Matty Johns brings back the biff to Nine
* From: The Daily Telegraph
* November 19, 2009 12:00AM
DISGRACED ex-footballer Matthew Johns is looking at a smorgasbord of programming options with Channel 7 for 2010 after turning his back on the Nine Network in the aftermath of the sex scandal that damaged his career and reputation earlier in the year.
After being suspended by Channel 9 following his admission to being involved in a 2002 group-sex scandal that rocked rugby league earlier this year - and then appearing in a difficult and humiliating interview with Nine's A Current Affair - Johns looks set to jump ship and join rival Seven Network with his new television partner and staunch backer John Singleton.
Johns this week told a Confidential source three programming concepts were on the table with Seven.
The first is believed to be a sports panel discussion program, the second a comedy sketch show in the style of The Paul Hogan Show, and the third is unknown.
It has been reported Seven hopes to schedule one of the programs on a Thursday at 8.30pm, with a view to damaging rival Nine's lead-in for The Footy Show, Johns' old stomping ground.
Seven is expected to make a bid for Nine's NRL broadcasting contract for 2012 and signing Johns is viewed as the first of many league signings it may ultimately make.
But when talk of the three programs was put to Seven boss David Leckie yesterday, he said through a spokesman: "We won't be drawn on our programming plans for 2010".
Johns this week, meanwhile was spotted looking like a damsel in distress at a Dee Why service station on Monday.
When he found his silver Lexus had a flat, rather than change it himself, he gave the white knights at the NRMA's road service division a call and they changed it for him.
