CHANNEL 9 has reportedly swung the axe on The Footy Show (NRL).
The rugby league television bombshell comes less than a week after Nine announced the AFL Footy Show would be returning in 2018.
The Daily Telegraph reports The NRL Footy Show Thursday night format is set to be axed after key figures, including host Paul Vautin, were told they would not be needed next year.
The report claims Vautin will see out his contract for 2018 in a diminished role as a live football commentator.
The incredible backflip comes after Nine last week promoted The Footy Show in its 2018 advertising promotion.
Nine trumpeted the news Vautin, Erin Molan, Beau Ryan and Darryl Brohman would be returning for a 25th season.
The Daily Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield writes Nine’s rugby league programming will actually be expanded in 2018 with a Monday night news and weekend review set to follow a similar format to the network’s Footy Classified Monday night program.
It is a bid to go head-to-head with Fox League’s Monday night with Matthew Johns.
According to reports the network will continue to run a live rugby league show on Thursday night under a re-launched title that will be hosted by Molan.
The network is scheduled to screen 23 live NRL games on Thursday nights in 2018, making The Footy Show surplus to requirements.
The flagship Nine show has been the biggest show in rugby league since first airing 25 years ago.
Rothfield reports the network has made the decision to promote Molan at the expense of Vautin from the Thursday night timeslot in an attempt to win back female audiences — as Fox League has done with Yvonne Sampson who walked out on Nine two years ago.
“Nine’s Footy Shows ratings have slipped to an all-time low this year, often to as bad as 80,000 viewers compared to the halcyon days when it regularly pulled in audiences of around 370,000,” Rothfield said.
It’s all over.Source:News Corp Australia
The network last week claimed it would be also sticking with its star-studded rugby league commentary team, including Ray Warren and Phil Gould.
Star analysts Andrew Johns, Darren Lockyer, Peter Sterling, Wally Lewis and Brad Fittler will also return.
Commentators Ray Hadley and Mat Thompson will continue to call live matches.
“The NRL Footy Show also returns for its 25th season in 2018, with all the latest breaking stories and loads of fun from the world of rugby league,” Nine said in a statement last week.
“Each week Paul “Fatty” Vautin, Erin Molan, Beau Ryan and Darryl “Big Marn” Brohman will be joined by some of the biggest names in the game, including Johnathan Thurston and Billy Slater, as they provide expert analysis on all the matches.”
More to come...
Replies
I must say the show became a complete pile of dog shite in the past few years.
It became an entertainment variety show with a sprinkling of footy.
Haven't watched it for at least 20 years ...never could understand why it was winning awards etc.
Absolute crap!
From 1994 to about 2007ish i never liked to miss an episode. The last decade or so of the Footy Show has been absolute toilet! The writing was on the wall and it had to go. Tuning into Vautin and Brohman made me feel stupid. The same jokes, the same format, absolutely boring as bat shite. Looking forward to what ch9 come up with for next year but considering Erin Molan is going to be host, I'm certainly not holding my breath.
;-)
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 5 Next