December 2nd, 2009 11:54 am

‘The 7PM Project’

With four months under its belt, ‘The 7PM Project’ is still trying to find its feet, two good anchors present the show but the positives end there.

Last night I managed to catch my very first episode of Network Ten’s sort of new news show, ‘The 7PM Project.’ I’ve watched a few clips here and there but why did it take me so long to actually sit down and watch a full episode of ‘The 7PM Project?’ a) It was on at an inconvenient time and I must congratulate Ten for showing some patience with this show – airing it right across the summer and even airing encores late at night, which was how I managed to catch it and b) I saw it as a tabloid show with childish humour and after my first viewing I wasn’t wrong.

Let’s start off with the positives, Carrie Bickmore and Charlie Pickering seem to both have a bright future, their presentation is smooth and they seem to be comfortable doing a daily show. Now to Dave Hughes, seriously with that sort of face who can treat him seriously? And with that annoying voice, I just wanna switch off the TV every time he speaks.

The show itself is direction-less, is it trying to be serious or is it trying to find the funny side of news? I think the later is true but it is not working. They focused on the Liberal leadership as Tony Abbott was elected as Liberal leader that morning replacing Malcolm Turnbull. Ten’s political editor Paul Bongiorno – who was referred to by Charlie Pickering as ‘Bonj,’ seriously? – joined the team as they discussed the day’s events. Paul Bongiorno looked out of place, he started off with a smirk and as Charlie and co questioned him with their usual childish humour, you could see he was trying to hold it together. Couldn’t they tone it down and act professional for one segment?

The opening sequence also seems to be trying too hard. They attempt to include funnies into news stories which aren’t working. I recommend trying an opening monologue in a similar mould to American talk shows or even better a daily version of ‘Carrie at the Newsdesk’ from ‘Rove.’

As for the guests, last night Ray Martin joined the crew to promote his new biography, but we didn’t learn much more than what has been reported in the papers. Perhaps, I have been Americanised with my comparisons to American talk shows such as ‘The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien,’ ‘The Lateshow with David Letterman’ and ‘The Jay Leno Show,’ but the hosts in the aforementioned shows actually spend a good 10 to 15 minutes with their nightly guests and we actually learn something new about the guest once the interview is done. I know ‘The 7PM Project’ doesn’t have the time to interview a guest for 10 minutes, but if they could ignore the tabloid stories, there would a lot more time for the guest.

‘The 7PM Project’ has potential to build an audience but the people behind the show need to be clear of which direction they are heading, keep it light without the silly jokes.

‘The 7PM Project’ airs nightly at 7pm on Network Ten and is repeated daily after ‘Ten’s Late News.’