The Project is gone – but the battle to attract younger viewers to news continues

When The 7PM Project premiered on July 20, 2009, it promised to do “news differently”. Its trio of hosts – stand-up comedians Charlie Pickering and Dave Hughes and radio newsreader Carrie Bickmore, who had developed a TV profile on Rove Live – were aged in their 20s and 30s and provided a fresh, youthful alternative to long-standing nightly news shows such as The 7.30 Report (as it was then called) and A Current Affair.

Dave Hughes (left), Charlie Pickering and Carrie Bickmore in the early days of The 7PM Project.

Unabashedly pitched at an audience of younger consumers – Millennials then aged in their 20s and early 30s – the first episode featured an interview with MasterChef Australia winner Julie Goodwin, former Australian Idol host James Mathison reviewed storied current affair show 60 Minutes, and Ruby Rose interviewed Sienna Miller for the film GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

It was, as Dave Hughes and Carrie Bickmore recalled in a 2017 interview for news.com.au, “stressful”.

“I was absolutely terrified before the first episode because we were doing something that hadn’t really been done before,” said Hughes at the time. “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.”

Added Bickmore: “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, ‘Shit, if Dave Hughes is saying that, then what hope have I got?’.”

Mark Humphries as Barabbas Loins on SBS’s The Feed.

It all sounds very quaint now, but at the time The Project, which will air its last episode on June 27, broke the mould. It was snappy, funny and with its targeting of issues such as domestic violence, sexual assault, protecting Australian wildlife and banning plastic bags in supermarkets, it hit a nerve few other programs did. It connected with a young audience that was hungry for news, who leaned more to the left and who wanted a bit of comedy and celebrity sparkle thrown into the nightly mix.

It also was not alone. In 2013, The Project (it changed its name in 2011) was joined by The Feed on SBS and the ABC’s Tonightly with Tom Ballard in 2017, with both mixing news reporting with features and comedy on a nightly basis.

Along with the satirical group The Chaser and their various shows on the ABC, these programs catered to a growing youth audience that wanted the news and who had, importantly, yet to be distracted by their smartphones.

Now they have all gone and their audience has fractured: Some, in their 40s and beyond, who have watched The Project since the beginning have stuck around, but finding – and keeping – a younger audience has proved trickier.

A 2023 study by the Australian Communications and Media Authority found more Australians were “choosing social media as their primary source of news content”, with 46 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds nominating social media as their main source of news, and 31 per cent of the same group citing celebrities and social media influencers as their primary source of news.

So the real challenge now, for all broadcast media, is how to find and keep a younger audience tuning in.

Comedy still works. Ten, ironically, have had some success with The Cheap Seats, whose hosts Melanie Bracewell and Tim McDonald have managed to appeal to a broad audience by making fun of the news, while also (accidentally) keeping the audience updated on what’s going on.

Will Ten’s new investigative news show, launching soon, fill the gap? It’s hosted by two young-gun reporters – Denham Hitchcock and Amelia Brace – who have serious TV news credentials, charisma and excellent social media game. But is that enough to pull viewers away from their phones?

There is no question young audiences want news – but it remains to be seen if that appetite can be fed by broadcast television any more.

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