Home » 10 Again Forced To Deny Reports The Project Set To Be Shunted To A 9.30pm Time Slot

27 September, 2023

10 Again Forced To Deny Reports The Project Set To Be Shunted To A 9.30pm Time Slot

10 has confirmed The Project‘s sacred cow status at the network, again denying media reports its faltering current affairs program is set to be revamped and shunted to a later, possibly 9.30pm time slot.

The gabftest has long attracted industry rumours about its survivability due to poor ratings that have dropped by a third in the past 18 months, its highly paid hosts, a supposed left-wing bias and its inability to create a halo effect for 10’s evening run of programming.

In recent times, the show seems to have attracted more attention by its hosts leaving than its actual content.

Last night’s outing attracted just 284,000 OzTAM metro viewers, which made it the 17th most watched show of the night. At the same time Seven’s news did 914,000, Nine’s bulletin had 713,000 and ACA did 669,000.

Worse still, the Sunday edition has proven a ratings disaster and seen the network struggle on what is typically TV’s strongest viewing night.

Now more speculation about the show have aired in this week’s Woman’s Day magazine with an “insider” telling the Are Media-owned publication that 10 chiefs were looking to bump Waleed Aly and his cohorts to a much later time slot of 9.30 and replace it with the game show Deal Or No Deal.

Deal Or No Deal last aired in Australia on the Seven Network in 2014 and was hosted by the now disgraced ex-TV personality Andrew O’Keefe.

According to Woman’s Day’s mole, 10 are prepared to axe 30 minutes from its 5pm, 90-minute news bulletin in favour of the revived game show.

However, 10 has denied the media report, a spokesperson telling B&T: “The Project will continue in its current time slot from 6.30pm to 7.30pm, Sunday to Friday.”

Previously, a now former 10 employee had told B&T that any negative talk of The Project “was off limits” around the management corridors at 10.

To make matters worse for the struggling show, star recruit Lisa Wilkinson – who’s on a reported $1.7 million a year salary – has failed to return from her self-imposed exile from November last year.

Wilkinson’s speech after winning a Logie Award in June last year led to a fresh round of commentary in the media and online about court proceedings relating to the Brittany Higgins rape trial.

Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann was found not guilty of the rape charges and is currently suing 10 and Wilkinson for defamation.

Advertise with us

Please login with linkedin to comment

lisa wilkinson the project