Ten on its new daily show: ‘It’s not The Daily Show’
Network Ten is talking big about its new live 7pm project, The 7PM Project, with programming boss David Mott describing the show as “a game changer for Ten”.
The programme, produced by Rove McManuss’s Roving Enterprises, features a team of five presenters led by comedians Dave Hughes and Charlie Pickering.
The 7Pm Project will start in five weeks’ time, in the slot currently occupied by Ten’s ratings hit MasterChef.
The show is an offbeat take on the day’s news, with the concept previously being compared to the acclaimed Comedy Central production The Daily Show. However, according to Ten: “The 7PM Project is the news un-spun. It is not a satirical newscast in the style of Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, but a TV show joining in the conversations going on in living rooms around the country.
It will also feature newsreader Carrie Bickmore who works at Nova 100 in Melbourne and also appears on Rove. Ruby Rose and James Mathison will be among the show’s correspondents.
The announcement adds: “The 7PM Project is a place where people who are genuinely interested in the world around them come together to talk, offering genuine conversation in a space previously crowded by scandal and spin. While it’s not afraid to be serious, The 7PM Project can guarantee that there will be no miracle diets, no stories that ‘no parent can afford to miss’, and virtually no dodgy plumbers.”
David Mott, Ten’s chief programming officer, said: “If we get this right, The 7PM Project could be a game changer for TEN in that very crucial 7pm timeslot.”
The announcement also attempts to leave room for the possibility that the show will initially struggle to find an audience. It quotes Craig Campbell, executive producer at Roving Enterprises as saying: “It will take time for people to get their heads around this show and TEN have a reputation for giving shows room to grow. They gave Rove room to grow and we are still here 10 years later.”
Meanwhile, it also emerged at the weekend that Ten is planning a celebrity version of MasterChef although no star names have yet been selected. TV Tonight’s David Knox labels the early brand extension “a risky move”.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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If Ten is so excited about this show, couldn’t it have arranged to have the cast together at the same time for promo shoots? That’s the worst bit of headshot copying and pasting I’ve seen all week. It should be on photoshopdisasters.
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Ruby Rose and James Mathison….kill me now. I can see this show going down the path of David Tench (and don’t get me started about that turkey). With Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, they are clever comedians/writers in their own right as well as having good “correspondents”
Dave Hughes and Charlie Pickering could be okay in this type of show.
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I really like Jon Stewart, but Australian attempts at this type of news/comedy never works because they try too hard to be funny. The Daily Show works because it is a news program that doesnt play into the corporate buzz, or BS politico agendas, it does the opposite and brings the B/S and contradictions of both topics out into the open in a very seriously funny overtone. The 7pm Project will try too hard and it will flop in a week. Get a well confidant newsreader with a good sense of humour that’s not afraid to speakout and it may work, out side of that, I can already say ‘Adios’ “7pm project”.
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Jon Stewart’s show works because he’s a very intelligent man with a sense of humour and very comfortable in front of the camera, and calmly confident in his own sometime-ad-lib ability.
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i can see the magic coming together
– carrie bickmore does unfunny SNL Weekend Today rip off deadpan news bulletin with none of the cleverness of Seth Myers/Tina Fey/Amy Poehler
– dave hughes gets angry/loses it … whinges about things or does vox pops (cos he’s the man of the people)
– Ruby Rose does entertainment/social circles stories
– charlie pickering does jason jones/john oliver DS inspired funny interviews/reports from the field
– james mathieson scares/amazes us with his boggly eyes
should be awesome!
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I can see (and hope) this ends up going to the late Sunday night spot. The only plus side for this show is it doesn’t have Will I love to laugh at my own fart jokes Anderson on it. Just because you think you’re funny doesn’t make it so, none of these people are clever enough to pull this off.
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Show sounds great — shame about the presenters. Might give it a go anyway (don’t remember the last time I watched free-to-air…)
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Points to Ten for trying to move away from sensationalist news. Even if it doesn’t work in the end, and ends up trying too hard to be funny, I think it’s great that they’re at least giving it a go.
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I think the show sounds interesting.
I love Carie Bickmore and Dave Hughes on Rove, and to be honest i do not know the others too well. BUT, i think it has the potential to be good – something different on TV at the least!!
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This show sounds great!!!
I love Dave Hughes and I think Carrie will do a great job. I just hope that there is chemistry between the hosts (carrie, dave and charlie)… we all know that there is between carrie and dave on rove but lets hope it is transferred.
Good on ya Ten for supporting local productions and for trying something out of the square- fingers crossed it works!!
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I like the idea of more local productions, but can’t the producers come up with an original idea instead of copying everything the US does?!?!
I am sure that Nine/Seven will push hard to make this show flop
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I doubt this will be anything like the Daily Show…more like Red Eye on Fox News, a bunch of young punks sitting around and irreverently talking about the quirky side of the news. An updated version of The Panel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10kIbSLLNf4&feature=related
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