Why Nine’s updated versions of The Footy Show and Today are making little progress
There are several reasons Nine’s progressive versions of Today and The Footy Show are failing so badly, writes Colin Vickery.
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How progressive do Australians want television shows to be?
That is the question I’m pondering in the wake of dismal ratings for the new-look Today and The Footy Show.
Channel 9 has won praise in a lot of quarters for appointing the all-female hosting team of Deborah Knight and Georgie Gardner for its breakfast show.
Indigenous reporter Brooke Boney was hired as entertainment reporter alongside Richard Wilkins.
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Nine has also gone inclusive for its reboot of The Footy Show.
Out with Eddie McGuire and Sam Newman and in with champion Paralympian Dylan Alcott alongside trailblazing female sports presenter Neroli Meadows.
Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann and former player Brendan Fevola round out the squad.
In a perfect world both of those initiatives, under the watchful eye of Nine CEO Hugh Marks, would be embraced by the viewing public.
Instead the opposite has happened.
In the latter months of Karl Stefanovic and Georgie Gardner’s days presenting Today the show was being soundly beaten by rival Sunrise.
But since Stefanovic was jettisoned after his ugly divorce from Cassandra Thorburn and splashy Mexican wedding to Jasmine Yarbrough, Today has gone into ratings free fall, hitting decade lows.
When McGuire and Newman were fronting The Footy Show it was also on a downward trajectory — hit hard by the surging popularity of Seven’s The Front Bar.
But the new-look 2019 version has been nothing short of a disaster.
It posted a dismal 63,000 viewers in Melbourne a week ago.
The Front Bar can hardly be called socially groundbreaking.
It is three blokes chatting about AFL football.
There’s not a woman in sight but audiences don’t care.
Female viewers love it as much as the men.
The three-guys formula — with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May — was used on Top Gear and we know how big that was.
It’s the same with the early incarnation of The Footy Show with “Eddie, Sam and Trevor”.
Sunrise, with David Koch and Samantha Armytage, isn’t socially representative like Today — it’s a bit too Anglo — but that isn’t hurting its popularity.
So how do we explain the dire ratings for Today and The Footy Show?
Some would say that both shows were already on the ropes before the new teams took over, so more ratings drops were to be expected.
Others would simply say that, when you look closely, neither show is particularly good.
How progressive they are or aren’t isn’t a factor for viewers.
They just want to be entertained and on that basis Sunrise is better than Today and The Front Bar is better than The Footy Show. End of story.
If social media is to be believed, some viewers aren’t keen on having inclusion — they would call it “political correctness” — shoved down their throats.
They specifically wouldn’t watch the new-look Today or The Footy Show because they feel they are being force fed a social agenda.
Another possibility is that Nine viewers are predominantly an older, conservative Anglo bunch who just don’t care for the network’s new on-air direction.
Ten, which has a younger audience, hasn’t had the same issues with The Project.
The show has thrived with Waleed Aly (who won a Gold Logie) alongside Carrie Bickmore.
There are people, of course, who will conclude that the reaction to the Today and The Footy Show reboots is all the proof you need that sections of Aussie society are backward and racist.
Others would wonder what the point is of creating socially progressive shows if no-one bothers to watch them.
It is like whistling in the dark.
But a counter argument is that Nine is right to be leading the way, even if it doesn’t see any reward in the short term.
That is because history will, in all likelihood, ultimately be on Nine’s side.
There is simply no way we can go back to the white male dominated shows of the past.
Aussie television in 2019 is in a state of flux and Today and The Footy Show are being battered in the maelstrom.
Debates around race, gender, sexuality and disability are front and centre in wider society and local shows aren’t immune from the fallout.
As Bob Dylan sang — the times they are a changin’.
@Colvick
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