Eddie McGuire’s The Footy Show return helping Nine win ratings war

THREE weeks in, the new-look Footy Show has been the most talked about TV show in Melbourne in recent memory, going head to head with Seven newcomer The Front Bar. But who’s winning?

THREE weeks in, The Footy Show is still winning its timeslot in Melbourne, but has dropped viewers each week since the blaze of publicity around the revamped show’s launch.

Last night’s special edition for the My Room telethon averaged 237,000 viewers, with the episode running for more than three hours, which had an impact on the figures.

The ratings figures for Melbourne the past five episodes are:

July 13: 184,000

July 20: 155,000

August 10: 381,000

August 17: 299,000

August 24: 237,000

The new-look Footy Show with Eddie McGuire back at the helm has been a ratings winner for Nine. Picture: Alex Coppel

Craig Hutchison was still the co-host on July 13 and 20, with the program seeing a spike in viewers since Eddie McGuire signed on again to co-host alongside Rebecca Maddern.

The last 20 shows with Hutchison on board averaged 174,000, while the past three with McGuire back in the hosting chair averaged 292,000.

A Nine spokesperson said: “We are so proud of the Footy Show My Room Telethon which raised 1.070 million dollars last night in support of the Monash Children’s Hospital in the fight against childhood cancer.

“We’re extremely happy with the performance of The Footy Show which is up in audience by 118,000 viewers over the last three weeks.

Behind the scenes, the Herald Sun understands Nine is very pleased with the figures, with high hopes with the AFL final series just around the corner.

The Front Bar has been beaten weekly since Eddie McGuire returned to The Footy Show.

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The real test for Nine will be next year, when The Footy Show comes back for the regular home and away season, without the impact of the finals or launch publicity.

After the launch of The Footy Show Eddie McGuire told the Herald Sun the show would be a work in progress, with improvement and tweaks happening every week.

This includes potentially bringing back Trevor Marmalade in some way, and old segments like Sam Newman’s “Street Talk”.

McGuire is in this for the long haul, and thrilled to be back.

“There are not many shows that speak in our vernacular, about our game, in our town,” he said of The Footy Show.

The Footy Show is beating The Front Bar every week, with the Channel 7 newcomer averaging 175,000 viewers in Melbourne last night.