The sacking of Project star Sarah Harris could come as a warning to other young women

Sarah Harris was one of the 60 staffers to lose their jobs after the axing of the Project. Her sacking could be a warning to others starting out in their TV careers.

OPINION
If axed The Project presenter Sarah Harris were to speak frankly to the young women who in recent weeks have jumped ship to join Ten’s new evening news program, she might tell them to enjoy it while it lasts because that decade – from age 30 to 40 – will make or break a TV presenter’s career.

Last week Harris was one of 50-60 staffers to find themselves, suddenly and without notice, out of work following the cancellation of The Project, which she anchored.

Harris now faces an uncertain future.

So too do her co-hosts, among whom is Waleed Aly.

Sarah Harris was one of 50-60 staffers to be let go following the axing of The Project

TV sources are of the view that with three failed programs behind her at Ten – Studio 10, Shark Tank and The Project – Harris with her “girl next door” everywoman appeal may have to explore opportunities away from free-to-air television going forward.

Executives at Nine have long been of the view she made a miscalculation when she jumped ship to go to Ten in 2013.

Harris was a 32-year Nine employee who had become the regular understudy for Mornings’ show anchor Sonia Kruger on Nine.

She also replaced Leila McKinnon on Weekend Today during the McKinnon’s maternity leave.

After a decade at Nine, after working her way up from researching and reporting on National Nine News, Harris was on the brink of securing a prominent full time role, Nine sources said last week.

“She was seen as a future successor anchor of one of those programs and was favoured over the likes of Sylvia Jeffreys to succeed,” a TV veteran told this columnist.

Sarah Harris and Waleed Aly in happier times on the TV Week Logie Awards red carpet. Picture: Jonathan Ng

The offer to join Ten’s newly launched morning show Studio 10 came in 2013 but in her eagerness to sign with Ten – presumably doubling her income in the process – Harris failed to advise her Nine bosses who would learn of the appointment by reading it in Ten’s PR material.

Twelve years on, both Nine and rival Seven have recently slashed staff numbers.

Harris finds herself, as a single mother-of-two, in a vastly different media landscape to the one she swapped for Ten in 2013.

GRIM ADMISSION

Ten boss Beverley McGarvey informed The Project’s soon-to-be-ousted production unit on Monday that the show’s future – and by association, theirs – had been under consideration for “years”.

The grim admission brought members of the program’s hardworking crew to tears, among them the program’s respected executive producer Chris Bendall.

Two days later Ten announced the launch of the program that would replace The Project, 10 News+.

The program concept is as unimaginative and stiflingly conventional as its title.

Ten’s head of creative production and entertainment Tamara Simoneau is said to have been asking for more “A Current Affair style” stories from The Project’s producers “for years”.

Sources say Ten’s new show will model itself on Nine’s tabloid-styled current affairs’ program.

Paramount Australia and New Zealand’s president of Network 10 and head of streaming and regional lead Beverley McGarvey. Picture: Network 10

Paramount’s vice president of news Martin White is said to have frequented The Project’s studio control room in recent months while finetuning the 10 News+ program concept, one which McGarvey herself has admitted is unlikely to “quadruple” The Project’s ratings.

With Nine and Seven’s prime time news bulletins experiencing marginally stronger figures in the hotly contested 6pm-7pm slot, Ten has no hope of winning the slot.

Television news veterans point to eight other reasons, in no particular order, the program won’t be a ratings success:

1: The show is too bulky with too many unknown reporters (all of whom are white) and too few experienced producers who know how to produce such programs.

A roster of 10 reporters has been attached to 10 News+, yet only two of them will be known to Ten’s loyal viewers. These are newsreader Hugh Riminton and Ten’s hardworking entertainment reporter Angela Bishop. While the rest, Samantha Butler, Brianna Parkins, Amelia Brace, Denham Hitchcock, Ursula Heger, Ashleigh Raper, Bill Hogan and Carrie-Anne Greenbank – may represent a considerable investment by Ten ($20 million is rumoured) – such a format is going to take time. It took A Current Affair 53 years after all.

2: History shows us Ten doesn’t generally give news programs time to establish themselves because the nation has NEVER turned to Ten for news. An example of this, 6pm with George Negus launched in January 2011. Within three months the program underwent a title and timeslot change but despite moving to 6.30pm, the program was still cancelled after one season due to poor ratings.

Walkley Award-winning journalist Amelia Brace and Investigative journalist Denham Hitchock will host the new Network 10’s program 10 NEWS+. Picture: 10 News

3: Ten’s record of extended national news program fails is long and stretches back decades. In 1988 it launched Page One at a rumoured cost of $14 million, a program which saw Ten poach stars from the ABC, among them Chris Masters, Maxine McKew, Kerry O’Brien. The show was cancelled the following year. Next came Hard Copy in 1991, it lasted just two seasons, as too did Hinch and Inside Edition with Peter Luck, also from 1992. Alan Jones Live, launched in 1994 in the 7pm time slot, lasted three months.

4: An hour is too long off the back of a local news bulletin. There’s a reason A Current Affair is only 30 minutes. It’s too hard to fill an hour.

5: Having approved her Logie Award winning speech for her interview with Brittany Higgins, Ten’s failure to stand by its star reporter Lisa Wilkinson in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial. A network serious about producing quality news supports its stars when they are embroiled in legal action over content produced by and broadcast on the network.

6: The nation’s population is too small to sustain another 6pm news hour

Amelia Brace and Denham Hitchcock with the new 10 NEWS+ reporting team. Picture: 10 News

7: The producer in charge, Daniel Sutton, has no experience producing programs of this variety.

8: Ten appears unsure of its new target market. McGarvey indicated in her address to The Project staff this week that the network is moving away from its 16-39 consumer demographic to an older audience, then why hasn’t the network tapped more seasoned talent for the show? The network has four strong 50+ women journalist’s currently on its books – Chris Bath, Sharyn Ghidella, Jennifer Keyte and Sandra Sully – all of whom are better known than hosts Denham Hitchcock and Amelia Brace, as too was recently departed star Lisa Wilkinson.

GAME SHOW SEARCH HEATS UP

Production studios are working overtime hunting for the nation’s next hit game show.

Although Seven continues to deny whispers it has been in talks with production studios about the development of a new game show as a potential replacement for the network’s ailing 5pm program The Chase, this column hears talks are underway.

On Friday Seven Television’s group managing director Angus Ross sought to shut down claims the broadcaster is making plans to wind up The Chase due to the success of Nine’s Tipping Point which is consistently beating it in the ratings.

Ross said The Chase, which still reaches more than 1.3 million Australians weekdays, “is a hugely successful show and to suggest it is being replaced is incorrect and deliberately misleading.”

He then went to some lengths to talk up the program’s host Larry Emdur who replaced troubled personality Andrew O’Keefe in the chair in 2021.

This column has heard Emdur, Seven’s highest paid star, has taken The Chase’s losses to Tipping Point during the past year to heart.

The Chase host Larry Emdur is said to be feeling crushed with talks Seven is looking to dump the ailing show. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

“Larry Emdur is the reigning Gold Logie winner and Australia’s most popular presenter. (He) continues to set the benchmark for hosting in this country. He has our full support and, as (his) Gold Logie win clearly shows, the support of the Australian public too,” Ross said.

Emdur’s $1.6 million a year contract is contingent on him hosting two shows for Seven, The Chase and The Morning Show.

Ten too is in the hunt for a new game show which sources claim would be scheduled at 7pm.

Reports earlier this month stated that Deal Or No Deal will occupy the time slot but production sources insist Ten is furiously searching for a host for Millionaire Hot Seat, which might explain why Deal Or No Deal host Grant Denyer is currently presenting a live version of the show for tourists on Carnival cruise ship Splendor.

Millionaire Hot Seat, hosted by Eddie McGuire, went into hiatus on Nine in January 2024 when the network launched Tipping Point.

Ten bosses initially favoured newly unemployed Liz Hayes for the chair but now their search has expanded to other prominent women.

Julia Zemiro, Jennifer Byrne and Kitty Flanagan’s name are said to be in the mix.

BUSINESS CLASS ONE WEEK, TRAM RIDE THE NEXT

ABC chairman Kim Williams couldn’t hide his delight as he boarded a Qantas flight to New York in May.

Our spies photographed a smiling Williams chatting to male passengers both in the business class cabin of his QF3 Dreamliner flight and at the airport as he prepared to board his flight to the US.

An ABC spokesperson later said the chairman wasn’t travelling on ABC-related business.

The reason for the flight remains a mystery.

ABC chair Kim Williams swaps Qantas Dreamliner to NY for Sydney tram on Thursday night. Picture: Supplied

ABC chair Kim Williams swaps Qantas Dreamliner to NY for Sydney tram on Thursday night. Picture: Supplied

This week it was a more reflective and silent Williams who was snapped travelling through Sydney – via tram, more your taxpayer-funded mode of transport.

The ABC chairman took the light rail to Haymarket on Thursday night at around 8.30pm.

Standing with one arm braced around a pole minus the luxurious comforts that come with a $12,000 business class air ticket, the ABC’s top man was keeping very much to himself on the chilly light rail.

The picture was taken the day after the ABC confirmed it was laying off 40 staff and winding up another 10 contracts and four days after it was announced the ABC was axing talk show program Q + A, plainly a better look for Williams.

MY BRILLIANT CAREER

The Miles Franklin classic My Brilliant Career is getting a reboot.

The Gillian Armstrong film is set to be remade for television by Jungle Entertainment.

Screen Australia has approved development funding for the project.

No word yet of who has won the role of Sybella Melvin, the headstrong country girl first portrayed by Judy Davis in the class 1979 film.

The writing team on the project are Liz Doran, Alice Addison and Larissa Behrendt. Doran is also producing along with Shay Spencer and Chloe Rickard.

Originally published as The sacking of Project star Sarah Harris could come as a warning to other young women