It’s a pity communications have been broken between Eddie McGuire and David Gyngell because the Nine Network boss desperately needs some help in righting the wrongs at The AFL Footy Show.

On last night’s performance, the AFL program is in diabolical trouble.

The 352,000 who watched last night was the lowest Melbourne audience since May last year. The program recorded three lower audiences in 2007 than last night. It is now 131,000 down on the 483,000 peak reached the week after Sam Newman’s Caroline Wilson atrocity in mid April.

*Excludes ratings for 27 September Grand Final episode (649,829)

Overall the NRL and AFL Footy Shows fell below the 900,000 mark last night. The NRL programs averaged 234,000 and 103,000 in Sydney and Brisbane respectively. The program fell to 19th nationally. There was a time when it was a top 10 program, and near the top of the Thursday night national list. It used to be the most watched program in Melbourne, last night it was ninth.

NRL Footy Show host Paul Vautin was off last night because of the death of his older brother earlier in the week. Peter Sterling hosted and the show rocked along.

Vautin wasn’t missed, unlike in Melbourne where Eddie McGuire’s absence from the AFL version can’t be filled.