Fatty axed from NRL Footy Show as Channel Nine revamps format
PHIL ROTHFIELD, The Daily Telegraph
October 17, 2017 3:50pm
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NRL television stalwart Paul ‘Fatty’ Vautin is being punted from Channel Nine’s Footy Show after 23 years and 11 Logies.
The longest-serving host on Australian television will be restricted to commentary box duties at live NRL games in 2018 with the network to groom glamorous star Erin Molan as his replacement.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal The Footy Show will be expanded next year to broadcast in a new timeslot on Monday night, then Thursday night and Sunday lunchtime.
The move to replace 58-year-old Vautin and promote Molan is a tactical manoeuvre by the network to win back female fans who have deserted the Footy Show and switched to Fox Sports where Yvonne Sampson heads up an impressive line-up of women presenters.
“I’m not sure what the show will look like next year but I am so grateful for the past six seasons alongside Fatty, Big Marn, Beau and Glenn (Pallister) and the whole team,” Molan said.
“I love them. They couldn’t have treated me better or made me feel more welcome. They are family and whatever happens always will be.”
Nine’s Footy Show ratings have slipped to an all-time low this year, often to as bad as 80,000 viewers compared to the halcyon days when it regularly pulled in audiences of around 370,000.
Vautin is on a family holiday in the United States and did not return phone calls or text messages.
The futures of the stars of the show remain uncertain.
The highest paid panellist Beau Ryan has two years to run on his contract.
Vautin and Molan are both free agents at the end of the 2018 season.
Darryl ‘Big Marn’ Brohman is off contract now.
“I’ve just left it with my manager,” Brohman said.
“None of us have been told what’s happening.”
Officially Channel Nine is saying the Footy Show is being revamped because the network will be showing 23 live Thursday night NRL games next year.
Costs are too high to justify or invest in the late-night timeslot with the lack of advertisers.
While Nine has been in a steady decline, Fox Sports continues to grow its rugby league audience for live games, pre-game, with the Matty Johns Show, NRL 360, League Life and The Professor.
They recently parted company with Peter Sterling, whose show was the only one in the Fox Sports stable to struggle for ratings. He will be returning to Channel 9.
Long-time executive producer Glenn Pallister is also moving on under the revamp.
The show is now under the care of Director of Sport Tom Malone instead of light entertainment.
Ironically Vautin always predicted Molan would one day host the show.
Two years ago he said: “I just turn up at 8.30 every Thursday night, put my bum on the seat and do my best.
“I have noticed in the last three years she (Erin) has moved from being part time, to being right down the end of the panel, she moved up one last year, and now she has moved up another one this year. So I think the writing is on the wall for me.”
Nine executives stress that Vautin will remain on the network in a commentary role for at least next year. “He is rated very highly in the broadcast box,” said one source.
The new show will be less humour and more football.
Where that leaves funny man Beau Ryan remains to be seen.
“No-one has told us what’s happening,” he said, “We’ve just been told there will be a new format.
“Hopefully we’ll get some more info in the next couple of weeks.”
Viewers will get more serious football analysis, especially on the Monday night panel show, through the likes of Andrew Johns, Darren Lockyer, Wally Lewis, Brad Fittler and possibly Phil Gould.
2GB broadcaster Ray Hadley signed a new three-year contract with the network yesterday to call Thursday night games for Channel 9.
