The Project’s first ever episode: What Hughesy and Carrie remember

AS THE Project show celebrates 2000 episodes, the original stars reveal what went on behind the scenes on night one.

NOWADAYS The Project is one of the slickest and best produced shows on TV, but it was a different story on July 20, 2009.

It was the first ever episode of The 7PM Project (as it was called back then) and the original trio: Dave Hughes, Carrie Bickmore and Charlie Pickering, were s**tting themselves.

As the Channel 10 show celebrates its 2000th episode tonight, we asked the stars to reflect on that first “stressful” night of live TV:

THE PROJECT’S EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, CRAIG CAMPBELL

We had been doing real time run-throughs for two weeks before our debut. We’d ironed out a lot of the tech issues and by the time we went live we were in the hands of Dave, Carrie and Charlie who were in the hands of the control room, so it was very much a trust game.

It certainly had pace, many would say too fast. The set was very brown, the graphics very grungy, oh, and we forgot to say goodnight, so we had an awkward ending.

I remember our audience, (15 people) were standing ‘behind’ the plasma wall, as they were a late addition to the set to ensure we got some real laughs and to give Dave and Charlie a barometer for their jokes.

It amused me the next day with some reports that accused us of using canned laughter.

It took us about two weeks to work out how to rearrange the set to accommodate them sitting down.

James Mathison reviewed 60 minutes for us, Julie [Goodwin] from MasterChef was our first guest and Ruby Rose recorded a celebrity interview.

Her interview for GI Joe was shot handheld and pretty much made the audience sick with all of the movement.

Julie Goodwin on The 7pm Project at Channel 10 studios in the Como Centre.

DAVE HUGHES

I was absolutely terrified before the first episode because we were doing something that hadn’t really been done before. It was serious news with jokes slammed right in the middle of it. It was really different and I was certainly concerned that every time I opened my mouth during that first episode that I was going to ruin my career.

They [the producers] didn’t want to have a studio audience but I said it’s NEEDS an audience. But they forgot to organise one for our opening night. We were about to go on air and there were about seven people in the audience. I was sitting there yelling, ‘where’s the f**king audience?’ Charlie was telling me to calm down but literally 15 seconds before we went live I was still yelling, ‘Where’s the f**king audience?’ They had to run people up from other floors in the building ... I think there were a few cleaners dragged in.

I wasn’t the easiest person to deal with during those first few episodes. I was also doing breakfast radio at the same time. I was stressed, we were all stressed. Me and Charlie [Pickering] used to fight ... we had a couple of beauties. Looking back on it, it was pretty funny.

But hats off to Carrie Bickmore. The show is exhausting and Carrie is still batting it up night after night, what a bloody champion. And hats off to Craig Campbell also, a bloody genius.

James Mathison and Ruby Rose were the show’s roving reporters back in 2009.

CARRIE BICKMORE

I remember during the day of our first show hearing Hughesy talk to our bosses about needing an [studio] audience and I didn’t fully appreciate why it was so important at the time. I was thinking, ‘Don’t worry about it, we’ll deal with it tomorrow or the next day.’ But Hughesy couldn’t have been more right. The studio audience has been one of the fundamental parts of our show — it enables the guys to be funny, it enables interaction and now I really appreciate why he was so insistent on having a big live audience.

Before the first episode I remember wondering if my body would automatically tell me to keep breathing because I was so stressed out that I thought that I might actually have a panic attack or a heart attack live on air.

I honestly don’t remember anything about the first episode. I couldn’t tell you what topics we talked about or any details, the only thing I remember is when the show ended, breathing out and hearing Dave Hughes say, ‘Well, I think I just ended my career’. I remember thinking, ‘S**t, if Dave Hughes is saying that, then what hope have I got?’

After the show we had a debrief that went for about three hours discussing what we’d do differently the following night. We were all in a state of shock. Those first few couple of weeks were so terrifying for me.

The current Project co-hosts celebrate 2000 episodes.

The Project, which airs at 6.30pm weeknights on Channel 10, has since won six Logies and is nominated for another five this year