Channel Ten's The Project bills itself as a show that "delivers the news differently".

And that's exactly what viewers got on Thursday night, when a major technical problem left the hosts in the lurch with more than 30 minutes of live-to-air television to fill, and no ability to show any of the pre-recorded footage they had prepared.

The result? Co-host Carrie Bickmore read out the news as her fellow panel members Peter Helliar, Waleed Aly and Ryan "Fitzy" Fitzgerald acted it out.

"Welcome back, you are watching The Project. Now, we're having major technical problems here at The Project. In fact, we have nothing to show you at the moment," Bickmore laughed, after returning from an ad break.