Failed Footy Show couldn’t escape its past glory and bad blood

She’s been one of The Footy Show’s biggest critics — slamming Sam Newman as a “pathetic, ridiculous dinosaur” — but even Susie O’Brien is sad to see the demise of the one-time ratings powerhouse.

The new-look Footy Show never found an audience. Picture: Nicki Connolly

I’ve been one of The Footy Show’s biggest critics, calling star Sam Newman a “pathetic, ridiculous dinosaur”, a “geriatric man-baby” and a “sexist seventy-year old with the face of a schoolboy”.

But even I am sad the show’s reboot has been axed.

Producers put us out of our misery, ending the show last night, a week after it reached an all-time ratings low of 53,000 viewers.

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When your show is beaten by a documentary about Jack the Ripper, you know the writing is on the wall.

I am glad they got rid of Newman and his crusty old cronies, but it’s a pity the new crew didn’t manage to recreate some of the magic of the show’s heyday.

Eddie, Sam and Trevor in 1996.

The cast of the new-look show. Picture: Nicki Connolly

The current panellists — Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann, Neroli Meadows, Dylan Alcott and Brendan Fevola — did a sterling job, but they didn’t stand a chance.

The show died years ago and Channel Nine made a critical error when it kept the same name.

The task for the new cast was almost impossible: hold onto the few rusted-on viewers the show still had and attract a whole new cohort. Sadly, they didn’t manage to do either.

The old guard, who’re probably still writing snail-mail letters to the network demanding the return of Trevor Marmalade, no doubt found it too sanitised. The new viewers failed to materialise.

Some would have been put off by the show’s long association with Newman and Eddie McGuire. Others would have found little reason to switch from other footy shows like The Front Bar on Channel Seven or the Marngrook Footy Show on NITV.

Lehmo and his crew were a bunch of very likeable people doing their best, but the magic and pizzazz of The Footy Show’s heyday was sorely lacking.

I’ve had a fair go over the years at the old show’s stars like Newman and McGuire, but I am still sorry to see the back of a show that was a ratings powerhouse for years and much-loved by many.

Tuning into The Footy Show on a Thursday night was part of the winter ritual for many families, who laughed together over Sam Newman’s Street Talk or Mailbag segment.

But this was before digital TV and Netflix and social media — gone are the days when whole families sit together to watch the same show.

Changing times also meant old ways just weren’t funny anymore.

The network allowed Newman and his cronies to continue peddling their sexist, racist, homophobic slapstick, for way too long.

Remember Newman’s blackface segment in 1999 lampooning Aboriginal player Nicky Winmar?

The time he put a journalist Caroline Wilson’s head on a mannequin dressed in lingerie?

The comments he made about transgender trailblazer Caitlin Jenner?

Such antics led viewers to desert the show in droves and stopped new fans from tuning in.

Ultimately, the new version of the show couldn’t escape its past — both the good times and bad.

There were too many memories of past glory to live up to, too much bad blood and too many bad headlines.

RIP Footy Show, your time was up.

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@susieob