{"id":846184,"date":"2026-08-07T00:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T00:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/846184\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T00:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T00:40:12","slug":"dave-hughes-reveals-the-real-reason-he-decided-to-leave-the-project-in-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/846184\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Hughes reveals the real reason he decided to leave The Project in 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aussie comedian Dave \u2018Hughsey\u2019 Hughes<\/a> has revealed he left his hosting gig on The Project after the coverage and politics of the show became something he no longer wanted to align himself with. <\/p>\n

Hughsey was one of the original panellists when the show launched in 2009, alongside Carrie Bickmore<\/a> and Charlie Pickering<\/a>. He decided to leave in 2013, with reports at the time claiming he was worn out and sleep-deprived. But now, Hughesy<\/a> has revealed the true reason behind his departure. <\/p>\n

\"Dave<\/p>\n

Hughes was replaced by Peter Helliar following his departure from The Project. Bickmore stayed on for 13 years, leaving in November 2022, and Pickering for five years, leaving in April 2024. \u00a0AAP<\/p>\n

On a new episode of the McKnight Tonight<\/a> podcast, Hughsey said that having been there from the get-go, his understanding was that The Project was going to be a \u201clight-hearted\u201d program. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut it quickly turned into a show that had many serious stories on it, and that\u2019s fair enough, but that made it harder for comedy when the stories are so bleak,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

But for Hughesy, it was about more than just the draining news cycle. He shares that he got frustrated with some of the \u201cbulls—\u201d politics of the show. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe politics of it was \u2013 I mean, I\u2019ve never been all one-sided, I mean obviously now you can see that I\u2019m going hard against the Labour government, but I\u2019ve always like to make up my own mind,\u201d he told host Rob McKnight. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, yeah, I had many frustrating moments on the show where I\u2019m like, \u2018this is bulls— guys. I don\u2019t believe this. We\u2019re singing from the wrong songbook here\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

When McKnight suggested that the show focused on \u201cvery inner-city thinking\u201d Hughsey said he agrees \u201c100 per cent\u201d, adding that what the show had become by 2013 simply wasn\u2019t for him. <\/p>\n

Over the last few months, Hughesy has been thrust back into the spotlight, becoming more outspoken on his political opinions<\/a>, particularly his criticisms of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. <\/p>\n

He also made headlines when comedian Melanie Bracewell<\/a> accused him of peeing into a glass<\/a> she was using backstage when the pair met at a comedy show back in 2022. <\/p>\n

Shortly after Bracewell shared the accusation on her Instagram, Hughesy cleared the air, sharing his side of the story and promising he would \u201cnever do it again\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hughesy explained that he peed in the glass with intentions of emptying it after the show because there were no bathrooms backstage. He didn\u2019t know it belonged to a fellow performer. \u00a0Instagram\/@dhughesy<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s come up again a few weeks ago and all of a sudden it\u2019s an issue,\u201d he told McKnight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny how things are an issue when you start getting politically outspoken, mate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aussie comedian Dave \u2018Hughsey\u2019 Hughes has revealed he left his hosting gig on The Project after the coverage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-846184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}