The television rumour mill is spinning with speculation about Carrie Bickmore’s next move, after The Project host announced plans to relocate to England with her family.

Bickmore, 41, revealed on air last Tuesday she will be taking several months off to live in England with her partner Chris Walker and their three children.

While she has described the trip as an extended holiday, New Idea reports she is on the hunt for a TV presenting gig in the UK to keep her occupied. 

‘Carrie could easily do breakfast TV, or stick to her guns and pick up an evening current affairs-style gig,’ an industry source said. 

‘Her management will surely be working hard to use Carrie’s travels in the UK to her advantage.’

If Bickmore does secure a lucrative TV deal in Britain, she may well decide to leave her post at The Project for good.

Meanwhile, Woman’s Day claims Bickmore is considering a move to Australian breakfast television once she returns from her sabbatical.

‘I won’t be surprised if she moves away from The Project given the ratings, and after all that time with her family she’ll be ready to take on something bigger like breakfast TV,’ a source told the magazine. 

Channel Nine golden boy Karl Stefanovic is reportedly hoping to use his ‘close friendship’ with Bickmore to convince her to join the Today show.

‘Karl knows Carrie, and they could be the dream team – they could laugh themselves out of any situation,’ the insider said. 

However, The Australian’s Media Diary reports Bickmore will be back on The Project in a matter of months – just as she promised.

‘Insiders tell Diary that Bickmore will be gone for three months, and won’t return to the show until July at the earliest,’ the newspaper claimed. 

Bickmore became emotional on The Project last Tuesday as she explained she and her partner Chris Walker would be taking their family to the UK.   

‘In April I’m going to be taking a few months off The Project desk. Chris and I and the kids are heading off on a family adventure together,’ she said. 

‘We’ve been wanting to do it for a while, but for lots of reasons, the timing hasn’t been right, but we figure it’s never going to be the perfect time to go.’ 

She added: ‘It’s something we really want to do before my son starts his final years at school so we’re doing term two in the UK. So I will be off for a couple of months.’ 

Bickmore did not, however, mention the recent sale of her $3.4million five-bedroom home in Melbourne, which appears to suggest a more permanent move. 

She also said she had been inspired by The Project panellist Kate Langbroek, who spent two years living abroad in Bologna, Italy, with her family. 

‘You are a big inspiration for heading overseas with a family and we had some big conversations after living through the world’s longest lockdown,’ she said. 

‘One of the things that my son Ollie said was how much he was going to miss the family time when we were coming out of lockdown which kind of surprised us because we had a lot of family time! 

‘But we thought, gosh, he still wants to spend time with us and while he does he only has a few years left and then he will fly away so we thought we would seize the moment and do it.’

Chrissie Swan and Georgie Tunny have since been announced as Bickmore’s replacements on The Project during her time away. 

The pair will appear on the show on alternate nights alongside regular panellists Waleed Aly and Peter Helliar.

Carrie shares two children, daughters Evie, six, and Adelaide, three, with her partner Chris, a television producer for the ABC and Channel 10. 

She also has a son, Oliver Lange, 14, from her marriage to the late Greg Lange, who died of brain cancer in 2010. 

She has been a core part of The Project since its launch in 2009. 

In addition to being awarded an Order of Australia for her service to media, Carrie has also been nominated for multiple Logie Awards, and won three. 

The award-winning television and radio presenter took home the coveted Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Television in 2015. 

After working in radio for a few years, she got her start on television in 2006, reading the news bulletin for Channel 10’s popular variety show Rove Live.

Carrie’s exit comes as ratings for The Project continue a downward trend.

Channel 10’s flagship current affairs show has lost almost a third of its audience since 2011, OzTAM ratings revealed in November.

The program saw its metro ratings plummet to an all-time low of just 367,000 in 2021.

That’s a 30 per cent decline from its five-city audience of 538,000 a decade ago. 

The national audience, which includes regional viewers, has also seen a similar percentage drop from 725,000 in 2011 to 490,000 in 2021.

These figures have made The Project commercial TV’s worst-performing nightly premium program.

Despite disappointing ratings, a Channel 10 spokesperson denied rumours late last year that The Project would soon be facing the axe.

‘The Project has just celebrated its 12th birthday and is here to stay,’ they said.

‘At a time when information, context and understanding is more important than ever, The Project will continue to provide Australians with their dose of news delivered differently.’

A leading TV commentator claimed Channel 10 was losing viewers because of The Project’s left-wing agenda.

Rob McKnight, a former 10 executive who now runs industry website TV Blackbox, said the views expressed on The Project don’t resonate with everyday Aussies.

He told Daily Mail Australia that despite its slick production and top-tier talent, The Project is ‘very woke and that doesn’t connect with mainstream Australia’.