AFL Footy Show star stood down over mannequin grope

[Flamethrower]

TV star stood down over mannequin grope
AAP | Thursday, 29 May 2008


AFL Footy Show star Sam Newman has been stood down from Australian television indefinitely, after the Nine Network ordered him to take an extended break and seek counselling.

The move comes eight weeks after Newman groped a lingerie-clad mannequin after stapling a picture of The Age newspaper's chief football writer Caroline Wilson to its head, and 12 weeks after he had life-saving prostate surgery.

News Limited newspapers reported today that Newman had accepted the decision and would not appear on the Footy Show.

Full story: TV star stood down over mannequin grope - New Zealand's source for entertainment news, gossip & music, movie & book reviews on Stuff.co.nz

[jargan83]

he's a twat no doubts about it

[Burgs]

I reckon he's a deadset legend, only thing on the show worth watching and only one who will actually give an opinion on ANYTHING!
They should head down to his pad for Street Talk.
Trust my telly to be on the blink tonight so I can't watch them cover it

[Thequeerone]

you are showing your age Burgs - Sam is old fashioned and outdated - he has had a good screw out of doing daft things for Channel 9 but who cares anymore - watching a elderly gentleman groping a dummy is so 1990's - just doesn't cut it anymore -

Gotta admit to looking forward to the reinvention of himself - just hoping it is more radical than Madonna without the African baby accessory

[jazza93]

i rekon the footy show will be boring without him, he makes it funny.

[jargan83]

i havent watched the AFL version of the footy show since Eddie Everywhere left

[Burgs]

When asked when Newman would return, Mr Browne said: "This is not about time. It is about the result. Once Sam has had the opportunity to have the time off he always should have had off, and once I am
fully satisfied he has fully recovered, he will be back."

In other words, after his castration scars have healed up and he tows the company line.
As if anything he does/did on that show hadn't gone past the Directors, at least in principle, before it went to air!
He's either the fall guy for them wanting to push the edge to try and catch the NRL Footy Show, or they were angling to set him up to burn himself without having to sack him and get hit by contractual pay-outs.
Without him the show would have died years ago or become Eddies Collingwood love in hour.
I can assure you that Caroline Wilson is no saint in her treatment of players in the press either, "HTFU" comes to mind.

[jazza93]

i cant stand that women, whenever she is on tv i turn over straight away.

i didnt see the thing Sam Newman did on the footy show but i bet it was

[Flamethrower]

The Footy Show just said Sam has agreed to go on leave for a while as he game back to work to soon. He's fine, he just needs some more time to get over his ordeal.

[Darren]

I do somewhat agree with TQ1's sentiment, however Newman and Wilson deserve each other ...

[force addict]

i saw it on telly and honestly i didn't really register the 'grope' i was more interested in the joke. but i guess he does take it a little far but i don't know sam enough to say either he is sexist or he just does it for a joke

[shasta]

Gotta admit to looking forward to the reinvention of himself.

That's probably not gonna happen. Once you start to play the outrageous card you need to keep pushing the envelope or it becomes stale. The producers know that very well. The ratings will have been OK last night but drop off dramatically over the next little while and the return of the prodigal is a matter of weeks not months.

I've never been sure what my opinion is on Sam Newman. It varies between "what a dick" to ROTFL. Don't like how Eddie Everywhere uses his influence to advantage the Pies, but he did run a tight ship on that show and could rein Sam in where necessary and it was often very funny.