The Footy Show's 2019 format revealed (and other Nine AFL stuff)

[Bomberboyokay]

There were a few death blows but imo the insertion of Rebecca Maddern and then ensuring everything was scripted around her to ensure she could add faux wit to be met with faux laughs and “onya Bec” was the final straw.

Fairness in equality (gender, race, faith, you name it) is important. It should also be considered reasonable for a television show to be very clear who it’s target audience is and not have to be bent to target what it’s not. That’s not to say it had to be a show full of bigotry and marginalised people (although I note it seems to be only “bloke” type forums which cop the wrath of the PC brigade. I don’t see the same venom over other clearly female targeted shows).

There’s a big difference between “tone it down lads we aren’t doing that crap anymore” and “this person must be not only on your show but central to everything on it”.

One only has to watch Tonight with Alan Partridge (regardless of if it’s your cup of tea) to see that there’s still a place for comedy which can be crass and foolish yet generally non offensive.

The Front Bar has the right formula. Let’s hope the do-whatisay-gooders don’t try to crush that, too, because it has pretty much all blokes in a bar talking sport and having a laugh.

Alan Partridge is a fictional character. The joke is Alan Partridge.

 

[Pacman82]

Colin Vickery's lost all of his material too.

Rita Panahi, on the other hand, has gained a shitload.



I recall Eddie saying in an interview a few years back where he said that the first ad break during the first episode included a lengthy ad for Showgirls Bar 20 (which says something about what people were predicting at the time)

Ahh.. Good old Bar 20, Kages on King was a ripper spot too

 

[footyfan1978]

Whole football week has changed anyway. The Thursday slot was ideal back in 1990's but we regularly have Thursday night football now it lost it's part of the football week that once had a regular audience. It is actually not one thing that outdated this show. It is many. Television is less prime entertainment at night for most of us now during the week and even if we watching tv there are about three time as much stuff on tv, more than one tv in house and internet streaming that means one tv central to a household watching has long had it's use by date. We all watch a wider array of things than in late 90's where television still was the main source of night time entertainment during week nights. It is just a natural change of habits of what people are doing each decade and generation. Not sure why television execs expected it to go on. It was surprising it lasted the last few years.

 

[teknodeejay]

Alan Partridge is a fictional character. The joke is Alan Partridge.

But the show walks the tightrope well is my point

 

[Stevi_Tigers]

End of an era not sure how ppl can watch front bar Andy Maher drains it

 

[freddy mercury]

I haven't watched it since 2015 I reckon. But to hear people say good riddance etc, I mean, you never watched it, why are you so happy to see it go?

 

[Big Blood]

Alan Partridge is a fictional character. The joke is Alan Partridge.

Also he's a lot more knowledgeable about AFL.

 

[Woody15]

End of an era not sure how ppl can watch front bar Andy Maher drains it

Its ok, but yeh I don't see the hype.

Very, very scripted. When Mick Molloy isn't funny, he really isn't funny. So many times his 'jokes' have just fallen flat.

 

[Danger in Texas]

Its ok, but yeh I don't see the hype.

Very, very scripted. When Mick Molloy isn't funny, he really isn't funny. So many times his 'jokes' have just fallen flat.

Yeah I find more often than not that I can't stand Molloy, his skit at the Brownlow a few years back is what I come to expect from him. Pang is great, though, and Maher is a solid straight man

Really they should have just canned TFS after last year, was never going to succeed in any format, it's a shame that it hasn't been given a proper sendoff after 25 years but them's the breaks

 

[peternorth]

Free to air tv fights on. But as others have alluded too, there's options aplenty at your finger tips.

 

[Elite Master]

Remember when they introduced the rebooted weekly Footy Show that they said there will also be about 3 or 4 special event big spectacle shows that Eddie would host and Sam would feature in. Are those big ones still happening? Because even in the last few years when the weekly show struggled for ratings the Grand Final editions always pulled good numbers.

 

[nobbyiscool]

I said earlier this season that, for as bad and irrelevant as the show has been for at least 10 years, it really was groundbreaking in leading to the current media landscape in footy.

I haven't really watched it in about 5 years, but I saw the first 10 minutes this season and 5 minutes a couple of weeks ago (long enough to hear Alcott say f***) - but last night I gave it a good 30+ minutes, and I think the problem was obvious. The show just didn't know what it was about any more. Initially it was about the players. Then it was about the news. Then it was really about Newman. Then it was a pure entertainment show relying on its lead stars in Newman, Lyon, Brayshaw, and to a lesser extent Brownless and Crawford. But now? It was kind of a rebel without a cause.

I think there's still a place for a footy show-type program on a non-host broadcaster, and I think there's a huge place for Neroli Meadows in serious sports journalism/host on free to air tv. But this wasn't achieving anything for 9 or for Meadows in its current guise. I'll be interested to see the ratings from last night.

 

[Pakenhamsaint]

It does feel it needs a farewell show. For something as groundbreaking as it was it deserved to go out better.

 

[Hawkie_McHawkHawk]

It does feel it needs a farewell show. For something as groundbreaking as it was it deserved to go out better.

The farewell show was last years grand final episode. This year was it was a strange decision to give it the same stale branding and at the same time keep nothing about the show people were fond of. Armchair critic hat on, but a prototype example of a TV station being utterly clueless what their audience wants.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

They churned out 25 years of Hey Hey level humor, that's amazing effort IMO. Once the release of Thurs teams became redundant along with the rise of social media, no real reason to watch it when there's a lot more (and superior) football content out there from when it first started.

The wider audience have slowly realized that this show is garbage. Nothing to do whether it's PC or not.

Yep, it's past its' use by date, that's all. When it first came along, it based itself on sportsmen's nights. and supplied teams at a time when you couldn't get them anywhere else, discussion about the games at a time where football shows on TV were at a premium, and fresh comedy routines about football related topics. We also got late breaking news.

These days all those things are available 24/7 through the net and social media, the comedy became so amateurish, and TV footy shows are almost 24/7 on free to air and Fox. The show was badly in need of a new format about 10 years ago, around the time I stopped watching.

All things run it's course, it did well to last this long.

 

[GreekLunatic]

I reckon it died when Trev left and when some of sams segments were taken off by the pc police

 

[Father Jack]

I reckon it died when Trev left and when some of sams segments were taken off by the pc police

What sort of things did the PC police take off the show? I bet they were piss funny, whatever they were

 

[Hawkie_McHawkHawk]

What sort of things did the PC police take off the show? I bet they were piss funny, whatever they were

I think he’s talking PC in general. And don’t kid yourself, times have changed and attitudes have become more precious than ever. Remember growing up ‘sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me’? A great motto to live by. But now, people get all bent out of shape by the slightest thing.
I can’t wait for the day when we cancel sport because society as a whole can’t cope with there having to be a losing team.

 

[Father Jack]

I think he’s talking PC in general. And don’t kid yourself, times have changed and attitudes have become more precious than ever. Remember growing up ‘sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me’? A great motto to live by. But now, people get all bent out of shape by the slightest thing.
I can’t wait for the day when we cancel sport because society as a whole can’t cope with there having to be a losing team.

You yearn for the day of openly racist and sexist humour? And because we don't have a taste for that kind of humour anymore that means that for some reason something completely ludicrous and unrelated is going to happen?

Interesting how this 'PC gone mad' nonsense only works if you don't think too much about it.

 

[Hawkie_McHawkHawk]

You yearn for the day of openly racist and sexist humour? And because we don't have a taste for that kind of humour anymore that means that for some reason something completely ludicrous and unrelated is going to happen?

Interesting how this 'PC gone mad' nonsense only works if you don't think too much about it.

Just look at you dieing to bring the r word into the conversation! I couldn’t give a feck what colour anyone is but because of soft utensils like yourself we can’t have humour anymore. Just about any known comedian these days says stand up is an extremely risky gig because beady eyed geeks like you are just foaming at the mouth to take offense. I don’t get offended by anything. And that is a far more valuable life skill to teach my kids than to look for hurt in simple words spoken.

 

[peternorth]

How is soft and hard defined in political correctness landscape?

 

[Bombermania]

I think he’s talking PC in general. And don’t kid yourself, times have changed and attitudes have become more precious than ever. Remember growing up ‘sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me’? A great motto to live by. But now, people get all bent out of shape by the slightest thing.
I can’t wait for the day when we cancel sport because society as a whole can’t cope with there having to be a losing team.

More precious than ever. I'm not sure where you get that idea from because there has always been moral standards, if anything it is far freer now than it was in the 1950s or 1970s.

-Women were expected to stay at home to look after the children.
-In the Victorian pubic service, a women getting married was expected to resign on the Friday then start new on the Monday under their new married name
-Single mums were frowned upon as failed women
-Catholics and Prods were encouraged to not marriage someone outside their faith (probably still held too by some)
-Cross racial relationships were frowned upon
-Men using brothels or visiting sex clubs were seen as dirty and sleezy
-Being drunk was seen as bad and gambling was looked down upon
-Getting divorced was a social no no

I am sure others can come up with many other examples and I played junior footy in the 80s and up until under 11s there was no score kept, and you had to wear a helmet and couldn't tackle

 

[Topkent]

You yearn for the day of openly racist and sexist humour? And because we don't have a taste for that kind of humour anymore that means that for some reason something completely ludicrous and unrelated is going to happen?

Interesting how this 'PC gone mad' nonsense only works if you don't think too much about it.

You proved his point, you immediately assumed it was 2 areas you like to bitch about it and had a whinge. Comedy involves pushing the line in every direction but people like you can't wait to hear a joke and start crying and bring attention to yourself.

 

[teknodeejay]

Sam and in general some cast of the show did have a degree of casual sexism and once or twice racism about it in the 90s period. You can’t deny that didn’t occur.

It also had some hugely emotionally memorable moments. The whole EJ Whitten period was as raw as it gets on live TV and made for all encompassing, compelling viewing.

 

[Bombermania]

Sam and in general some cast of the show did have a degree of casual sexism and once or twice racism about it in the 90s period. You can’t deny that didn’t occur.

It also had some hugely emotionally memorable moments. The whole EJ Whitten period was as raw as it gets on live TV and made for all encompassing, compelling viewing.

I don't think anyone disputes that but it could be argued that it was more flirty than sexist in the 1990s, and in the early years the show was highly popular with women.