The Footy Show’s Sam Newman out of contract in 2018

WITH his 72nd birthday looming and just a year left on his Channel Nine contract, TV veteran Sam Newman doesn’t seem worried about his future as prime-time headline bait.

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WITH his 72nd birthday looming, how much longer will TV veteran Sam Newman survive as prime time headline bait?

After the best part of two years of uncertainty and upheaval within The Footy Show ranks, the trouble magnet is clearly happy to have his confidant Eddie McGuire back at the helm of the program.

Newman’s current three year deal with Channel Nine finishes at the end of 2018 and his response to the question of his TV future and if he had exit or retirement plans was to label the inquiry “ageist.”

Kicking on: Footy Show co-stars Rebecca Maddern, Eddie McGuire and Sam Newman. Picture: Alex Coppel.

“I will wait until I am offered a contract for a start, let’s not get ahead of the horse,” said Newman who will blow out 72 candles in December.

“I have never planned a day in my life.”

Newman has racked up 23 years on The Footy Show and has endured as a predictable and dependable lightning rod for outrage and indignation.

Newman’s contract is not the only Footy Show talent deal that up for discussion at the end of next year.

Billy Brownless, Shane Crawford and Rebecca Maddern are all believed to be on contacts that take them through to late 2018. Dave Hughes is understood to be out of contract at the end of this year.

Before the change: Sam Newman with Billy Brownless, Rebecca Maddern and then Footy Show co-host Craig Hutchison. Picture: Channel 9

While Newman’s ability to manufacture outrage is unquestionable, there is certainly a hefty part of the viewing audience who find his act predictable and boring.

Not that he cares.

“I am in the fortunate position where I take no notice of those people because I don’t have a computer, I don’t read the papers, I am not on social media, so their opinion I have no interest in and that is a fact,” he said.

“I don’t disrespect them, I just have no interest in their opinion.

“So I comment off the top of my head, which is probably not a great practice, about situations and events that happen, and sometimes people agree with me and mostly they don’t.”

Craig Hutchison and Eddie McGuire on the set of The Footy Show in happier times. Picture: Channel 9

Meanwhile the strong tip is the Eddie factor at Nine will extend next year to include the Sunday Footy Show and Footy Classified, which currently features deposed Footy Show host Craig Hutchison and noted McGuire critic, Caroline Wilson, on the panel.

His company, McGuire Media, has moved in to co-produce The Footy Show however insiders say that by next year the co-production deal will widen to include the two other programs that make up Nine’s AFL portfolio.

Should that happen as tipped, his power over footy shows in Melbourne will be vast, taking into account his other company JAM TV Australia produces, among others, Talking Footy and The Kick for Nine’s network rival Channel Seven.

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