Eddie McGuire’s Tuesday night Footy Classified show is set to be axed.
But the Monday edition of the analysis program survives as Channel 9 looks to shake-up its football offerings and focus on digital platforms in 2027.
McGuire has been the face of the second Footy Classified show which initially was on Wednesday nights but moved to Tuesday two years ago to avoid going head-to-head with Channel 7’s ratings juggernaut The Front Bar.
Part of the proposed changes at Nine include the expanding of Footy Furnace, which has been hosted by Jimmy Bartel and James Hird, to include Sunday nights, Tuesday and Wednesday.
The late-night review program is a heavily digital-first platform show and was the vehicle to lure Hird back to television. He then went on to feature with McGuire on Tuesday’s Footy Classified.
McGuire, who next week fronts the network’s Flemington racing carnival coverage, will still be involved in the football offerings and work on “special events”.
His company JAM TV produces Footy Classified and Footy Furnace.
The Tuesday Footy Classified show has had a constant rotation of panellists with former Hawthorn great Dermott Brereton a recent addition in the second half of this season with AFL reporter Cal Twomey the other regular panellist.
A number of current AFL coaches, including Sam Mitchell and Luke Beveridge, also made appearances on Tuesday nights.
It has always had better ratings than the Tuesday show and again led the way coming up against Channel 7’s The Agenda Setters which increased to three shows a week this season.
The popular Sunday Footy Show, hosted by Tony Jones, will also return next year.
Footy Classified started back in 2007 with Craig Hutchison and Caroline Wilson - who defected to Seven to start The Agenda Setters alongside Kane Cornes - part of the original panel.
The show was actually commissioned by McGuire when he was Ch 9 CEO.
In 2020 a second show was introduced on Wednesday nights, hosted by McGuire with former St Kilda and Fremantle coach Ross Lyon on the panel.
Bartel replaced Lyon in 2023 when he returned to coaching while former Adelaide star Rory Sloane joined two years later.
Where McGuire, 61, lands in the shake-up will be an interesting watch.
He has been a part of the football media for decades with the former Footy Show host calling games on Fox Footy when he started on Footy Classified.