Waleed Aly makes big decision about future at The Project

The Project host has reportedly signed a lucrative new TV contract that comes with several additional “sweeteners”.

He may still make regular appearances as a guest and panellist on the ABC, but it appears Waleed Aly is out of the contention as a possible replacement for outgoing 7.30 host Leigh Sales.

Aly had been tipped as one of the favourites to replace Sales since she announced her intention last month to step away after almost 12 years at the helm of the ABC’s flagship current affairs show.

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Waleed Aly has reportedly signed a lucrative new deal

While Aly has been hosting The Project since 2015, The Australian’s Media Diary reports that he had been out of contract, making a jump back to the ABC a less tricky prospect.

But Media Diary today reports that Aly has in recent weeks signed a new “seven-figure, multi-year” deal with Ten that will cement his future on The Project until at least the “mid-2020s”.

That’s good news for Ten, who are already having to contend with losing their other Project Gold Logie-winner, Carrie Bickmore, for several months during this ratings year.

Bickmore surprised viewers last week when she announced she’ll be taking a few months off from the show to visit the UK with her family. Bickmore, who quietly sold her family home in Melbourne weeks before making the announcement, has insisted the school term-long trip will be temporary.

The Project will go on without Carrie Bickmore for several months this year.

Media Diary reports that Aly’s new contract includes some attractive “sweeteners” that mean he’ll continue to be seen widely outside of The Project: He’s retained the right to appear on various ABC panel shows like Insiders and Q+A, and will also be able to pursue other projects of his own at Ten.

Search for Sales’ replacement

Sales told 7.30 viewers last month that she intends to leave the show later this year “once the federal election is over”, closing the book on a more-than 11-year run behind the desk.

“There’s nothing wrong, other than I just feel a strong sense of it being time to pass the baton to the next runner in the race and to take a break,” she said.

Sales said it was ‘time to pass the baton on’.

There’s been mounting speculation that ABC executives were likely to appoint either Insiders host David Speers or political correspondent Laura Tingle, who filled in as 7.30 host over the summer break.

Stan Grant and Virginia Trioli have also been named in the mix.

However, according to Media Diary, it’s ABC reporter Sarah Ferguson who is firming up as the favourite to take over.

Ferguson filled in as 7.30 host for six months while Sales was on maternity leave in 2014, before moving on to Four Corners. She is temporarily based in Washington, with the ongoing tensions between Australia and China currently preventing her from taking up her proposed position as the ABC’s Beijing bureau chief.