The Front Bar
The Front Bar | |
---|---|
Presented by | Andy Maher Mick Molloy Sam Pang |
Country of origin | Australia |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 3 |
Production | |
Producer | Front Bar Entertainment |
Production locations | All Nations Hotel Richmond, Melbourne, Victoria |
Running time | 60 minutes (including advertisements) |
Original release | |
Network | AFL.com.au (2015–16) Seven Network (2016–present) 7mate (2016–present) |
Release | 2015 – present |
The Front Bar (formerly Friday Front Bar) is an Australian Football League-based talk show that airs on the Seven Network.[1] The show is hosted by journalist Andy Maher and comedians Mick Molloy and Sam Pang.
Hosts
- Regular
- Andy Maher, journalist and Carlton supporter
- Mick Molloy, comedian and Richmond supporter
- Sam Pang, comedian and Carlton supporter
- Semi-regular
- Ryan Fitzgerald, former Adelaide player
- Santo Cilauro, comedian, writer, filmmaker and Collingwood supporter
History
The show, which airs from March to September during the AFL season, launched in 2015 as an online-only show on the official AFL website, AFL.com.au, although Molloy and Maher had previously worked together on Before the Game. In 2016, the Seven Network picked up the show, with episodes being split into two segments, with the first half being uploaded to AFL.com.au on Friday afternoon and the second half airing after the Friday night match on the Seven Network in the traditional AFL states and on 7mate in New South Wales and Queensland. Episodes were filmed at the All Nations Hotel in Richmond.[2]
In 2017, the show was renamed to The Front Bar and extended to a one-hour studio-based format.[3] In April, the show moved to Thursday nights to go head-to-head with the Nine Network's long-running The Footy Show.[3] The series is produced by Front Bar Entertainment, with episodes generally featuring the hosts drinking Carlton Draught beer as they discuss the week's topics.[1] To date, the guest pool has included Matthew Richardson, Kevin Bartlett, Brian Taylor and Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight, who is in charge of designing the paper's commemorative Premiership covers.
In 2018, during the AFL offseason, one of their editions centered on the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Later that same year, they also did an episode that included nods to the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
The show consistently beat The Footy Show in the ratings in the latter half of the 2017 season, and in 2018.[4]
See also
References
- ^ a b "Join Us at the Friday Front Bar!". Big Footy. 19 August 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
- ^ "Footy fever at – All Nations in Richmond". Australian Hotels Association Victoria. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
- ^ a b Perry, Kevin (3 April 2017). "Can Mick Molloy's Front Bar bring down Nine's Footy Show?". Decider TV. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
- ^ Garry Lyon comments on The Footy Show's struggles, SEN 1116, May 2018