Fatty Vautin sidelined as Erin Molan takes the helm of Nine’s Footy Show revamp
RUGBY league TV veteran Paul ‘Fatty’ Vautin is being sensationally sidelined from Channel Nine’s Footy Show after 23 years to make way for rising star Erin Molan in a major revamp of the struggling NRL program.
NSW
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RUGBY league TV veteran Paul ‘Fatty’ Vautin is being sensationally sidelined from Channel Nine’s Footy Show after 23 years to make way for rising star Erin Molan in a major revamp of the struggling NRL program.
In a switch seen as raising the stakes in the fight with Fox Sports for female footy fans, Molan will be groomed as the replacement for Vautin, who will be restricted to Nine commentary box duties at live NRL games in 2018.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal The Footy Show will be expanded next year to broadcast in a new timeslot on Monday night, then Thursday night and Sunday lunchtime.
Molan yesterday paid tribute to her fellow Footy Show stars, Vautin, Darryl “Big Marn” Brohman and Beau Ryan as well as executive producer Glenn Pallister, who is also believed to be moving on under the revamp.
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“I’m not sure what the show will look like next year but I am so grateful for the past six seasons alongside Fatty, Big Marn, Beau and Glenn and the whole team,” she said.
“I love them. They couldn’t have treated me better or made me feel more welcome. They are family and whatever happens always will be.”
The move to replace 58-year-old Vautin and promote Molan is a tactical manoeuvre by the network to win back female fans who have deserted the Footy Show and switched to Fox Sports, where former Nine presenter Yvonne Sampson heads up an impressive line-up of women presenters. 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.
Vautin is on a family holiday in the US and did not return phone calls or text messages.
The futures of the show’s current stars remain uncertain. The highest paid panellist Ryan still has two years to run on his contract.
Vautin and Molan are both free agents at the end of the 2018 season while Brohman is off contract now.
“I’ve just left it with my manager,” Brohman said yesterday. “None of us have been told what’s happening.”
Officially Nine is saying the Footy Show is being revamped because the network will be showing 23 live Thursday night NRL games next year.
Costs are too high to justify or invest in the late-night timeslot with the lack of advertisers.
Long-time executive producer Pallister is also moving on.
The show is now under the care of Director of Sport Tom Malone instead of light entertainment.
Ironically Vautin always predicted Molan would one day host the show.
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Two years ago he said: “I just turn up at 8.30 every Thursday night, put my bum on the seat and do my best.
“I have noticed in the last three years she (Erin) has moved from being part-time, to being right down the end of the panel, she moved up one last year, and now she has moved up another one this year. So I think the writing is on the wall for me.”
The new show will be less humour and more football. Where that leaves funny man Ryan remains to be seen. “No one has told us what’s happening,” he said. “We’ve just been told there will be a new format. Hopefully we’ll get some more info in the next couple of weeks.”
Ray Hadley yesterday signed a new three-year contract with the network to call Thursday night games.