‘I do have pants on’: The Project says goodbye with teary and funny final episode
In the end The Project delivered what it always promised: news done differently.
Axed after 16 years and more than 4000 episodes, Friday night’s 90-minute farewell was tear-stained yet joyful, a celebration of everything that made The Project truly different: it gave a voice to “everyday Australians” without ever being condescending. There was no gotcha journalism, just thoughtful reporting and campaigning that made a difference. It had celebrities and musicians, and a roll-call of Australian talent, many of whom found a home on show. I cried, they cried, and I can only imagine the party going on there now.
Sarah Harris (left), Carrie Bickmore, Sam Taunton, Dave Hughes, Georgie Tunny and Waleed Aly farewell The Project on Friday night.Credit: David Cook
Waleed Aly, Sarah Harris, Georgie Tunny and comedian Sam Taunton helmed the desk for the final night, with special appearances from original The 7.30pm Project hosts Carrie Bickmore, Dave Hughes and Charlie Pickering, who videoed in from New Zealand.
Bickmore, who only left two years ago, recalled receiving an enormous bunch of flowers from Oprah Winfrey (her son later broke the vase they arrived in), meeting Brad Pitt while she was bare foot on a boat, and thanked the viewers for all “the feedback I’ve received on my looks”.
She also reflected on the enormous support her charity Carrie’s Beanies 4 Brain Cancer, which she started in 2015 after her husband Greg died of the disease, had received. “I wanted to raise a million dollars,” she said. “I would not have raised over $25 million if it wasn’t for you guys at home. When we started, I just wanted to raise awareness and now we have a brain cancer centre with people in clinical trials.”
The original hosts returned to The Project’s desk: Charlie Pickering (left), Dave Hughes and Carrie Bickmore.
Hughes – perhaps the only person who didn’t get teary – also recalled being so nervous on the day they met Brad Pitt that he introduced himself as, “Hi, I’m Dave, I’m friends with Eric Banana.” Pickering, meanwhile, said the first episode in 2016 was like “building the plane while you fly it … somehow we figured it out”.
Regular co-hosts Tommy Little, Susie Youssef and Rachel Corbett popped by. Hamish Macdonald and Lisa Wilkinson also dialled in, with both praising The Project’s ability to make genuine change, with Wilkinson naming the uncovering of the “toxic workplace culture at Parliament House” as a personal highlight.
Macdonald, who was on holiday in London, also praised Aly. “Waleed, I just want to acknowledge your work as well … a lot of this stuff [campaigns] you did, it took a big personal toll at times. I think you really deserve kudos.”
Macdonald also wanted to reassure his mother that Little was lying the night he said Macdonald was wearing “arseless chaps” on air. “Mum, I have got pants on now. I do have pants on every night, and please don’t believe a word he [Little] said.”
In keeping with The Project’s tone over the years, it was not all serious, there was plenty of light, with a jaw-dropping highlights reel of all the celebrity guests that have featured over the years: Tom Cruise (repeat visitor), Renee Zellweger, Robbie Williams, Paul Mescal, Katy Perry, Cameron Diaz, Robin Williams, John Cleese, Carrie Fisher, Kylie Minogue and Elmo, to name a few.
British singer Robbie Williams with Peter Helliar on The Project.
It was a great reminder of how fun and silly the show could be: Aly obsessing over the band Queen, Little doing a nude bungy jump, Bickmore being unable to pronounce “Qantas”, Christopher Pyne singing Abba’s Fernando and all the flubs and blubs over the years. It was a perfect snapshot of why The Project connected with its audience: the hosts never pretended to be anything but real.
As the end neared, Aly declared he would take the hit and wrap it all up. In a moving monologue, he eloquently praised the “little show that could”.
“Sixteen years ago, some outstandingly creative people began an audacious TV experiment,” he said.
“Could you straddle the worlds of news, popular culture and comedy in a single show, a single segment, a single moment? Could you create a world where Will Ferrell can interview the prime minister? It is not the done thing. Could you cover everything from wars and revolutions to Kim Kardashian breaking the internet to the latest developments in Qantas customer service? Could you do that in the space of five minutes? It’s not the done thing.
The Project’s crew wave farewell on Friday’s night’s final epsiode.
“Could you do a prime-time commercial news show that hooked its audience by playing with them instead of scaring them, that didn’t trade on demonising the groups of people who have no platform to respond? It’s not the done thing.
“Well, we done the thing … nothing like this show exists anywhere in the world, as our international guests would constantly tell us … and that’s because I think this show reflected the best in this country. It was irreverent. It knew when things were serious, but it refused ever to take itself that way. It always gave its best ... And it reflected our lives. You love, you cry, you get things wrong, you laugh, and you do all these things all at once, not in isolation, because that’s life. Often we are laughing despite the tragedy around us. It’s release and escape, and especially, it’s connection …
“And thank you at home … No show I know of has a relationship with this deep with its viewers. You’re the reason the show existed, you’re the reason this moment is so hard. TV is a meeting place, and this was the most extraordinary gathering.”
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