Sorry guys, here it is:
Link
The absence of Paul Kent from Fox Sports could be a bonus for the network if its ratings when he was stood down last year are any guide.
The culture at Fox Sports is again in question after the street fight that resulted in the sidelining of its loudest and most prominent voice, but the company says what happened does not reflect the organisation.
Fox Sports co-host and Daily Telegraph journalist Kent was charged on Wednesday with affray following a street fight in Sydney’s inner west last Saturday night.
Kent was also found not guilty of domestic violence charges in December.
The problem is Kent’s gradual unravelling during the past few months has been the talk of rugby league circles and has been well known to those who work with him at Fox. We have asked Kent, Fox Sports and his boss and best mate, Steve Crawley, about any individual support he received and no one has replied.
Those closest to him in the media have made it clear they were concerned for him.
Paul Kent is held back before shaping up to a man outside Three Weeds Rozelle.
Paul Kent is held back before shaping up to a man outside Three Weeds Rozelle.CREDIT: X
Kent often criticised rugby league players for making poor choices, and for some time now the same has been whispered about him. His recent issues reflect badly on those who have backed him through some testing times.
Having been charged by police, Kent’s career has been tipped on its head, much like he was outside that Rozelle pub on Saturday.
There is little sympathy for this sad episode in the NRL playing and coaching community. Kent’s role as the media tough guy was encouraged as he ripped into people in the game with very little sympathy or understanding. If his on-air persona is different to his actual persona, he deserves a Logie.
As a 54-year-old man, Kent has to take responsibility for the majority of what he has brought upon himself, but anyone could see he was in need of help. In his first few weeks back on air after being found not guilty of a domestic violence charge, it was obvious his thinking was clouded and his delivery was not what it used to be. Kent was forced to apologise for one on-air blunder, where he made outrageous accusations about the conduct of new Wests Tigers boss Shane Richardson.
It is also unfair on Kent’s NRL 360 co-host Braith Anasta that he is having to explain the situation.
Anasta was the one who told viewers that Kent would be absent from the program for the second time in 12 months.
Police charging Kent and his subsequent standing down may have done Fox Sports a favour, however. Ratings for NRL 360 were up in Kent’s absence last year, and Anasta wasn’t shy in letting his 50,000 Instagram followers know about it.
Gorden Tallis relished the opportunity to step in with Kent gone and helped resurrect Fox’s dwindling figures, particularly in Queensland. A quick look at OzTAM ratings will be proof enough for Fox executives that now might be the time for change.
On April 24 last year, before Kent was stood down following the domestic violence charges, the show could only scrape together 28,000 viewers for its live broadcast in the five-city metro market of Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. By July – with Tallis well entrenched – that audience was regularly in excess of 40,000. By September, it was more than 50,000.
Kent was quietly reinstated for the NRL’s season openers in Las Vegas in March, but the show now regularly misses the top 250 ratings list. That was the case on Tuesday when just 11,000 watched in Sydney and 6000 in Brisbane. James Graham was impressive as Kent’s replacement on Monday.
During the first few days of the week, there have been no approaches to Tallis to do the job again.
