Jack Whitehall had Jimmy Bullard heading for the exit after a brutal joke during the final edition of Soccer AM.
The iconic Sky Sports programme - which has been running for almost 30 years - has been cancelled by the broadcaster with Saturday’s episode the last to be aired. Staff were informed back in March that the comedy talk show would be axed amid falling ratings and redundancies throughout the company.
Bullard and his fellow Soccer AM stars were said to be fuming by the cancellation, with the ex-Premier League star and John ‘Fenners’ Fendley forming a natural partnership. Whitehall was part of a star-studded group of guests for the last show, with Stormzy and Stephen Graham joining the stand-up comedian.
But hopes of a controversy-free morning were quickly ended by Whitehall, who had the studio in stitches with some close-to-the-knuckle jokes. One gag even had Bullard walking off screen, after Whitehall suggested he would be happy to take disgraced former entertainer Rolf Harris’ royal honours.
“I’m offski!” Bullard shouted as he walked out of shot. “Oh, come on Jimmy! It’s the last show!” Whitehall quickly replied.
He then attempted to tell a joke about Sky’s head honcho Rupert Murdoch, before his microphone was conveniently muted. Fenners also had to warn the guests to "watch the expletives” during a chaotic opening.
The Arsenal fan only appeared for the first segment of the show, where he also discussed the Gunners’ unsuccessful title bid.
There were plenty of callbacks during the final 90 minutes, including clips from the show’s heyday when it was hosted by Tim Lovejoy and Helen Chamberlain. Fendley honestly admitted that the show lost its way a touch after Chamberlain’s exit in 2017, but felt he and Bullard had found a new groove.
He told the Athletic in 2020: “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.”
Soccer AM is due to be replaced in the running order by Saturday Social with a Sky spokesperson saying: “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.
"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.”
The conclusion of the long-running weekly show starts a weekend of major change at the broadcaster, with Jeff Stelling also stepping down from Soccer Saturday. Stelling has anchored the show, which used to run on from Soccer AM for almost 30 years but is leaving at the end of the Premier League season.
