Football legend Garry Lyon has for the primary time revealed a secret plot hatched by rival community Channel 7 to tear the Footy Show aside.
The iconic sequence lasted 26 years earlier than it’s unceremonious demise in 2019.
At its peak, the larrikin, soccer panel present was an all-conquering big and obliterated something Seven may throw at it as a possible rival.
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Lyon has now revealed Seven’s determined try to tear its rival aside by pinching half of this system’s expertise, together with himself.
The Melbourne Demons nice advised SEN’s Rabbit Hole Podcast this week Seven tried to steal 5 stars from the Channel 9 present in 1998.
Lyon, who went on to host the Footy Show alongside James Brayshaw following Eddie McGuire’s determination to take a step again, revealed Seven’s government producer Harvey Silver made a pitch to lure himself, Billy Brownless, Jason Dunstall and Doug Hawkins away from Nine.
Lyon was even provided the place as host, however wasn’t as he completed up the ultimate seasons of his profession earlier than his retirement in 1999.
Lyon mentioned the supply got here as a shock.
“The Footy Show is a wild success, I suppose it is a bit of a stone, a pebble, in the shoe of Channel 7 so they were (thinking) ‘we have to throw a punch, we have to get our own show up’,’’ Lyon said on the Rabbit Hole podcast.
“Harvey says to us one day ‘come around for lunch’. Jason Dunstall, Doug, Bill and myself go to Harvey’s place in Caulfield. He sits us down and says ‘right boys, this is what I want to put to you. There is this opportunity, I want to do a new show called Live and Kicking and we are going to take it to Channel 7 and take on The Footy Show’.’’
“I don’t know about the others, but I am going ‘what?’,’’ he said.
The pitch was for Lyon and Dunstall to host and Brownless and Hawkins to be the funny sidekicks on the new Seven offering that was designed to sink the boot into The Footy Show.
“We had been in television for three minutes, we sit on the panel, we do bugger all, and you want us to go and host? That is the way I thought,’’ he said.
“So he did the whole pitch of how it was going to work. We were not contracted to Nine, we got $700 per show or something.
“There was a contract and it would have been a lot of money back in the day. I am not joking, I left there shaking my head thinking ‘I am not doing that.’
“I did not give it one second of thought because I was not ready to host a show. There was no way known I was able, capable or wanted to host my own show (at that stage). I wanted to keep playing footy and keep exploring the media stuff. Bill was the same.”
Seven was in the end solely capable of snare Dunstall and Hawkins — and the pair have been unable to carry the Footy Show’s success throughout with them as Seven’s Live and Kicking program lasted simply two seasons.
Seven produced a number of extra footy applications within the years that adopted, however none have been capable of problem the Footy Show as a rankings hit.
In the top it took the Footy Show itself to explode the long-lasting sequence with Seven’s solely success coming similtaneously the Footy Show started its demise spiral.
Seven’s Front Bar has been a smash hit with Mick Molloy, Sam Pang and Andy Harper hitting the proper notes with its light-hearted footy chatter.
The Footy Show had been gripped in an extended, drawn-out demise because the present underwent a number of line-up modifications and revamps in a bid to carry new life to the drained, blokey format.
The Footy Show first aired in 1994 and was Australia’s longest-running sports activities leisure program throughout prime time because it produced 735 reveals. However, it lasted solely eight episodes in 2019 earlier than Nine pulled the plug.
In its remaining season, the present underwent a drastic shake-up to reverse its alarming rankings slide however fewer viewers tuned in than ever earlier than. New hosts Neroli Meadows and Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann, together with Aussie wheelchair tennis star Dylan Alcott, have been inserted as longtime Footy Show staples Eddie McGuire and Sam Newman left this system. The present was past saving.
Lyon on the time described the present’s finish as an “execution” with studies solid members came upon simply minutes after the ultimate present had aired that they not had jobs.
The present famously completed with co-host Neroli Meadows signing off with the phrase “see you next week”.
Source: www.news.com.au
