The Friday Night Project ran on C4 from 2005-2008 and originally was fronted by

• Jimmy Carr
• Rob Rouse
• Sharon Horgan
• Lucy Montgomery

Ep1 was broadcast on February 4^th 2005 and Ep8 (Jimmy’s last) was on March 25^th 2005.

Jimmy was a Presenter in S1, episodes 1 to 8 (and episode 1 was first aired February 4^th 2005). C4 originally touted it as similar to US show Saturday Night Live and Chortle announced that Jimmy would be the host in October 2004.

Apart from the 4 presenter / reporter roles there would be a house band and different celebrity “big name” hosts each week. This guest would give a topical monologue and join in comedy bits and studio games.

This show’s online details are a little jumbled online – with pictures of Alan/Justin being used for all series and the Friday/Sunday night name being used a bit randomly.

I’ll try and straighten it out:

• A pilot was shot in 2004 with Gordon Ramsey and Razorlight. There was no mention as to whether the 4 above participated – assuming NOT
• S1 (8 episodes) was shown on Friday nights – hence the name
• S1 (8 episodes) was hosted by the 4 people above
• Oct 2005 Chortle reported that Carr was leaving and the other hosts would also be changed
• S2 (which started 6 January 2006) starred Justin Lee Collins and Alan Carr
• S2 onwards has no further involvement from the 4 people listed above
• S7 the show moved to Sunday and was renamed The Sunday Night Project

Other information

• Abi Titmuss had a role in S1
• The Celeb guest hosts were Vinnie Jones (Ep1), Neil Morrissey (Ep2), Kelly Osbourne (Ep3). Jordan / Katy Price (Ep4), Brigitte Nielsen (Ep5), Eamonn Holmes (Ep6), Boy George (S7) Sadie Frost (Ep8)
• Writers included The Dawson Brothers – who would eventually work with Jimmy on Fackham Hall. Notice, as an example of the online confusion, how The Dawson Brothers page, here, has S1 details but an image from later seasons
• Average viewing figures, for S1, were around 1.5m

Guests

The guests for S1 were:

• Ep1 / Feb 4^th – Vinnie Jones, Fightstar, Bez, Jeff Brazier
• Ep2 / Feb 11^th – Neil Morrissey, The Futureheads, Richard Blackwood, Maureen Rees
• Ep3 / Feb 18^th – Kelly Osbourne, The Bravery, Christine Hamilton, Jean-Christophe Novelli
• Ep4 / Feb 25^th – Jordan, Kaiser Chiefs, Romeo, Keith Harris
• Ep5 / Mar 4^th – Brigitte Nielsen, Moby, John McCririck, Pat sharp
• Ep6 / Mar 11^th – Eamonn Holmes, The Others, Charles Ingram, Dick and Dom
• Ep7 / Mar 18^th – Boy George, Kinky Rowland & Boy George, Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards, Bella Emberg
• Ep8 / Mar 25^th – Sadie Frost, The Thrills, Abi Titmuss, Paul Rawson

Video

Get ready to clench / cringe…I assume clip this is from S1 Ep3. Proof once again that, when Google announces “nothing to see here, nothing exists” you have to head over to Bing (which is how I found this video).

Jimmy and Sharon Horgan are out and about with Kelly Osbourne who talks Jimmy into getting a pedicure and having his toe nails painted.

Jimmy later takes a publicity photo of Brigitte Nielsen to Billy Idol and asks him to sign it…This footage was shot at The Marquee, Download Festival launch on Feb 8th 2005. Getty Images have some pictures here.

To see what other shows Jimmy was working on, in 2005, click here