The Footy Show’s downward spiral has been exposed by a graph which plots the falling ratings of the once-popular programme.
A Channel Nine insider told the Herald Sun the show’s popularity went into a permanent decline when the AFL world was rocked by revelations Garry Lyon was having an affair with the wife of co-host and best friend Billy Brownless.
Experiments with new hosts and even the return of inaugural frontman Eddie McGuire failed to pull the show out of a spiral that was exacerbated by the emergence of popular footy program The Front Bar on Channel Seven.
The Footy Show’s steady decline has been showcased by a graph which plots the falling ratings of the once-popular programme

A Channel Nine insider told the Herald Sun the show’s popularity began to wane when the AFL world was rocked by revelations Garry Lyon was having an affair with the wife of co-host and best friend Billy Brownless
Host Eddie McGuire insisted the program was still popular during Thursday’s show, but a graph shows how its ratings have been slumping since Lyon left the panel in the wake of his affair with Nicky Brownless.
‘That is when everything changed,’ an insider said.
Lyon was forced to go on leave and his friendship with Brownless was destroyed.
The graph shows how the show’s once climbing ratings dropped when Lyon was forced to quit.
It experienced a brief spike when it added a female co-host in Rebecca Maddern but the addition of former AFL journalist and Footy Classified host Craig Hutchison was short-lived.
The show experienced a rise in audience to 450,000 at the end of the 2016 season, but that was followed up by a dismal 150,000 for the start of 2017.
Front Bar, boasting popular funny men Mick Molloy and Sam Pang alongside Andy Maher, went into a head-to-head contest with The Footy Show when it moved to the same time slot midway through the 2017 season.

The show experienced a rise in audience to 450,000 at the end of the 2016 season, but that was followed up by a dismal 150,000 for the start of 2017 (Pictured from left: hosts Billy Brownless, Garry Lyon and Sam Newman)
Eddie McGuire returning as co-host was briefly met with a jump in the ratings to 400,000 late in 2017.
The show has been consistently dropping in the ratings ever since, bouncing between 100,000 and 150,000 viewers near the end of the 2018 AFL season.
Lyon said last week the show was ‘probably coming towards its swan song’.
‘Let’s not rewrite history, this was the biggest show in town for 20-odd years. There’s a new boy (The Front Bar) on the block and good on them,’ he said.

The show has also been smashed in the ratings by rival show The Front Bar on Channel Seven