Jimmy Bullard and his Soccer AM colleagues have been left furious after Sky Sports decided to axe the long-running TV show.
The news broke on Wednesday morning that Soccer AM will not return for a new series, meaning there are now just 10 episodes left. The programme has been a staple of Sky’s weekend offering since it was first broadcast in 1995.
Previously hosted by Helen Chamberlain and Tim Lovejoy, it is now fronted by ex-Hull City midfielder Bullard and John “Fenners” Fendley. The show runs on Saturday mornings, with 90 minutes of football chat, comedy skits, interviews and challenges for guests and fans.
Sky has pulled the plug due to declining viewership and a desire to attract a younger audience. Soccer AM will be replaced by the Saturday Social in its 10.30am slot on Saturday mornings.
The Sun reports that Sky bosses told the Soccer AM staff of the decision on Tuesday. The staff will be made redundant at the end of the football season in May and the newspaper says that presenters Bullard and Fendley are understood to be "fuming" at the announcement.
A Sky Spokesperson said: “Soccer AM has played an important role in our coverage of football for the past three decades, and we continually adapt to the evolving needs of our customers.
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"We now go into a period of consultation to discuss the proposed changes with our people. We are unable to provide more detail while these consultations are underway.”
Bullard has presented the show since 2017, while Fendley has been involved since almost the very beginning. He worked as a producer from 1996 to 2007 before stepping in front of the camera in 2015.
Fendley told The Athletic in 2020 that Soccer AM had “lost its way a little bit” after losing Chamberlain, who presented the programme from 1994 to 2017. But he felt that the addition of Bullard and a change of direction had breathed new life into it and helped turn “the ship round.”
“I get frustrated with people who say it’s not what it used to be, because we’re getting to a stage where I really feel we’ve hit upon something that would make it different,” he said. “It gave us a new dimension.
“I think we’ve won a lot of the public over, from the noises that I hear, and I think we’ve won a lot of people within football back as well. I always felt that if we could get the right formula for the show, people would feel like that. I do feel that we’re getting close to it being a very, very good TV show again. ”
Lovejoy, who presented the show with Chamberlain between 1996 and 2007, told The Athletic he stopped watching the show after moving on. “It’s like watching your old girlfriend with another man. I couldn’t do it,” he said. “I couldn’t watch it. So I stopped watching it totally.”
