Why The Project and Q&A Got Axed
Having once been the EP of a show that got axed during my blink-and-you’ll-miss-it disastrous few months as a TV executive back in the early 2000s (RIP, The Catchup), I would never feel smug about a program getting cancelled.
And as a media company co-founder who employs lots of people and has to sometimes make hard decisions when something isn’t pulling a large enough audience to be sustainable, I feel nothing but empathy for every single person affected by the end of The Project and Q&A. Media is hard. You can work hard and try hard and give everything and it can still tank. But it’s worth noting that these were two of the biggest, most successful and innovative shows on Australian television for years.
Both The Project and Q&A both started at the same time as Mamamia - around 2007 - and to say that things have changed a bit since is like saying Elon Musk is a bit loose. There was no social media back then, no netflix, no streaming services. No group texts or whatsapp. Cancel culture was still nascent.
I was invited to be on Q&A for the first time to be on a special all-female panel for International Women’s Day. I sat next to Germaine Greer.
In the first few minutes, this audience question was directed to me:
“Mia, you once said Germaine Greer was an embarrassment to feminism because she said Julia Gillard had a big bottom. Do you think - as you wrote at the time - that she’s stayed too long at the party and she needs to go home?”
Things went downhill from there. Unexpectedly, Margaret Thatcher died while we were live on air and I had nothing to say other than Meryl Streep was amazing in the movie. And then I got cancelled for saying something on another topic that was twisted out of context and weaponised by people who would tune in just so they could tweet their outrage and mockery of everything the panellists said, in real time.
Friends, I did not enjoy myself. Still, I went back one more time a few years later because I am a goldfish. On that occasion, I sat next to Alan Jones. I didn’t get cancelled that time but only because I tried to run down the clock by saying as little as possible and speaking exclusively in generalisations that are always popular on Q&A such as “we should do more” and “we need to be better”.
Who can argue with that? But also, what’s the point. You don’t get paid to be on Q&A and it’s a massive drain on your time and nerves and has the potential to blow up your reputation and decimate your livelihood, thanks to social media. Funny how they found it harder and harder to book guests.
My experiences on The Project were only slightly better. I recall checking my phone after one appearance and seeing the Tweet: “Mia Freedman is the load her mother should have swallowed” which remains one of the most creative insults a troll has ever hurled at me.
I never enjoyed being on the show and it made me very insecure and needy. Being the ‘4th chair’ as the guest co-host is called, is a weird and difficult gig. You have to say enough to add value in the hope you’ll be asked back but not enough to get cancelled and you always have to defer to the main hosts because they are the main hosts.
I never could find that balance. Partly because of the format of the program - they pack so much into an hour and there are four hosts plus guests, scripted gags and pre-recorded bits, you have to be able to deliver a very tight punchline or comment.
And! You have to not interrupt anyone else and stay out of their way while still saying enough to make your presence felt. But lightly! Some people are really good at this. Jessie Stephens and Kate Langbroek are two who come to mind. It’s a dance and they do it with grace, wit and intelligence at speed.
I never did. I am not suited to the medium of live panel shows in the age of social media. My soundbites regularly land badly or are accidentally offensive. In the end, that’s why they stopped inviting me to be on the show years ago and even though my ego stung for a minute, it was a relief.
That’s why I love Mamamia Outloud and I’ve really found my medium in podcasts.
You have space to talk and it’s not live. People don’t hate listen to podcasts. They’re not looking for gotcha moments. It’s harder to weaponise a word or a phrase by amplifying it in a way that deliberately ignores intention and context.
It’s the one-two punch of social media plus podcasts that have made TV panel shows feel clunky - and too $$$$ to produce. Expensive shows need big audiences and the novelty of unscripted chat about the watercooler topics of the day is just not a novelty in 2025.
I Have Too Many Clothes
Yes, obviously. So I’ve decided to make space in my wardrobe by selling some of them on Ebay to raise money for Rize Up, a charity that helps women and children start again after escaping domestic violence. We have worked with them for a long time at Mamamia and they do such wonderful work. I know so many people are trying to buy fewer new clothes and contribute less to land fill so I wanted to put a bunch of my things back into wardrobe circulation so they can spark joy for someone else just like they did for me.
Here’s a little sneak peak - I will let you know when the store goes live on Ebay in the next week or so.
Mothers Day Go Home, You’re Drunk
It was Mothers Day in Australia last month and I have to say, I found it a little intense. I’m not sure what happened this year but if you were on social media or had a phone, you may have noticed things were a bit batshit.
It began early on Sunday morning as group chats started pinging with messages from mothers to other mothers, wishing them a happy day and acknowledging all the work they do and light they bring.
Fine. But having just opened my eyes, I immediately felt a sense of pressure to reply with my own upbeat validation of all my mother friends. The next thing I thought about was all my friends who have lost their mothers. ‘I should text them today’, I thought and then immediately thought about my friends who have lost babies or children. I should text them too.
On social media, it was a frenzy of posting. By women. About women.
There were posts for infertile women who want desperately to become mothers. Posts for the mothers of ‘fur babies’. Posts for women who were estranged from their mothers or who had complicated relationships with them. Posts for women who were estranged from their children.
Posts about mothers-in-law. And grandmothers. Posts from mothers about themselves, thanking their children for given them the gift of motherhood. Posts about the mothers in Gaza, the mothers of hostages, mothers in Ukraine.
And finally, posts about women who had chosen not to become mothers but who might be feeling left out.
SO MUCH EMOTIONAL LABOUR making sure every other woman in the world was OK on this day.
You know who wasn’t posting? Men.
Did any men post? I didn’t see it. It was daughters posting about mothers and mothers in law and children and other mothers.
I imagine in retail land - which, let’s be honest, is why Mothers Day was invented - it was the same. A frenzy of women doing a mountain of physical, mental and emotional work to make other women feel validated and seen.
It felt like…..a lot. A bit like International Women’s Day where women organise events and office cupcakes and fund-raisers and maybe this is a great thing.
Maybe, it’s up to us to shine a light on women and mothers. But this year just felt particularly exhausting and burdensome. Like there was way too much care-taking to do.
My own mother-in-law bought me flowers. I went to her place for afternoon tea - which she cooked for. I went to see my own mother and she made morning tea.
I got a present from my son which I knew my daughter-in-law had organised and she got a handmade card which I helped my grandaughter make.
And you’ll find most men - when you mentioned it - are genuinely kind of baffled that they have to be involved in celebrating their partners as mothers even though, as I heard one guy point out: “but you’re not my mother, why is this my responsibility?”
Valid question.
I wonder if it’s because society still tells women that being a mother, a good mother, is so intrinsic to the value of being a woman. And on this one day a year, we want someone to tell us we’re doing a good job.
Season 2 of STRIFE finished last week
I think it’s even better than Season 1 and even more people watched it, according to Binge. What I’ve learned about TV is that the first season is about what’s called ‘world-building’ which is exactly what it sounds like, establishing the world of the show and the characters that live in it. If you get renewed for another season, you get to go deeper into plot and character development which is what we were able to do.
I wasn’t on set much this season because most of the input I have as an Executive Producer is in pre and post production when we’re working out stories and scripts and then refinding edits. I am the LVP - least valuable player - among the Exec Producers because they’re all experts at this but I quite enjoy the ride, watching them all do the thing at which they excel and learning about the thousands of tiny decisions that contribute to the finished product being either good or bad. Here’s me, Asher , Bruna and Jessie talking about it.