FAREWELL TO THE PROJEC

THE LONGRUNNING CURRENT AFFAIRS PROGRAM SAYS ADIOS AFTER ITS AXING

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After nearly 16 years, more than 4500 episodes, 11 Logies and one Walkley, the team behind The Project is set to deliver the news of the day for the final time. Earlier this month, top bosses behind Network 10's prime-time current affairs program told staff the show would be wrapping up production - with the final episode airing on June 27.

Like viewers across the country, the program's current panel of hosts, including Sarah Harris, Waleed Aly, Hamish Macdonald, Sam Taunton, Georgie Tunny and Susie Youssef, were also left reeling at the news. “There's no show like it in the world,” Aly lamented to ABC News after its axing.

THE OG CAST

Premiering in July 2009, The 7PM Project, as it was formerly known, began as a half-hour news program - co-created by Rove McManus, through his production company Roving Enterprises, and presented in a casual and digestible way with commentary from its hosts. The original panel of Carrie Bickmore, Charlie Pickering and Dave Hughes took to the table five nights a week to discuss the hot topics of the day - with the trio joined in that first season by Ruby Rose and James Mathison.

“I was absolutely terrified before the first episode because we were doing something that hadn't really been done before,” Hughes, 54, would later recall to news.com.au. “It was serious news with jokes slammed right in the middle of it. It was really different and I was certainly concerned that every time I opened my mouth during that first episode that I was going to ruin my career.”

Likewise, Bickmore, 44, agreed that those first couple of weeks were “terrifying” for her. “I was so stressed out that I thought that I might actually have a panic attack or a heart attack live on air,” she also told news.com.au.