Carrie Bickmore will finish up at Network 10’s “The Project” when she show’s 2023 season wraps.
Bickmore said she’s not leaving TV, but insisted she doesn’t know what her next role will be.
Instead, she said she needed to discover who she is without the panel program and spend more time with her family.
Bickmore was a founding co-host of the program when it launched back in 2009 alongside Charlie Pickering and Dave Hughes.
The show started as a half-hour program, known as “The 7PM Project”, with the mission of “news delivered differently”. It rebranded to the one-hour “The Project” in 2011.
In her announcement on-air on Tuesday night, Bickmore said making the call to leave had been incredibly difficult.
“It’s been the hardest decision of my professional life to make this call, but it’s time for a new challenge, it is time for my next chapter,” she said.
“It’s no secret that this show has become a second home to me and I couldn’t be more thankful to everyone that has been involved on and off screen. It has been a long journey, I started the show when Ollie, my son, was one, and he’s now 15, which is crazy, and I want to spend more time at home. I want to have more family dinners. You know, I’ll watch the show at home with a glass of wine in my hand.
“It’s been a very tough decision, but it is time.”
Bickmore said in the fullness of time she will say proper goodbyes and thank yous, but she did thank the show’s viewers for coming on the ride as well as all the people on and off-screen who have been involved.
She hinted there was still lingering doubt about her decision, despite her belief that it was the right call.
“I’ll be completely honest, I’m not 100% sure in my decision,” she told her co-hosts.
“The easy decision, honestly would be to stay, because I just love it here. I absolutely love it here, but I want to find out who I am without this show. This show is so much in my DNA and I don’t know who I am without it, and I want to go to more piano practices and cricket training sessions.”
She added: “I think with any big decision, there is going to be doubt and I’m leaving at a time that I’m so happy to be here, which feels confusing, but I just know it’s time. I know it’s right.”
Co-host Peter Helliar said Bickmore was “the soul of this show” and “the captain”.
Speculation has already kicked off that Bickmore could be set for a role at the Nine Network.
Bickmore also co-hosts the Hit Network’s drive show “Carrie and Tommy” alongside Tommy Little.
View this post on Instagram
