Ten declined to officially confirm the news, but the newspaper [The Daily Telegraph] was told the decision was final and that production company Roving Enterprises would be advised.

The network’s director of programming, David Mott, said they were extremely pleased with the present success of the show.

“I’m so proud of this show after we took a huge risk and everyone wrote it off at the beginning.

“But we tweaked it, gave it a more newsy edge and Charlie’s old look was a victim of that process. The old look wasn’t right and the new one is. We’re very, very happy at how Project is coming along,” he added.

Network insiders suggested that the team’s recent image and wardrobe overhauls have also contributed to the improvement. Presenters Carrie Bickmore, Dave Hughes and Charlie Pickering were all given ‘straight-overs’ so they represented newsreaders.

The Logie award winning, almost one year old show beat all competition in the 7pm timeslot last night in total viewers and all demographics. 1.11 million viewers watched nationally, the most viewers the show has received since its premiere week. Earlier this week it also pushed the million mark.

MasterChef following 7pm obviously helps but the show had already added at least 100,000 regular viewers before the MC juggernaut this year. Hopefully the trend continues, having watched every single episode of the show thanks to the magic of the IQ, I can say its been an uphill struggle but the show has turned itself around into a show you truly enjoy watching.

Her co-host Charlie Pickering’s other show, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, picked up two awards, including Most Popular Light Entertainment.

The casting of the five personalities is yet to prove diverse enough to warrant a nightly conversation with the audience. Unlike the robust debates on Q & A, there is little black and white here. Dave Hughes is a funny guy, Charlie Pickering is a likable guy, but so far there isn’t enough to justify why their opinions, or those of the other cast, warrant a nightly visit.

Bickmore’s sing-song voice-overs accompanying video packages are too light and too identified with Rove, undermining her television shift as a serious newsreader. There is a reason female newsreaders have an Alto vocal range -to add gravitas.

It is hard not to compare the show with TEN’s former Panel, which similarly borrowed many elements from radio. That show benefitted not just from a later, weekly and longer slot but also a thoughtful discussion that took time to smell the roses. 7PM could do a lot worse than read all the news headlines at the top of the show then work out which ones it was going to dissect for the remainder of its airtime with some insight. Radio does it all the time.

That said, TEN should stick with the show, even with some lowly figures. It’s still a good idea if it is allowed some fine-tuning and addresses its news make-up with more conviction.

What did I think? Thanks for asking! Uneven but room to improve. I thought it was a respectable first outing, the team seems to gel fairly well.

The set is quite distracting, as is the shaky camera work in Ruby Rose’s segment. The shaky handheld camera effects were not needed and viewers usually find it nauseating and unnecessary. That needs to be dropped. The key (image) behind Ruby of Sydney should also be a little less distracting. Keep it still basically.

The content itself was fine, mostly light hearted entertainment-like topics, I hope they branch out to other types of stories too. Carrie was solid, although I was waiting the punchlines after the news stories.

Charlie needs to loosen up, the studio audience needs to wake up and be a little more vocal (no applause coming to and from breaks was a bit weird, as was the delayed applause for Julie) and Dave – well Dave was his normal self.

I was surprised by James Mathison, he is a good addition to the panel, although I have a feeling he won’t be there every night.

Overall it was a strong start, we will just have to wait to see what Australia thought of it. It’s back tomorrow and every Weeknight at 7pm on Network Ten.

Update: Ruby Rose clarifies what she calls the ‘drunk cameraman’.

Thanks to everyone who watched the 7pm project sorry about the “drunk camera man” during sienna it wasn’t us it was a junkit. Odd I know. X

THE 7pm slot has long been Channel Ten’s Achilles heel. In recent years Big Brother and The Biggest Loser pulled in viewers for some of the year but without them, ratings fell off a cliff. So, when Ten announced in November that the vital slot would soon be filled by a local version of the British reality show MasterChef, followed by a mystery project, eyebrows were raised.

What a difference eight months makes. MasterChef Australia has been the hit of the year so far, almost single-handedly turning Ten’s fortunes around. It has broadened the network’s audience and turned the ratings game, usually a fight between Seven and Nine, into a genuine three-way contest.

That kind of success can’t be ignored and has earned Ten the benefit of the doubt when it comes to MasterChef’s successor, The 7pm Project, which will air five nights a week, 52 weeks of the year, from Monday.

7pm Project is a live, panel-based discussion about the day’s news, presented by comedians and produced by Roving Enterprises.

There will be in-studio guests (episode one will have the winner of MasterChef Australia) and segments from correspondents.

“It’s a really nice and casual approach,” says executive producer Craig Campbell, who also produces Rove.

“We have this opportunity to have some fun, some genuine humour, but also deliver the news of the day in a new way.”

Uploaded by RoveOnline, Courtesy Roving Enterprises/Network Ten