Sam Newman takes aim at ‘woke society’ over Footy Show downfall

Sam Newman has opened up on his demise at Channel 9, revealing how the Footy Show’s death spiral left him “uncomfortable”.

Sam Newman says a changing “woke society” got him tossed out of Channel 9 during the Footy Show’s sad demise.

The veteran TV figure opened up to The Herald Sun’s SACKED: Showbiz Podcast in an episode released this week to reveal is frustrations at the changes the show underwent before it was eventually cancelled entirely halfway through the 2019 AFL season when a new line-up of Neroli Meadows, Dylan Alcott and Anthony Lehmann failed to pull the show out of its ratings tailspin.

Newman remained with Channel 9 into 2020, but was famously shown the door in June after 35 years with the network — on the back of his controversial comments surrounding killed American figure George Floyd.

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Newman said in his now-cancelled You Cannot Be Serious Podcast that Floyd was a “piece of s***”.

Just months after his parting of ways with Nine, Newman claimed he was considering taking legal action against the network after comments made by photographer Wayne Ludbey — in the middle of this year’s Nicky Winmar scandal — were shared on Channel 9.

It comes after Newman settled a dispute with Winmar and Ludbey and was forced to issue an apology for comments he made about the former St Kilda star.

The Footy Show’s iconic line-up of Eddie McGuire, Sam Newman and Trevor Marmalade.

Winmar took a famous stand against racism, lifting his jersey and pointing to his skin after being subject to abuse from the crowd during at match between St Kilda and Collingwood in 1993.

The picture of Winimar’s stand was captured by Ludbey, a Sunday Age photographer.

In an episode of the You Cannot Be Serious podcast uploaded in June, Newman, Scott and Sheahan suggested Winmar may have just been pointing at his “guts” rather than taking a stand against racism.

Newman claimed last month comments made by Ludbey following the controversy were defamatory.

Now Newman has revealed his true feelings towards his former employers and how a changing of direction essentially left his position obsolete as The Footy Show attempted to adapt to a “woke society”.

“From my point of view it had got away completely from what it’s main aim was in the first place,’’ Newman told the podcast.

Sam Newman protesting Melbourne’s lockdown.

“Even though the changing requirements and conditions of a woke society, of an enlightened world... and I’m not saying anything I haven’t said publicly to them so I’m not airing any dirty linen at all... but they threw the baby out with the bath water and I became marginalised to the fact that I wasn’t of use to them at all because the paradigm of the show had changed dramatically and it wasn’t suited to what I used to do.”

He said the changing of direction never sat comfortably with him.

“Most of the time I disagreed with what was on the show. But I was delighted to be part of it and tried to make it work. But unfortunately I got a bit frustrated with it and unfortunately I probably let it show a bit on air.

“And in the last couple of years it became an ordeal for me because I couldn’t do what I wanted to do — or what I thought they wanted me to do.

“And it became too structured and too organised and that was never how it was meant to be.”

He also revealed earlier threats to leave the show after network executives considered switching the live show to be a pre-recorded program following a torrent of complaints and warnings from the Australian Communications and Media Authority about breaches of standards.

Newman says he threatened to leave the show if Nine implemented the switch.

Despite the bitter end to his relationship with Channel 9, Newman insists he did not death ride The Footy Show as it fell spectacularly flat last year.

“I didn’t think it was really what the audience wanted to see and probably in the end I was proved right, but I’m not claiming a victory because we are all in it together,” he said.