By James Manning

Network 10 and Roving Enterprises tonight are celebrating 10 years of their daily news program The Project.

A special edition of the program goes to air at 6.30pm Friday and then a celebration will be held afterwards.

The event is being hosted by Network 10’s CEO Paul Anderson and chief content officer Beverley McGarvey, plus the program’s creator and founding executive producer Craig Campbell.

A partner in The Project’s format owner Roving Enterprises, with Rove McManus, Campbell remains the show’s beating heart.

As Campbell explained to Mediaweek, after 10 years of five, and then six days a week, it doesn’t get boring.

“Because the show is made up of whatever the day throws at you it keeps it fresh and exciting. We keep looking for ways on the production side to keep it different. We would probably get bored with it more than the audience do. We want to keep evolving and never stay the same.”

Despite the evolution, The Project has managed to keep many of the trademarks it launched with.

“I looked at the pitch document we gave to 10 in January 2009 and the cornerstones of why we do what we are doing are still there. If anything we probably achieve them better now than we did in our first year.”

“Early on the show was confusing to a lot of people because they didn’t know if we were a comedy show or a news show. The show really found its rhythm when we tried to stop being funny.”

Of the different challenges the format faced over the decade, Campbell noted, “The transition from a half hour to an hour was always testing. Also the first time we went to six days a week, the first time. The longer format allowed us to break serious news stories as well as reporting on the news.”

The show has had a couple of different timeslots over the years. Initially starting as 30 minutes Monday to Friday. “When we originally named it The 7pm Project I thought that would stop us being moved to another time! It was clearly not the case.”

The Project seems to have been blessed with its choice of hosts and regular panellists. “Casting is never easy,” cautioned Campbell. “When Waleed Aly was a regular guest in our fourth chair he was such a good broadcaster that it was an easy decision to put him on when Charlie Pickering left. It might have been a hard choice for him to move from the ABC to the dark side of the commercial television industry. But it has obviously worked out very well, despite him having big shoes to fill.

“Pete Helliar was just a natural fit and he was part of the Roving family for such a long time. As were both Carrie Bickmore and Hughesy when we initially launched.”

The show has a core support team that all seem to be good fits – Hamish Macdonald and Tommy Little on Sundays and other nights when required. “With Gorgi Coghlan and Lisa Wilkinson also in the mix we are incredibly lucky with the group of people we have.”

Campbell has been generous testing people for potential regular appearances. “I like to think everyone deserves two chances when they come on the show. The first time on the show for any presenter is hard work. There are actually not many people who have appeared once or twice and not come back. It is hard trying to juggle the people we want to come on and the others who want to come on.”

Campbell on misconceptions – it’s not a comedy show. “We sometimes book serious news people because we think they will give us some gravitas and they come on and try and be funny. We tell them not to morph into what they think we need from them. I am comfortable that most people who come on have a ‘day job’ as well as doing this show.”

Financial contribution: When asked if the show was profitable for 10, Campbell suggested we ask 10. “I am always told it is from within the walls of 10.”

Budgets. Campbell said the money available to produce the show hasn’t ballooned over the decade. “For a number of years the show maintained or even went down in budget. We know what we have to work with and we make sure we keep within that.”

The Project family: Roving Enterprises produces the show for 10 and there are a number of freelancers used on the show when needed. Campbell: “There is a core team of about 70 people working on The Project including our back of house infrastructure.”

FAQs: The Project at 10

Audience: Maximum in the Melbourne studio is 70. Sydney studio is 100.

Stories: “We aim for at least five main stories each night. There are six segments in total across the hour.”

Guests: “We try for one main guest and some nights we are spoilt and end up with two. Some nights we might get three and I panic because I worry we are skewing the show into entertainment.”

Length: It’s not really an hour. “Our commercial hour is 43 and a half minutes.”

Comedians: “We don’t have to have comedian every night…at least a couple a week, but they need to have something to say.”

Segments: Themes and ideas come and go. “Dr Andrew Rochford used to do a weekly medical segment and Scott Pape used to have a regular finance segment called The Money Shot.”

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Photo: The creator and founding EP of The Project Craig Campbell on the set in the show’s first year (Source: Mediaweek)

By James Manning

The two former drive-time radio hosts Hamish Blake and Andy Lee built their TV profile as a key part of Rove Live and Roving Enterprises produced their early TV series Real Stories.

After early years on Channel 31 and then Seven, Hamish & Andy thrived first with Roving Enterprises and then under their own Radio Karate banner at 10.

They later moved to Nine where Blake and Lee now have their own projects plus regular gigs on other shows screened on the network.

They are soon to return on the Radio Karate production for Nine, Hamish & Andy’s Perfect Holiday, in their own words, “to hurt each other”.

“We’ve come back together like many couples who go on holidays together…and argue for most of the trip,” they told Mediaweek.

The duo recently revealed their first Perfect Holiday sees them visit the United States.

“North America, to be more precise,” they noted adding the trip involves crossing the border into Canada.

They spent close to a month filming the series in North America.

Blake: “The whole idea of this format is we take it in turns to plan alternating days. One day I’m meeting Andy in the morning, I’ll give him a card and I tell him, ‘Good news, this is what we’re doing today.’

Lee: “Just like Survivor. I got mail.”

Even though Blake has been hosting Lego Masters and Lee was a team captain on Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, they have ventured out on solo projects before.

Lee reminded Mediaweek Blake had been a huge part of Spicks and Specs, appearing in about 50 episodes over the years.

They both admitted it can take a bit of getting used to working on a program that is not being produced by their own company.

Blake: “We’re lucky that we are both in fun projects. With Lego Masters, it was really fun to work with another creative team and see how they handle the production, how they dissect creative challenges and problems and stuff because I learned a lot seeing how Endemol Shine operate and I think they’re awesome at what they do.”

Blake then joked some of the ideas might be pinched by Radio Karate in future. “I think it’s called intellectual theft. I’ve bought back all their proprietary material, and we’ll steal it.”

By Andrew Mercado

Attempts to find a youth audience flopped with Love Bytes (2004), Dangerous (2007) and Slide (2011), but A Place To Call Home (from 2015 onwards) was another winner. Honourable mentions also go to Cloudstreet (2011) and Secret City (2016), while Satisfaction (2007), Mr Inbetween (2018) and Wentworth (2013,) all pushed the boundaries of cable TV.

Foxtel’s other favourite genre suggests they have always wanted to create a thriller/horror/supernatural classic. Spooky shows have included Spirited (2010), Top Of The Lake (2013), The Kettering Incident (2016) and Picnic At Hanging Rock (2018) but, this time, ladies and gentlemen, they may finally have cracked it.

Lambs of God (Sunday on FoxShowcase) is a gothic masterpiece, a demented mash-up of multiple genres that leaves you gasping at every turn, right up until that unexpected ending. Who could have guessed that another Aussie series about nuns could be so fascinating, especially after the ABC did it first with Brides Of Christ (1991)? That was set in Australia in the 1960s, but Lambs Of God is set on a rugged island off the coast of England in the 1990s.

During those decades, something changes within the Catholic Church, and that is the rise of sexual scandals. So like Devil’s Playground (2014), it is bubbling away in the background, but Lambs of God is much more fanciful. Special shout-out to the art department who have created an original and atmospheric world within a crumbling monastery and religious garden high atop a clifftop.

Although the Tasmanian island location is stunning, the story is actually set off the coast of England. It’s still based on a novel by Australia author Marele Day though, and the Aussie cast (Essie Davis, Sigrid Thornton, Damon Herriman, Daniel Henshall, John Bell) speak in English accents, but don’t over do it.

Lambs of God is a brave and audacious endeavour and must have cost a fortune, but it is worth every cent. Foxtel already has many of the best series of the year (Chernobyl, Big Little Lies, Game of Thrones, MotherFatherSon, etc) so it is almost a requirement that their Australian commissions are extraordinary too. Upcoming dramas like Upright (Tim Minchin) and The End (Frances O’Connor) sound promising too, so let’s hope they will always find money in their budget to make prestige drama like this.

Thursday Week 29 2019

By James Manning

 • Seven News 1,022,000/959,000
• Nine News 819,000/816,000
• A Current Affair 713,000
• ABC News 605,000
• 7.30 504,000
• The Project 277,000/447,000
• 10 News First 412,000
• The Drum 172,000
• SBS World News 126,000

Breakfast TV

• Sunrise 287,000
• Today 190,000

Seven

Home And Away ended its week on 599,000 after 677,000, 711,000 and 700,000 on other nights.

The Front Bar then did 357,000 with 227,000 in Melbourne.

The movie Snatched was on 195,000 at different times around the network.

Nine

A Current Affair Thursday did 713,000 after 734,000, 787,000 and 836,000 earlier in the week.

The NRL was on 378,000 with 185,000 in Sydney and 172,000 in Brisbane.

The Netball World Cup thriller between Australia and New Zealand screened on 9GO! at 7pm with 124,000 watching.

10

The Project was on 447,000 after 7pm. It screened a few times last night confirming 10’s belief in the brand before tonight’s birthday bash. At 6.30pm the show did 277,000. It then broadcast a special episode after the doco The Final Quarter at 9pm with 302,000 watching. The program always gets a late night repeat too around 11pm or later each day.

The 7.30pm screening of the documentary about Adam Goodes, The Final Quarter, did 442,000.

ABC

Escape From The City was on 410,000 with a trip into the NSW Southern Highlands.

The new episode of Mad As Hell then went to air a day late with 361,000 watching after 495,000 watched the repeat on Wednesday.

SBS

The Handmaid’s Tale had an audience of 212,000.

Earlier in the night, The Great House Revival was on 175,000.

Stage 12 of the Tour de France did 172,000.