Front Bar beats rival Footy Show in ratings battle

THE RATINGS battle between The Footy Show and The Front Bar has settled into a pattern — and the omens aren’t good for Eddie McGuire and Channel 9.

THE RATINGS battle between The Footy Show and The Front Bar has settled into a pattern — and the omens aren’t good for Eddie McGuire and Channel 9.

Last night The Front Bar, with Andy Maher, Mick Molloy and Sam Pang, averaged 228,000 viewers in Melbourne.

The Footy Show, with McGuire and Sam Newman plus a visit to Rebecca Maddern and baby Ruby Mae averaged 167,000.

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Eddie McGuire and Sam Newman on the Footy Show.

The figures show an even bigger gap than last week when The Front Bar averaged 210,000 and The Footy Show 173,000.

The figures would be a concern for Nine given the massive amount of money lavished on The Footy Show in recent times.

Apart from McGuire replacing Craig Hutchison, there has been the signings of former champions Chris Judd, Dane Swan and Brendan Fevola.

The founding producer of The Footy Show, Harvey Silver, was also brought on-board.

Just as concerning for Nine would be the fact that The Front Bar beat The Footy Show in Adelaide (36,000 to 26,000) and Perth (51,000 to 48,000).

The rival footy shows bounced around in a variety of timeslots at the start of the season because of Thursday night matches and the Commonwealth Games.

Andy Maher, Mick Molloy and Sam Pang on the set of The Front Bar.

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But they have settled into the 8.30pm Thursday slot since mid-April and the trend towards consistent wins by The Front Bar has been steadily building.

Last night’s edition of The Front Bar featured Neale and Terry Daniher as well as Kangaroos coach Brad Scott.

The Footy Show’s included an interview with Australian boxing champion Jeff Horn and a guest appearances by legend Bob Skilton and Demons young gun Christian Petracca.