New-look panel leads Footy Show to historic ratings low
Respected footy journalist Mike Sheahan has handed out a dire warning for the new-look Footy Show hosts, saying they have “jumped on the Titanic’. In its second week the former flagship program lost half its viewers and failed to capitalise on a dream lead in.
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The Footy Show has crashed to a record ratings low, with the former flagship program losing half its viewers in the space of a week.
After months of build-up over a new panel of Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann, Neroli Meadows, Dylan Alcott and Brendan Fevola, The Footy Show debuted to 193,000 viewers last week.
But the show’s ratings plummeted to 96,000 in Melbourne last night — the lowest figure in the program’s 20-plus year run.
ALCOTT SAYS FOOTY SHOW NEEDED REFURB
Meanwhile, its Channel 7 rival The Front Bar continues to dominate the timeslot.
The Front Bar averaged 277,000 viewers in Melbourne and smashed the Footy Show in national viewers: 383,000 to 163,000.
Respected football journalist Mike Sheahan has handed out a dire warning for the new-look Footy Show hosts, saying they have “jumped on the Titanic’.
Sheahan said Channel 9 executives made two huge mistakes with their rebrand.
“I can say without wanting to sound like a smarty pants the two things that Channel 9 has done wrong,” he told SEN.
“They kept the name of the Footy Show – it’s not the Footy Show as we knew it. And they put it head to head with the best new show on TV in years – the Front Bar.
“The Footy Show, it died. This is a new show. If you were going to have the Footy Show in any incarnation at all, you should have put it on at a different time.
“The Front Bar has taken off. It is sort of like people have just jumped on the Titanic in terms of the Footy Show.”
Asked if he thought the Show could survive long term, Sheahan said, “No.”
“No one polarises opinion more than Sammy Newman. Lots of people love his style. He’s gone, Garry’s gone, James Brayshaw is gone. That’s why it should never have been called the Footy Show.”
The Footy Show’s ratings disaster was made even worse given its lead in program, Married At First Sight (MAFS), is the biggest show on television and rated 424,000 in Melbourne.
MAFS promoted The Footy Show heavily and two MAFS cast members even appeared in the opening segment of The Footy Show in a bid to woo viewers.
But the aggressive cross promotion couldn’t stop some 328,000 viewers switching off.
Nine is standing by the under-siege show, with a Network spokesperson telling the Herald Sun:
“We are excited by the feedback we have from players and those inside the game on the show and we are committed to this outstanding line up of hosts. The Footy Show is an important and valued part of our schedule and we know as the audience sample it, they will stick with it.”
The Footy Show’s last decent showing was for last year’s Grand Final episode.
It averaged 247,000 viewers in Melbourne, shading The Front Bar which averaged 229,000.
But it was a rare spike in ratings in a year that saw the show fall to its lowest figures in more than 20 years.
The show crashed to a low of 116,000 during last year’s finals.
Nine executives hoped a radical shake up of the panel — headlined by Lehmann and Meadows — would reverse the show’s declining fortunes.
But it’s taken just a week for viewers to vote with their remotes and switch off in droves.
Last year Nine ran out of patience with its NRL version, axing it after poor ratings.
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