INSIDE MEDIA: The show set to replace The Project
A video version of this article is available in the player above with vision of the interviews quoted.
THE SHOW SET TO REPLACE THE PROJECT
This morning, TV Blackbox posted quotes from an email sent by News Director Martin White confirming the appointments. INSIDE MEDIA understands Hitchcock had not revealed to Seven where he was going.
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'Denham is a vastly experienced, internationally recognised story-breaker, and Amelia is a Walkley winner who has worked in Canberra and the United States,' the email by White stated.
'They will both be developing ideas for 10 News with Dan Sutton.'
Respected reporter Dan Sutton is the executive producer of the unit, although INSIDE MEDIA believes this is not an investigation unit, but a new unnamed show.
And while many are assuming that show will be weekly, something along the lines of 7NEWS Spotlight and 60 Minutes, I have reason to believe the show will be nightly.
In fact, even though I have not been able to confirm it yet, I believe this will be the show to replace The Project when the contract with Roving Enterprises expires in a few months.
The number of people already associated with this 'unit' already exceeds what would be needed for a once-a-week show.
And it makes perfect sense for 10 to go down this path.
Let's assume the deal between Channel 10 and Roving Enterprises is a $20 million a year. Network 10 could replace the low rating The Project with a new show for $15 million per year, easily saving a cool $5 million.
And there certainly seems to be no love for The Project. Even on my personal TikTok account, a video I made about the future of the show has been viewed more than 26,000 times, with most comments saying the show should be cancelled.
A Current Affair on Channel 9 is still one of the biggest shows on TV and Today Tonight was still rating strongly when it was replaced by the 1-hour format of 7NEWS.
So, imagine if 10 decided to run a current affairs program at 6.30pm in the old slot formally occupied by ACA and TT. In that timeslot, those two shows were untouchable and were at the top of the ratings every night.
That would mean 10 could solve its big issue surrounding The Project's ratings and the fact (as I mentioned last week) that 10 has to hand over all of its news vision to Roving Enterprises, but that company owns all The Project vision.
It's a lopsided deal that doesn't make sense in 2025 when owning content is the key to financial success.
This new show would allow 10 to once again own its content and might just be the kind of show audiences want at 6.30pm, after they've watched the first 30 minutes of news on Nine and Seven.
As long as they don't make it 'worthy' like they did with the George Negus program during the 'news revolution' days and as long as they don't put it on at 6pm, this new show could actually be a gamechanger for the network.
The big question then is, would it be 30 minutes or an hour?
A 30-minute show would get them to 7pm, which would allow them to try something completely different and move their reality shows into that slot, getting a head start on Nine and Seven.
Or they might elect to extend Deal Or No Deal by 30 minutes, but starting reality TV shows at 7pm could be the breaker the network needs.
But would they take the risk?
Only by taking a big risk do you get big rewards.
Either way, here's my prediction: The Project will be off our screens before the end of the year and Channel 10 will launch a new nightly current affairs show.
Remember you heard it first.
THE FUTURE OF RADIO REVEALED
On Saturday night I spoke to Brisbane radio legend Spencer Howson on my McKnight Tonight streaming show.
Spencer has had a lot of success, including presenting Brisbane's number one breakfast show on the ABC for many years.
Spencer is currently working on a PhD studying the value of local radio and, so far, his findings are quite unexpected.
'Already I'm, I'm seeing this research showing that people are just not as connected to their local town or their local region as they once were,' he told me.
You can see my interview with Spencer in the video player above.
His point is verified by the fact the number one breakfast show in Mount Isa isn't the local radio show but one beamed in from the Gold Coast – a 20-hour drive away.
That same show from the HIT Network is also top of the charts in Toowoomba – a shorter 2-hour drive away.
Traditional thinking has always been that 'local is king' but Spencer's research seems to show the opposite.
'People are getting their local information now from the WhatsApp chat of their street, the Facebook community group of their suburb' explains Spencer.
But does the same rule apply in big cities?
Kyle and Jackie O top the charts in their hometown of Sydney, but have failed to make their mark in Melbourne since their expansion on KIIS FM.
Dave Hughes and Ed Kavalee were two popular Melbourne identities who failed to resonate with Sydney audiences on 2DAY FM.
So, is localism more important in big cities than in regional areas, even though it would be fair to assume the opposite was true?
Having just completed 10 months of his 8-year PhD, there are certainly a lot of questions still to be answered by Spencer.
SKY NEWS EDITING FAIL
You have to feel sorry for Jack Houghton at Sky News. As the host of The Media Show, he holds the media to account, just like we do here at INSIDE MEDIA.
So, imagine how embarrassed he must have been when a blooper that was meant to be edited out aired on his show on Friday night.
Houghton was blasting the ABC after a clip was played of Sarah Hanson-Young appearing on the national broadcaster, but he fluffed his lines.
'Ah, sorry, can I redo this? It's two, two stumbles' he asked the control room.
Thankfully, there were no expletives and Houghton kept his composure.
The editor of the program didn't notice the fluff and kept it in. You can see what happened in the video player above.
Here's an old trick for the folks at SKY: When you have a stuff-up, but black to line for a few seconds so that an editor quickly scrolling through can see something has gone wrong.
It's obvious that whoever was editing this show was just skipping through and didn't pick up on the mistake.
A little trick like this can save humiliation.
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