Peter Helliar on The Project’s ‘mass exodus’ and joining I’m A Celeb

In a candid new interview, Peter Helliar opens up about The Project’s spate of exits – including the text he sent Lisa Wilkinson the day she quit.

Former Project panellist Peter Helliar has opened up about the show’s tumultuous end to 2022, which saw Carrie Bickmore, Lisa Wilkinson and him quit within weeks of each other.

Speaking to news.com.au in South Africa the day before entering the jungle as a contestant on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here, Helliar shed new light on just how The Project’s “mass exodus” had played out behind the scenes.

“Lisa probably took us a bit by surprise,” he said of Wilkinson’s announcement, which came after scrutiny over her conduct during the Brittany Higgins and Bruce Lehrmann trial, and saw the veteran journalist tell viewers in the final minutes of an episode that she was leaving, effective immediately.

Lisa Wilkinson says goodbye to The Project.

Two days later, so did Peter Helliar.

While her departure was a shock, Helliar said he “completely understood” her reasoning.

“She’d had a really rough year, and I really admire her putting her family first and taking some time away.”

Helliar revealed that Wilkinson had sent him a text on the day she announced her departure, giving him a heads up on the news.

“I just wrote back to her and said, ‘We love you and good luck and I understand,’ but I was wondering: Does she know that I’m announcing that I’m leaving in two days?”

Turns out, she didn’t. It made for a “kind of funny” conversation between the pair as Helliar revealed she’d somewhat stolen the thunder of his planned departure announcement, made on-air just 48 hours later.

Bickmore’s exit from the show came as much less of a shock, as the two longtime co-stars had spoken candidly behind the scenes about what their futures might look like after The Project.

Carrie and Peter had some candid chats about when they might leave the show.

“When Carrie told me, that was the thing that made me think, ‘Okay, this is probably a good time [for me] to go,’” he said.

And while Helliar insists he has no regrets about leaving the show, he does concede it’s been an adjustment to get used to life without the demands and deadlines of a daily live TV show.

He said the lack of motivation to “plan my own schedule” hits hardest at the start of his week.

“I think you come off the weekend and maybe not plan stuff for Monday so there’s a couple [of] days where I felt a little bit like, ‘Oh, what do I … How does this work? I need to get motivated.’”

After giving himself a “fun summer” free of work, Helliar said he now feels he has the breathing space to pursue new creative projects, confirming he made the right choice leaving The Project.

‘Risk-averse homebody’ Helliar says he’s going to throw himself into the challenges I’m A Celeb will bring.

“One night I just opened up a laptop and wrote two treatments for ideas that I’d had for a while; and it was just really inspiring. It was like: Okay, this is why I left.

“I’ve created some space to do that. And it’s lovely.”

Among the new projects for Helliar is his first-ever stint as a contestant on a reality show. He’s one of several stars on this season of I’m A Celeb who’ve been approached repeatedly in the past, and always said no – until the call came again, shortly after he’d quit The Project. While he’d previously vowed “never” to do the show, gone was his usual excuse for turning it down.

“I saw Barry Hall go through horrific things. I’ve seen a friend bit in the face by a snake and it’s just something that I just thought, I’m never going to do it,” he said.

“But I thought, if I say no to the first thing that comes across that’s outside my comfort zone, I just didn’t like what that meant, heading into this new part of my career,” he told me.

“And I’ve known a lot of people who have done it and they’ve all almost uniformly come out loving it.”

A negotiation followed – then an offer that “ticked a lot of boxes” – but for Helliar, the biggest deal-breaker was the show’s return to Africa after filming relocated to northern NSW during the pandemic.

“I wouldn’t have done it, I think, if it was in Australia. I wanted to have the South African experience,” he said.

And while Helliar described himself as a “risk-averse homebody,” he said he’s determined not to shy away from the challenges that his time on I’m A Celeb will bring.

“Don’t be in camp hoping you don’t get chosen for the challenges,” he said.

“If I come out of this with no stories, it’s not much fun – so I want to get involved.”

I’m A Celeb airs 7.30pm Sundays to Thursdays on Ten

Nick Bond travelled to South Africa as a guest of Ten