and 7:30. at 8:45pm it picks up viewers who aren’t watching MKR or The Block, then picks up those who were later. They do the same thing with The Cheap Seats.
I used to love tonight live with vizard back in the day .. news, interviews, live music. Something similar at a consistent time could be a game changer
I would believe Woman’s Day if they told me it was “Wednesday”
If I had a dollar for every time someone offered advice on what 10 should/shouldn’t do in it’s evening slots, I’d be living in the Cayman Islands.
And if 10 had tried even one of these ideas Ten years ago then maybe they wouldn’t have gone into receivership and needed to be bought out by the Americans
It’s fine where it is.
I don’t know about *late* nights. Surely is wouldn’t be economically viable anyway without major budget cuts. I think 8:30 would be good, people are still awake and other networks have given up on what was once the prime slot. not everyone wants to endlessly scroll thru streaming platforms before remembering there is nothing on them every night.
I think Sarah Harris would need to go. Her style is more suited to mornings with her OTT fake laughter and corporate colleague chemistry with other panellists.
Ideally 9.30. HYBPA and The Cheap Seats are going nowhere. They’re the only shows that rate.
Maybe 9:00pm, should they move their prime time to 7pm (which would air mostly the multi-night reality: Survivor, MasterChef, I’m a Celeb, Traitors, with some bigger entertainment shows (Gladiators, TGYH, Taskmaster) and an 8pm Entertainment slot (HYBPA, Cheep Seats, some Drama, Gogglebox, maybe a second hour of the launch and finale eps of the reality shows).
Then a lighter, cheekier Project at 9, and News at 9:30.
Rumours of axing and/or bumping The Project has come and go quite regularly with other sites.
With all the departures of hosts late last year, and a whole new line up (+ Waleed Aly), the ratings sadly haven’t improved. But whatever 10 decides to put in the 6-7pm hour, it will be hard to compete against the powerhouses of both Seven and Nine News.
Reality shows starting at 7pm could work, as it did in the past when Big Brother originally started. And will have a head start against others Monday to Thursdays (Fridays might be tricky though without a reality show in mind…..)
I have long argued that The Project is a drag on Ten’s schedule and should be excised. However the later timeslot idea seems like a good one. I note that little after 9.30pm rates more than 200,000 these days but if they are happy to get numbers in the 150,000 to 200,000 range at that time then it might be worth trying.
It does raise the question of what to do with the early evening. My proposals would be;
5.00pm – 6.00pm – News, but with some changes. More international affairs, politics, business and far less sports, weather, promotions. Keep it hard news and dispense with on camera hosts and instead use an omniscent narrator (saves on having a set and related costs.)
6.00pm – 6.30pm – Neighbours, to provide an alternative to the news elsewhere.
6.30pm – 7.00pm – Deal or No Deal (30 minutes only, 60 will not work in 2024.)
7.00pm onwards – reality and entertainment options including hopefully some drama/comedy.
Get someone like David Gyngell ex 9boss in as a consultant. Current Management looks like it’s trying to appease every demographic, yet all its doing is turning viewers off. I am sure Paramount have the money to invest in a clear strategy, which is currently lacking atm.
If they are that adamant on keeping the project then this would be the way to go
5-6 news
6-7 Deal or no deal
7-8 reality (please don’t make 90 min)
Put the project in for 30min at 8 and then keep some of their flagships, such as HYBPA and TCS at 830. Could also be a good follow on from stripped reality, having post elimination interviews straight away (as the article suggests), might maintain some of those viewers.
Alternatively, they should/could try something more entertainment friendly rather than trying to be “news” – we’ve learnt channel ten is not the channel people turn to for news, even with trying to have an alternative edge. The One Show in the UK is a good example of light entertainment and this is an easy 30min filler.
Also – the hosts need a complete refresh (although don’t mind Sam). Would love to see someone like Tony Armstrong and Nat Bass host more of a light entertainment show.
I think it’s dead. If I was 10 I’d do the below.
5:00 – News
6:00 – Mastechef (All year round*)
7:00 – Chaser’s War on Today
7:30 – Reality/Entertainment
8:30 – Entertainment
9:30 – News (Sarah Harris)
10:00 – Sports Tonight
10:30 – Cheap Seats (30, Mon-Thurs)
11:00 – NZ Project
* Masterchef = different concept. Each week is a “season” with sixth episode final for the weekly winner on Sundays.