Is the end of The Project and Q+A the death of ‘woke’ TV

Two pillars of left-leaning media, the ABC’s Q+A and Network Ten’s The Project have been axed – does this mean there’s no more audience for “woke” TV, asks James Morrow.

For the longest time, the ABC’s Q&A was a bit like some aging celebrity from your youth.

Whenever its name was mentioned the first thing people would think was, “that’s still alive?”

Now, though, Q+A is no more.

The show, whose ratings over the years had shrivelled and declined like a helium balloon from last weekend’s birthday party, had gone on a break in May with a plan to return in August (it is very exhausting producing an hour of television every week, so they needed their rest).

But that triumphant return was not to be, with ABC management confirming Tuesday that the show was no more.

ABC’s Q+A host Patricia Karvelas.

And that’s not the only news from the intersection of media and politics.

Network Ten’s The Project has also gotten its own death notice, with the stars announcing their farewell Monday night.

Both shows, in their different ways, were less about current affairs than the were about delivering talking points to their mostly left-wing, progressive audiences.

Q+A skewed more towards the inner city Boomer set, and its typical four-on-one attack on the week’s lone conservative panellist was tailor made for an audience of retired teachers who still are sore about what happened to Gough Whitlam.

The whole thing was meant to seem like a balanced town hall but everyone knew better, and stories about questions from people anywhere to the right of a Newtown neighbourhood action Facebook group being spiked were legion.

(They had no such qualms in 2015 about letting a former terror suspect put a question to the panel, of course).

The Project was more newsy with a strong bent towards light entertainment, but there was a time (back in the 2010s) when Waleed Aly could deliver a rant that would make the news.

Aly in particular was instrumental in setting forth the approved polite company narratives around Islam and Islamophobia in the 2010s when terror attacks in Europe were still newsworthy.

The current The Project presenters on Network 10: Susie Youssef, Waleed Aly, Sarah Harris, Hamish Macdonald, Georgie Tunny, Sam Taunton and Rove McManus.

So does this mean that there has been a change in the weather, and that there’s no more audience for “woke” TV?

Don’t be so sure.

It may be that in the new media landscape, it is not so much the appetite for progressive talking points has declined as that they are being delivered in new ways.

Remember just last month Labor won a thumping election victory and in many parts of the inner city Australia admitting you’re a conservative is like saying you like to use puppies for football practice.

At the National Press Club Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese talked about how he went on something like 20 podcasts to get his message out, including one hosted by the notoriously famous just for being famous Abby Chatfield.

Which suggests that the messaging is still getting out there, we just won’t be seeing it on our TVs.

And, happily, in the case of the ABC, we will be paying for one less hour a week of it.

Originally published as Is the end of The Project and Q+A the death of ‘woke’ TV