Damian Henry

Ive only this year (2023) started watching (more) regularly the Project and the Sunday Project. Prior, it was only here and there - Ive always loved Pete (think Rove Live days!), but never really connected with the others. Lisa made her move from Nine, again - didn't connect at that time either. Then - Brittany 'happened' - hmm. This year however, Waleed, Sarah and Hamish - what a great team. Sarah making a leap from her morning show (I occasionally watched that - only when Ita and/or DingDong were on it!) to a prime time - perhaps a bit nervous at the start, but she has really settled in and is doing a great job - and her hair is fcuking incredible - just beautiful work. Hamish is an amazing journo - the questions he asks, and the way he asks them, not quite the Willesee style but high quality just the same. He is smart (that includes intelligent) and he thinks about the story/message. When he talks about his stories, it's clear that he knows what he is talking about (eg Lismore flood victims and the mid north cost logging, with our koalas at risk). One host probably needs to pull back a little - stopping millimetres away from telling everyone how to vote at the 2023 Referendum - Hamish saved that particular conversation however. His journalistic capability and professionalism is always worth watching. I see Hamish more than Waleed - I also like his work, but seem to catch him less than Hamish. Now that and sadly we don't have Brian Henderson anymore, Peter Overton and Mark Fergusson are great readers/journos - but one hour is a long time to watch news, sport and weather (don't we have Sky News for that?). The Project seems to have the 'top' news items, with a bit of chat and some frivolity (Hing/Sam) - so I get less news (ie of lesser interest to me, generally) and more discussion (allowing me to agree/disagree with the conversation). I still very much watch the news however - the Project has what I would mostly have interest in, often with some panel debate/discussion. This year, Tom Cruise made it over to Channel 10 for an amazing interview. Boy George even hosted for a night - how fantastic. Of course, there is the occasional 'weird' story on the Sunday Project (eg, the 'cat whisperer' and lady who rents half her bed for money - like Airbnb, its weird!) - but hey, that's life! They started the Project with the slogan "news delivered differently" - yeah, I think they do that (Sunrise/Today do things differently - more human interest stories).In the words of the Travel Guides, I give my Project Show "Five stars out of five".