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The 7pm Project: it’s official

By David Knox on June 13, 2009 Filed Under News It will be known as The 7pm Project.

It will start on July 20th and it will look at the day’s news in front of a live audience.

Led by comedian co-hosts Dave Hughes and Charlie Pickering, The 7PM Project will be “the simplest new idea in television for a long time.” The news of the day will be brought to audiences by Carrie Bickmore. The show will have a team of correspondents delivering stories from around Australia and around the world into the studio every night. Ruby Rose will be bringing viewers all the latest music news. The media and sport beat will be covered by James Mathison.

TEN says “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. 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.”

Rose and Mathison join the three names tipped by TV Tonight earlier this week for the show produced by Roving Enterprises. More names will be announced over the coming weeks.

Mathison recently stepped asided from Australian Idol although he was quoted at the time as saying, “I am not going to be on TV for a while now, not Dancing With The Stars or anything like that. I just want to explore other music opportunities while I am here in New York and at home.”

TEN Programmer David Mott said, “We’ve had great success in introducing brave projects to the Aussie TV landscape such as MasterChef Australia and Talkin‘ ‘Bout Your Generation and if we get this right, The 7PM Project could be a game changer for TEN in that very crucial 7pm timeslot. Not to mention our digital platform which plays a key role in the experience, driving content and discussions to the show, making it a truly integrated TV /on-line offering and a place for audiences to share their stories, opinions and interact.”

TEN has surely found 7pm success with MasterChef Australia and The Biggest Loser but it struggled with Taken Out and too often has had to rely on The Simpsons as filler.