Channel 10 has confirmed The Project will return next year.
The network on Friday issued a statement about the future of the current affairs show and its Sunday edition, hosted by Lisa Wilkinson, in response to reports about their worryingly low ratings.
Various outlets including The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, TV Blackbox and Daily Mail Australia ran stories last week about 10's dwindling five-city metro audience, with a focus on The Project's long-term decline since 2011.
Channel 10 has confirmed The Project will return next year. The network on Friday issued a statement about the future of the current affairs show and its Sunday edition in response to reports about their worryingly low ratings. Pictured from left: The Project hosts Waleed Aly, Carrie Bickmore, Lisa Wilkinson and Peter Helliar
One newspaper even reported The Project hosts Carrie Bickmore and Lisa Wilkinson, who have annual salaries of $1.5m and $1.7m respectively, were facing pay cuts due to the show's poor performance - a claim the network dismissed as 'nonsense'.
After a week of bad press, a spokesperson for the ViacomCBS-owned station told podcast That's Entertainment: 'Recent media reports inferring that The Project will not be on 10 in 2022 are completely fabricated, false and misleading.
'The Project has just celebrated its 12th birthday and is here to stay! At a time when information, context and understanding is more important than ever, The Project will continue to provide Australians with their dose of news delivered differently.'
Various outlets including The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, TV Blackbox and Daily Mail Australia ran stories last week about 10's dwindling five-city metro audience, with a focus on The Project's long-term decline since 2011. Pictured: Lisa Wilkinson
After a week of bad press, a spokesperson for the ViacomCBS-owned station told podcast That's Entertainment: 'Recent media reports inferring that The Project will not be on 10 in 2022 are completely fabricated, false and misleading.' Pictured: Carrie Bickmore
It comes a week after the future of Channel 10 as a viable commercial network was questioned following a horror year which saw tentpole shows such as MasterChef Australia, The Bachelor and The Bachelorette bomb in the ratings.
In addition to a string of crushing defeats in prime time - including the failed launch of Making It Australia - The Project is losing viewers year on year, and Studio 10 and 10 News First are on a worrying downhill trend.
While 10 has a decent audience on its streaming platform 10 Play, it is struggling in the overnight five-city metro ratings, which remain a key metric for advertisers when it comes to judging a show's success.
There are now fears the network simply can't go on like this if the numbers don't improve, with former TV executive Rob McKnight saying: 'This is a network that is dying in front of our eyes.'
However, Channel 10 rejected these concerns, saying some of the figures being bandied about in the trade press were misleading - especially given that TV viewership is down across the board.
It comes a week after the future of Channel 10 as a viable commercial network was questioned following a horror year which saw tentpole shows such as MasterChef Australia, The Bachelor and The Bachelorette bomb in the ratings. Pictured: Brooke Blurton on The Bachelorette
Mr McKnight, a former 10 executive, said on the TV Blackbox podcast earlier this month: 'I know they're making a play for streaming [but] how low can these ratings go before they can't make revenue? I find it extraordinary. I just do.'
He added that 10's American owners don't seem to care about the dwindling ratings.
'This is a network that is dying in front of our eyes. I always supported the idea that there could be three free-to-air commercial networks. What this is showing me is that that is not the case anymore,' Mr McKnight said.
'They're all struggling but 10 seriously is the wounded animal limping and the fact is they keep running the same s**t and recommissioning the same s**t and it's not flying with the public.'
There are now fears the ViacomCBS-owned network simply can't go on like this if the numbers don't improve, with former TV executive Rob McKnight (pictured) saying earlier this month: 'This is a network that is dying in front of our eyes'
Perhaps the most alarming example of the ratings decline is The Project, which has lost almost a third of its audience since 2011.
The program, hosted by Waleed Aly, Carrie Bickmore and Lisa Wilkinson, has seen its metro ratings plummet to an all-time low of just 367,000 this year.
That's a 30 per cent decline from its five-city audience of 538,000 a decade ago.
The national audience, which includes regional viewers, has also seen a similar percentage drop from 725,000 in 2011 to 490,000 in 2021.
These figures have made The Project commercial TV's worst-performing nightly premium program.
The biggest losses have been on the east coast, which is considered the most important
