ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
One of Network Ten’s most valuable cash pigs is officially in crisis after a recent survey suggested that a core demographic that makes up the backbone of The Project’s audience has turned their back on the show.
Spunky regional mothers who love singer-songwriter P!NK make up nearly half of The Project’s viewership and losing them to other networks such as the ABC and streaming services is a “big worry”, according to industry insiders.
The show has courted controversy this year though no specific incident of it has been memorable.
The Advocate spoke to one of the spunky, regional, P!NK-loving mums who’ve abandoned the show recently about what was it that sent them on other television shows.
“Well, my hubby [husband] always said he’d rather be tied down to a board, have a mob of chimps drill a hole in his forehead with a hand drill and have them pour a mix of varnish and chimpanzee faeces in the hole where his brain was before he’d sit down and watch The Project,” said Betoota Heights resident Debbie Combs.
“He’s so funny but Hughesy so funny. He reminds me of my brother, Bobby, who got run over by the Tilt Train when he was 35. Hughesy reminds me of what he was like before the accident, now he just talks about mailing bombs to celebrities that he feels have wronged him,”
“But in the last few weeks, it’s just been too sanctimonious for me. Maybe it’s an age thing but I don’t need to be lectured on what’s the correct way to think about everything by a bunch of Melbourne comedians and television presenters that live on five acres in Mosman – and that if I don’t agree with them, I’m the devil,”
“So now, I’ve made the switch over the SBS Food. Last night, I watched Rick Stein India. I loved it. I didn’t even touch my phone once the whole time it was on.”
The Advocate reached out to Network 10 for comment but were told they were all hands on deck stripping the copper wire from the walls of their Melbourne studios and would get back to us later.
More to come.
