The Front Bar to go head-to-head with The Footy Show

MELBOURNE’S footy show wars are set to escalate with Channel 7 moving The Front Bar into a head-to-head battle with Nine’s The Footy Show.

MELBOURNE’S footy show wars are set to escalate with Channel 7 moving The Front Bar into a head-to-head battle with Nine’s The Footy Show.

The Front Bar, co-hosted by Andy Maher, Mick Molloy and Sam Pang, has quickly risen from humble beginnings as a five-minute webcast to be a prime-time contender against Nine’s long-running show, helmed by Bec Maddern, Craig Hutchison and Sam Newman.

From next week, The Front Bar will screen at 8.30pm on Thursdays.

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Andrew Maher, Mick Molloy and Sam Pang on the set of the Friday Front Bar.

Craig Hutchison, Billy Brownless, Rebecca Maddern, Sam Newman, Alex Rance and Patrick Dangerfield on the first episode of the 2017 season of The Footy Show. Picture: Channel 9

“This is a big move,” Molloy told the Herald Sun on Thursday.

“Everyone’s talking about going head to head. I’m actually more worried about going head to head with Matt Preston on MasterChef. But we are looking forward to getting into prime time and seeing what we can do.”

The Front Bar launched two years ago as an online-only show. Seven picked it up in 2016 and this year rejigged it to a one-hour studio-based format. “It’s basically a show by the fans for the fans, where you don’t have to play 300 games to sit on the panel,” Molloy said. He said the show’s parade of “retro guests ... beats interviewing modern-day players who can’t really say much”.

Pang said he was thrilled the show had found a home in prime time, adding: “We were lucky a gap opened up at 8.30pm after Kochie’s David Attenborough-style wildlife series was put on hold.”