Before the Game

8.00pm Friday May 11 on Ten

Join the entire BTG team – Dave Hughes, Andrew Maher, Mick Molloy, Anthony ‘Lehmo’ Lehmann, Samantha Lane and Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald -for all the round 7 action of the 2012 AFL season. Both irreverent and insightful, Before The Game can be seen at 6:30pm on TEN in Melbourne. NB. For further guest con rmation, please check with your local publicist closer to the airdate.

6.30pm Saturday May 5 on Ten

Victoria only.

Join the entire BTG team – Dave Hughes, Andrew Maher, Mick Molloy, Anthony ‘Lehmo’ Lehmann, Samantha Lane and Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald -for all the round 6 action of the 2012 AFL season. Both irreverent and insightful, Before The Game can be seen at 6:30pm on TEN in Melbourne.

Despite brazen attempts to poach the AFL panel show, it seems Seven will have to go without Before The Game because, according to the Herald Sun, TEN are confirmed to be ‘doing a footy show’, most probably referring to the comedic Saturday night favourite.

Since dropping the AFL earlier this year from its 2012 lineup, doubts have been cast as to whether or not TEN was to keep its long running Before The Game footy show, later fueling speculation that Seven was on the move to acquire it, and its ‘star-studded lineup’ and add it to its revamped Saturday schedule.

TEN will no longer have any games to play after it, however advertisers are already being briefed on the new season which may have a slight revamp.

Before The Game is produced by the Rove McManus led production company, Roving Enterprises.

Meanwhile, AFL will resume exclusively on Foxtel and Seven in 2012.

Mick Molloy has expressed his disappointment at the outcome of the Nicole Cornes defamation case this week.

Molloy’s remark regarding the former wife of Crows coach Graham Cornes, has cost Channel Ten $85,000.

Molloy told his Triple M listeners yesterday: “Obviously I’m very disappointed with the decision.

“I’ve been broadcasting for 25 years and I’ve never been sued.

“Before The Game is a very good natured show, it’s a light entertainment program. It’s a comedy program. Kids watch it with their parents.

“There is never any malice in this show. We never set out to pot anyone based around football.”

Molloy joked on the show in 2008 that Cornes had slept with Stuart Dew, a friend of her stepson, Chad Cornes.

“It was intended as a joke, it was never meant to be anything other than a joke,” Molloy said.

“Unfortunately the court has seen it differently and I can’t do anything about that.

“I’m very disappointed, I’m very sorry it has happened.

“I can’t say much more because I will go and speak to the lawyers and see what happens.

“When I found out that her feelings were hurt I apologised on air and I didn’t have to be asked to do it.”

Source: Daily Telegraph

Channel Ten has been ordered to pay $85,000 in damages to Nicole Cornes following an on-air joke made by Mick Molloy.

The Supreme Court has found today that the network defamed Cornes in a 2008 episode of Before the Game.

“I just stood up for what I believe in,” Cornes said following the decision.

“Do I feel vindicated? Yes, I do.”

Molloy joked on the footy show that Cornes, who unsuccessfully contested the 2007 election, had had sex with former football player Stuart Dew.

“I don’t think it was funny that I was sexually ridiculed on national television,” Cornes said.

“I hope this case finishes it off… that it makes it clear I never had sex with Stuart Dew.”

Source: Adelaidenow

Nicole Cornes’ lawyer Stuart Littlemore has asked a court whether Mick Molloy is actually a funny comedian as the defamation trial continues in Adelaide.

Molloy and Channel Ten are accused of defamation by Nicole Cornes who was the subject of a derogatory remark by Molloy on an episode of Before the Game.

Manager of the show’s production company Roving Enterprises, Kevin Whyte, told the court the South Australian Supreme Court that the comment was intended to be comedic.

“The nature of the way the piece evolved on air, it is clear on its face a bit of comedy that was set up [but] went off the rails and evolved in this piece of banter,” he said.

“He [Molloy] is given free range to be a comedian and make people laugh.”

However, Cornes’ lawyer Littlemore questioned Whyte over Molloy’s comedic talent.

“He tries to be funny, but it doesn’t always work, does it?” Littlemore asked him.

“That can be said of many comedians,” Whyte responded.

“Where would you draw the line?” Littlemore asked. “What about the sexual ridicule of a married woman? Would you draw the line there? Do you respect women? Do you respect marriage? Do you respect fidelity? Are they all things to be traduced by ridicule?”

“No, they are not,” Whyte answered.

The case continues today.

Source: SMH

A court has been told that comedian Mick Molloy “sexually ridiculed” former Labor candidate Nicole Cornes when he suggested she had slept with a footballer.

On the first day of the defamation trial in which Cornes is suing Molloy and the Ten Network over the comments made on Before the Game in 2008, she told the court that she had not had a sexual relationship with former AFL footballer Stuart Dew.

“When I watched it, I was really upset,” Cornes said, “(I was) really surprised that he would say that.

“It’s very, very humiliating.”

Cornes is objecting to Molloy’s comments on the show where he and his fellow presenters discussed an opinion column written by Cornes about Dew’s dedication to his rose garden.

Molloy commented to Dew, who appeared live on the show: “And apparently you slept with her too.”

Molloy read an apology on air in September 2008 but Cornes’ lawyer described the apology as having an “insincere and stunted delivery.”

Cornes is seeking aggravated damages.

Source: The Australian

The AFL Grand Final replay means another Before the Game – Grand Final edition.

Before the Game will air on Ten on Friday night from 8.30pm in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth and at 1.30am that night in Sydney and Brisbane.

Before the Game features Dave Hughes, Mick Molloy, Andrew Maher, Sam Lane, Ryan Fitzy Fitzgerald and Lehmo giving you the full low-down of all things AFL for the Grand Final.

7.30pm Friday, September 24 on Ten

It’s the eve of the 2010 AFL Grand Final clash and what better way to wait the night out than to join the Before the Game gang for their finale extravaganza!

Join Dave Hughes, Mick Molloy, Lehmo, Andrew Maher and Samantha Lane as they analyse the match-ups and discuss the odds for the big game.

Hotter than a jam filled donut, the show will be full of AFL players and personalities with Mark ‘Choco’ Williams, Karmichael Hunt and the boss of the AFL Andrew Demetriou just three of the big names already confirmed (stay tuned, lots more names to come!).

They’ll be live entertainment, competitions, we’ll announce ‘The Tool of the Year’ for 2010, Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald will be back to take control – of the out of control Grand Final Challenge.

So sit back, relax and get ready for the 2nd biggest football spectacular of the year.

Variations for Ten programming for week 39, covering the week leading up to the AFL Grand Final.

2010 is Ten’s turn to air the Charles Brownlow medal, and it airs on Monday September 20, from 7.30pm in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Sydney and Brisbane can see the event at the later time of 11.15pm.

Good News Week remains at 8.30pm Monday in Sydney and Brisbane, while Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth viewers will see Good News Week on Tuesday Sept 21 at 8.30pm for that week only. That means that AFL markets will miss out on NCIS repeats for that week only.

At 7.30pm Monday in Sydney and Brisbane, is a documentary special called Crashes that Changed Flying (Part 1).

Wednesday September 22 sees the season return of Glee at 7.30pm, followed by the season return of House at 8.30pm. At 9.30 Wednesdays will be Lie to Me repeats.

A special Grand Final edition of Before the Game airs at 7.30pm Friday Sept 24 in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth and 12.30am that night in Sydney and Brisbane. Jamie Does remains at 7.30pm in Sydney and Brisbane that night. The Before the Game special runs for two and a half hours.