The hosts of The Project were left dumbfounded and shocked when a fellow presenter apparently began bleeding live on air.
Sarah Harris looked stunned while Waleed Aly stared silently as blood appeared to begin to pour from Sam Taunton’s nose.
A guest let out an expletive as the bloody incident unfolded.
The incident happened on Monday’s show as Harris introduced an interview with comedian Celia Pacquola, who has starred in ABC series Rosehaven and Utopia and is a regular on Channel 10’s Have You Been Paying Attention?
Pacquola was on The Project promoting Channel 10’s rebooted improvisation series Thank God You’re Here.
Harris had just thrown to Pacquola when the presenter’s face dropped as she looked towards Taunton, seemingly in distress.
“Sorry, I’m feeling a bit faint,” said Taunton with blood over his nose and hands.
“Seriously?” said Pacquola look genuinely concerned that Taunton was having a medical episode.
“Oh god, oh no, are you serious?” chimed in Kate Langbroek, who was also hosting.
However, Pacquola was the first to think something might be up.
“Are you pranking me?” she asked Taunton, who was seated next to her.
“Is there anything that you can do to help me?” said Taunton, but already he was beginning to smirk.
“Yes, I’m going to take your job. You’re fired,” said Pacquola as she pushed him out of the way and moved her seat to where Taunton’s was.
“Welcome back to The Project!” she joked looking straight down the lens of Taunton’s camera.
“Seriously, you’re a piece of s***. Is that serious?” she said to Taunton still unsure of what was going on.
Eventually Taunton admitted his “nosebleed” was very possibly a prank.
“It’s not real. Or is it? No, it’s not real,” he said, as he cleaned whatever red sticky liquid it was off his hands and face.
“We’re you in on it?” she said pointing to the crew off screen.
After the drama, Aly said to Pacquola how impressive she had been taking over hosting duties at a moment’s notice.
“It’s good to know my instinct is just to step over the corpse,” she replied.
Thank God You’re Here sees comedians walk through a door onto a set they haven’t seen before and then improvise their way through a scene with other actors, often with unexpected and humorous results.
“Did that bring back the joy of walking through the door?” Langborek asked Pacquola apparently in reference to the nose bleed scenario that had just occurred.
“It’s actually people’s worse nightmare – that you’re in a play and you don’t know who you are and you don’t know any of the lines, it’s ridiculous, “said Pacquola.
“But it’s incredible to watch people just have a play in a world that’s been built for them.
“The scale of the show is just huge.”