Fox Sports Matty Johns Show runs over Nine’s Footy Show in TV ratings
WHAT’S THE BUZZ: Head-to-head figures from last Thursday night’s NRL kick-off reveal the Matty Johns Show on Fox Sports walloped Nine’s revamped Erin Molan-led Footy Show.
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MATTY Johns has scored a convincing round-one win over his brother Andrew and Channel Nine’s new-look Footy Show in the rugby league ratings war.
Head-to-head figures from last Thursday night’s season kick-off reveal the Matty Johns Show on Fox Sports increased its audience by a whopping 22 per cent on the opening show of 2017.
At the same time Nine’s Footy Show, with Erin Molan replacing “Fatty” Vautin in the hosting chair, fell 8 per cent in the key Sydney and Brisbane markets.
Nationally the fall was greater.
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It was a similar story with the live football and the coverage of the Dragons-Broncos game. Fox Sports went up 13 per cent year on year, while Nine fell 7 per cent in the five-city metro markets which equates to about 50,000 viewers.
Channel 9 has come under fire for its first episode of the Footy Show in 23 years without Fatty in the chair.
Interestingly they lost the bulk of their viewers in Fatty’s home state of Queensland.
New host Molan did a fine job under difficult circumstances. The set looked terrible and like a flashback to the Don Lane days.
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@NRLFootyShow nrl footy show exec and ideas team pic.twitter.com/PpxIY3cteT
— Finnate (@finnate) March 8, 2018
@BuzzRothfield 450k for NRL opener on Channel 9 last night, watta you reckon? Apparently lowest ever for a season opener. Fox sports must be eating them away? Also I got NRL Footy Show around midnight here, watched most, it was bloody awful I'm sorry
— Ray Cameron (@bombersfan63) March 9, 2018
Judging by last night's ratings, it's not good news for Nine's "relaunched" version of The NRL Footy Show. Given the negative feedback on social media, I actually wouldn't be overly surprised if ratings continue to slip with Paul "Fatty" Vautin returning to the show within weeks.
— SydneyCityTV (@SydneyCityTV) March 9, 2018
“Joey” was so disappointed after the show that he fronted producers afterwards about his future role on the show.
Normally Johns is up for a chat on any topic.
When I phoned him on Saturday to talk about the Footy Show, he said: “Sorry mate, no comment.”
So we rang Nine’s director of sports Tom Malone, who said: “We’re already making improvements for round two, and we’re excited about a great year ahead on the Footy Show.”