Ten officially axes The Project amid dwindling ratings

Ten has confirmed the inevitable and announced that the network is axing its long-ailing nightly current affairs show The Project and replacing it with a new investigative news program.

The Project stars, Waleed Aly, Carrie Bickmore and Steve Price. Photo: Channel 10.

Ten has officially axed its long-running current affairs program The Project amid ailing ratings for the nightly panel show that promised to deliver “news told differently”.

The commercial television network informed The Project’s staff on Monday morning that it had cut the show from its slate of programming and that it would be broadcast for the last time in just three weeks.

Hosts Waleed Aly, Sarah Harris and Hamish Macdonald will leave the network.

The final instalment of The Project will air on Friday, June 27 – the last night of the financial year – after 4504 episodes and just shy of what would have been the program’s 16th anniversary on July 20 next month.

The Project will be replaced by a new in-house investigative series the channel has been secretly working on under the working title Behind The Lines, with former Nine and Seven reporter Denham Hitchcock drafted in to host the new program.

For nearly 16 years, The Project has been Australia’s destination for the news when you want a little bit of a giggle.

Well, we have loved every second but all good things come to an end and so are we on June 27.

To everyone who has watched, supported, donated money to help… pic.twitter.com/3icPOSjgPV

— The Project (@theprojecttv) June 9, 2025

The Australian exclusively revealed The Project was under formal review at the network last month and that Ten’s national news boss, Martin White, had been quietly poaching staff from rival networks for the program set to replace it.

So far, White has headhunted Hitchcock from Seven’s Spotlight program as well as 7News reporters Amelia Brace and Bill Hogan, and Nine’s former Europe correspondent Carrie-Anne Greenbank.

Hitchcock and Brace started work on Behind the Lines last Monday, while Hogan and Greenbank are expected to join them at Ten’s Pyrmont headquarters in inner Sydney this week.

The program – billed internally as a “national news, current affairs and insights program” – will be at the centre of a mammoth overhaul of the network’s early evening schedule, and will be broadcast for an hour at 6pm, straight after the channel’s long-serving hour-long 10 News local bulletins at 5pm

Ten’s popular game show Deal or No Deal, which currently occupies the 6pm timeslot, will then be pushed back an hour to 7pm and run for half an hour before the network segues into its prime-time evening programming, including the upcoming reboot of Big Brother.

The changes follow an ongoing decline for The Project, which continually languished well outside the top 10 most watched programs on television each night, at 6.30pm, and will see the program now compete for news audiences against Seven and Nine’s established 6pm hard-news bulletins.

It will also see the production of Ten’s nightly current affairs series come fully in-house, with The Project having been made by independent production house Roving Enterprises, which is owned by the network’s former talkshow host Rove McManus and his business Craig Campbell.

The show began its life as The 7pm Project, running for a half-hour each weeknight, in 2009 before being expanded to a full-hour show from 6.30pm as The Project from 2012.

During its extended run, The Project won 11 Logie awards, most recently in 2022 for Most Popular Panel or Current Affairs Program and Most Outstanding News Coverage or Public Affairs Reporter for former host Lisa Wilkinson’s interview with Brittany Higgins.

Lisa Wilkinson announces her resignation from The Project.

The Project was presented by a collection of comedians, journalists and commentators over its near 16-year duration including Carrie Bickmore, Charlie Pickering, Dave Hughes, Sarah Harris, Waleed Aly, and Peter van Onselen.

Ten confirmed it was cancelling the show in statement on Monday.

“Network 10 will be introducing a revised early evening program schedule later this month,” the statement said.

“At the core of the changes will be an expansion of Network 10’s successful news coverage, with the launch of a new national one-hour 6pm news, current affairs and insights program six days a week to complement 10’s one-hour 5pm local news bulletins.

“This reflects the successful growth in audiences to Network 10 local news bulletins and coverage. Our focus continues to be on serving our free-to-air audiences with more of the content they are increasingly watching.

“As a result of the changes, The Project will air for the last time on Friday, June 27, ending an incredible run of almost 16 years and more than 4,500 episodes.

“The show has successfully balanced humour and heart with poignant discussions about current affairs and celebrity interviews that had the whole country, and sometimes the world, talking.

“Waleed Aly’s Something We Should Talk About editorials about powerful important issues gained international attention, and by the end of Carrie Bickmore’s incredible tenure on The Project, millions of dollars had been raised for Carrie’s Beanies 4 Brain Cancer.

“The impact that The Project has had on the media and entertainment industry, countless careers, as well as on Australian society and culture, cannot be overstated.

“We would like to thank those in front of and behind the cameras who have made The Project the success it has become over the years, and we are proud that so many presenters and regular guests have become household names in Australia.”