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Matty Johns declines Footy Show return

Updated: Matthew Johns rejects a lucrative offer from Nine to return to a revamped NRL Footy Show, because Nine declined to axe "Fatty" Vautin.

Matthew Johns has rejected a lucrative offer from Channel Nine to return to a revamped NRL Footy Show, because Nine declined to axe Paul “Fatty” Vautin.

Johns, who left Nine to join Seven after his involvement in an NRL scandal, is believed to have turned down a figure in excess of $500,000.

“We have been offered in writing more money then he ever got before on Nine and he knocked it back,” manager John Singleton told the Daily Telegraph.

Johns said, “They said, ‘we’re going to reinvent the show’ but, for mine, it’s not going to be reinvented. I don’t want to go back to the past. I’ve had my time on that show and enjoyed it but it’s going to be the same show and I’ve been there and done that.”

Johns’ camp also wanted creative control of the show.

“You cannot work unless you have creative control, production control, and we weren’t given that,” Singleton said.

Singleton also described Vautin as “an average footballer, an average TV talent.”

Nine Network managing director Jeff Browne said Vautin had been “a loyal servant for 18 years” and he wasn’t prepared to move him on to get someone else on the show. “If they don’t want Fatty on the show and they don’t want to do it, that’s their decision,” he said.

Not dumping Vautin is an interesting position by Nine.

On the one hand it’s good to see loyalty rewarded, although other loyal employees including Kerri-Anne Kennerley haven’t always fared as well.

On the other hand the NRL Footy Show has been underperforming for the last few years, woefully propped up by the numbers from the AFL Footy Show. It is in dire need of new blood. It’s only survived because the network has the NRL rights and it’s a favourite of David Gyngell.

Updated: Johns told TripleM Grill Team: “The plain simple truth of it is I’m just being upfront. What I said to Nine was I wasn’t going to go back to The Footy Show. They had a belief that the show probably needs to be re-invented. I said it needs to be blown up and start again.”

39 Responses

  1. @ Nick, exactly!

    @Mark Jales – jeez, if ‘nein’ is supposed to be a word used exclusively by Nazis, we have a serious problem in Austria and Germany, ja? For my part, I think of it as ‘Nein get this off my TV’. Worst channel ever.

    Cannot believe Nine was offering Johns another job. Agree with Buck, disgraceful. Have not forgotten the incident. Should not be surprised that Nine doesn’t have the courage to stick to their convictions though (what convictions, right? They don’t care, it’s all PR and ratings)

    Would be perfectly happy not to have to see MJ on TV ever again.

  2. singo is delusional. matty was never funny or talented. his character on his show, whatever it was called. were all the same. try hard tough guys. if he was that talented, why weren’t the characters different in nature. fatty shouldn’t be on the footy show any more, but matty has no right to ask who should be on it

  3. i used to like watching Matthew Johns on The Sunday Roast, but thought he was just ”okay” on The Footy Show.

    The NRL Footy Show has been average for a few years now. 2011 was a bit better (with Tahir on air for a few bits and pieces, the Fui Fui sketches etc).

    However, it would be nice if the show finished on time for once! Always ran overtime, meaning that i would miss out on watching the AFL Footy Show in full because it would finish so late

  4. Number1 are you for real matty johns great talent did you watch the shows on seven the were terrible,tacky , unfunny. The show was canned by seven because the ratings were low. Matty is good on radio i listen to him on radio but tv is not for matty.

  5. The footy show in nsw i a load of crap its not funny its not informative its boooooring. Matty johns on it will be an even bigger turn off. His show on seven was crap thats why it was canned. The show needs a complete overhaul. Get rid of the lot. Start fresh with cameron williams , ben fordham, and real footy players. Just look at the melborne footy show love it , its funny its entertaining its great tv.. Better still get rid of the sydney footy shownand replace it with the melbourne footy show

  6. The ratings say it all – it has been tired, dull, unfunny and just embarassing for years. If they want to change things, they have to do something dramatic and start afresh. Johns isn’t the answer but neither is Vautin.

  7. I don’t even know if Matt Johns control of the show would mean it would get more serious or even more tacky? Matt Johns can be both. Take Triple M breakfast show for example, he can talk about serious stuff and you belive what he says, then he does the opposite and plays a radio character of a racist sexist homophbic prisoner called Poppy. Go figure?

  8. Dont care and i dont watch…now the bigger question is will Nein let WIN put the AFL footy show on earlier….please for the love of those of us who like the AFL Footy show…and by the way..Iam a NRL fan

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