With ratings consistently just under where they need to be for Channel 10 to maintain justified support for the show, The 7pm Project is certainly on life support at the moment. Rumours circulated last week of crisis meetings at Channel 10 regarding the show. Whether that’s true or not, there is no doubt that its a show that the network must be watching very closely at this point.

Last nights Hamish & Andy appearance paid off handsomely for the program, with 723,000 tuning in for the show. It’s a sign that the show should be playing up the personalities and comedy aspects of the show and less on the news and issues of the day. The US program The Daily Show is able to merge this together, however it has proven to be an ill fit for The 7pm Project. There needs to be less emphasis on having a Steve price or a ‘Barefoot Investor’ on the show, and more of an attempt to give regular slots to a Hamish & Andy, or even a Ross Noble. It will be interesting to see whether they can keep the viewership from last night as the week goes on.

It also seems that The 7pm Project is not the cause of all of Tens woes. A drop in audience was recorded from 7pm for The Biggest Loser at 7:30 with just 667,000 tuning in for that show. Very little seems to be working at Channel 10 this year.

Perhaps the time is right to refocus the channel entirely.

Often television viewers and critics scold networks for cancelling shows too quickly, not allowing them time to develop an audience. To Channel 10′s credit, they’ve certainly given The 7PM Project a shot. The question is how long they can keep going considering the low ratings the show generates each night.

As we’ve done previously on Televised Revolution, it is interesting comparing the ratings to 2006′s Yasmins Getting Married.

Channel 10 stripped Yasmins Getting Married in the Monday to Friday 7pm timeslot. The show was a reality format and followed a young woman named Yasmin through dating misadventures as she sought to find the man of her dreams. It debuted on a Tuesday night to an audience of 778,000 nationally, but by the Friday it lost 268,000 viewers, leaving it with an audience of 510,000. Channel 10 cancelled it after just four episodes had gone to air.

With The 7PM project regularly performing with similarly low figures, can Channel 10 continue to justify the continuation of the program?

*Notes

• Cricket broadcasts replaced Two & A Half Men on the Tuesday and Thursday. The ratings cited on the yellow line graph for this show is only an indicator of the strength of this program.
• Tuesday was the Australia Day public holiday, with each channel reflecting lower ratings than usual on the night.