After a quarter century on TV the NRL Footy Show has finally been put out of its misery with Channel Nine announcing the show won’t be renewed for 2019.
This decision comes 12 months after the decision to remove Paul ‘Fatty’ Vautin from the host chair and replace him with Erin Molan.
Some see this as a failing on Molan’s part and we’ve had Liz Ellis come out and say that it’s sexist to say it failed because of Molan. Ellis is right there.
To say it failed because of Molan would be sexist and, apparently Molan has been the subject of online ridicule because she took time to give birth earlier this year. None of that is fair to her and she no doubt gave it her best shot.
The axing of the Footy Show had many contributing factors.
Firstly, I do think the appointment of Molan to the show did ruffle some feathers, especially when Yvonne Sampson was let go by the network and now hosts her own show on Fox as well as being involved in Fox’s coverage.
Molan has never come across as particularly insightful on rugby league, whereas Yvonne Sampson seemed to find that balance of providing insight while still engaging her co-panelists.
But the appointment of Molan wasn’t the reason for the show being axed. I believe it would’ve been axed if Sampson or former co-host Peter Sterling was in the hot seat. Vautin’s replacement was almost always going to be on a hiding to nothing.
I’ll also highlight here that Molan has been retained by Nine and she’ll continue with much of the network’s sports coverage.
Erin Molan. Image: Wikipedia.
Secondly, and here’s where I think the main issues lie, the show wasn’t sure what it stood for. It started as a rugby league show bringing some light-hearted mid-week insight into the game while still being entertaining.
It then lurched to being an outright entertainment show with a rugby league theme before swinging too hard the other way and trying to be too serious.
Fox has shown a rather successful blueprint on this front. They have shows dedicated to insightful commentary, providing expert opinions (Buzz Rothfield and Paul Kent excluded) and shows such as The Matty Johns Show, designed to deliver laughs and entertainment. With each show the audience knows what they are going to get.
Thirdly, and I was a little surprised Channel Nine failed to pick up on this, the news cycle has changed.
25 years ago we had only the morning newspapers with a couple of evening editions, a handful of television stations with a couple of news programs, usually at night. Our fastest source of breaking news was radio.
The Footy Show, in its original form, looked at the rugby league news from the previous week.
They continued to try and do that while the news cycle shifted into a continuous format.
Now you can have a discussion on the judiciary charges on Monday, team lists on Tuesday, Wednesday judiciary appearances and Thursday we’re back into actual games of rugby league.
Courtesy of social media and Fox’s dedicated rugby league channel, these issues are dealt with as they occur.
A show airing once per week and trying to deal with all of those issues at once no longer cuts it. By Thursday we’ve pretty much forgotten what’s happened on Monday.
The axing of the Footy Show was a long time coming. Molan just happened to be there when it occurred.
steveng
Roar Rookie
Sorry that should be 'Erin Molan' mistake there lol
steveng
Roar Rookie
The footy show was never ever funny, it was a dismal and unfunny mockery of certain cultures and personalities! The footy show copied the AFL footy show to a large extent always! The results was that its persistence of stupidity became obsolete in a big way many years ago and attracted a minorly viewing audience. The old RL footy shows (which were either on Saturday and Sunday) were always about RL e.g. Ron Casey and Frank Hyde, Rex Mossop etc) and to a lager extent what we have with 100% footy, which attracted and attracts personality clashes and/or interesting viewing. The Thursday footy show was a ridiculous comedy which alienated the true footy fans, that became its demise. In my opinion, the last episodes of the footy show with Erin Moylan was a more of a successful format. If any TV channel wants a funny and comical footy show, they should take a hard look at 'The Front Bar' with a comedian like 'Mick Molloy' as he kills it in every show and it has satire by the bucket loads!
Matt H
Roar Guru
Sometimes shows just have a shelf life, often when the original members retire or become out of touch. The Footy Show is no different.
Muzz
Guest
There will be an all new Fairfax inspired Footy Show next year.
JOHN ALLAN
Guest
Fox recruited Yvonne Sampson from Channel 9. Then somebody at 9 thought it a good idea to have Erin Molan host the Footy Show. I wonder which network got the better deal. Apparently Erin got the gig over Paris Hilton & Kim Kardashian. All three have a similar "knowledge" of Rugby League.
farqueue
Roar Rookie
I stopped watching when Beau Ryan came on to show....his love for himself was unbearable to watch.
Reesy
Guest
“Molan has never come across as particularly insightful on rugby league”. You said it yourself champ. Look no further that this.
Hard Yards
Roar Rookie
Ms Molan was a mistake. So was the cricketer who used to be on. One is a man. One is a woman. An equal opportunity blunder.
catcat
Roar Rookie
The show definitely needed a make over when compared to the Fox League shows, but this effort was a fail. Agree not the fault of the host. Need to find the right format and timeslot. They have so many "experts" and legends at nine surely they could come up with a decent show. Fox seems to do it.
Conan of Cooma
Roar Rookie
As much as I can't stand her, Erin Molan did not kill The Footy Show - Nine killed The Footy Show.
BA Sports
Roar Guru
"By Thursday we’ve pretty much forgotten what’s happened on Monday." Yeah, on a Monday Cleary is coaching the Panthers, by Wednesday he is back at the Tigers and by Thursday he is off to the Panthers again. Agree with your notion about the News Cycle to some degree, but there are other news and entertainment shows that appear once a week and have remained relevant. I do agree that it isn't Molan's fault. She is nowhere near the host that Sampson is nor is she the fan that Sampson is. Sampson asks insightful questions and appears to do her research while still being able to "laugh with the boys", Molan's strength only seems to be the later and that is on Nine for not realising that. Not that this author has made the point but others have about the timeslot. The show has been on at 9:30 for at least a decade The excuse of the timeslot killing it is rubbish to me. It had a game of rugby league leading into it. If ever you wanted a captive audience, you had it and the show wasn't (for quite a few years) good enough to retain the audience. Again this should have sent an alarm bell to Nine Exec's years ago. A little frightening that it didn't, but then Ray Warren is still commentating, so who knows how much attention they actually pay to the quality of their sports programming...
Brendan Jones
Roar Rookie
Erin was the captain of a sinking ship that was already going down by the head before she even assumed command. The second fatty was let go the show was going to die regardless of whom was holding the reigns, plus with all of fox sports shows available the nine footy show never had a chance. It’s a sad day that one of the best shows on tv has to die because of social society changes.
Nat
Roar Guru
Erin was given very little chance to succeed considering the format, timeslot and cast she had to work with. Broman's kids segment worked at a time when families could watch and Beau Ryan's street talk bit stopped being funny years ago but because they changed the format to a 'serious discussion', he now becomes an expert because he's an expensive piece of the payroll. Throw in Girdler, Fittler and Johns and it's a boys club with in-jokes and innuendo about the good ol days. If you are going to point the finger at anyone, consider the no-name suits who rushed through the idea yet take none of the bashing.
Paul
Roar Guru
It's completely ridiculous to blame the last host of a show which had past it's used by date in the early 2000's. You've put together a number of excellent reasons why this show had to go and I gather the last time it was on, the Footy Show aired after the Thursday night game? So people were going to watch a game, then watch this show, before hitting the bed? All programmes have a finite shelf life and the Footy Show is no different. That 9 kept it on as long as they did makes no sense to me. I thought it was dated over a decade ago, but it just took forever to finally pass on.
Michael Keeffe
Roar Guru
The footy show was already dying years ago. In it's hey day it was great and really the only footy type show on during the week. It was the perfect fit in the 90's and even early 2000's . You can now watch any number of shows on fox and if you don't have fox there is still heaps of free content online to watch all the time. Everyone has online content talking about footy these days. The footy show would have died with or without Molan hosting.