''The Back Page'', also known as ''Back Page Live'', is an Australian sports television show currently broadcast on

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

on Tuesday nights. It is hosted by

Tony Squires Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...

, with a roster of panelists including journalist

Kelli Underwood Kelli Underwood (born 1977) is an Australian radio and television sports journalist and sportscaster specialising in Australian rules football, netball and tennis. She was the first woman to call an Australian Football League match on televisi ...

, cricket writer Robert 'Crash' Craddock, broadcaster Ryan 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald and former Australian cricketer

Kerry O'Keeffe Kerry James O'Keeffe (born 25 November 1949) is a former Australian cricketer and a current cricket commentator for Fox Sports. O'Keeffe played 24 Test matches and two One Day Internationals between 1971 and 1977. Playing career He was a spin ...

. The weekly show features a round-up of the previous week's sporting news, and features interviews with sporting personalities. It covers all major Australian sports as well as international sports.

Current panelists

Former panelists

* Mike Gibson (host, 1997–2012) *

Billy Birmingham Billy Birmingham (born 1953) is an Australian humourist and sometime sports journalist, most noted for his parodies of Australian cricket commentary in recordings under The Twelfth Man name. Early career He wrote the pun-laden comedy hit " Au ...

(regular panelist, 1997–2012) *

Peter FitzSimons Peter John Allen FitzSimons (born 29 June 1961) is an Australian author, journalist, and radio and television presenter. He is a former national representative rugby union player and has been the chair of the Australian Republic Movement sin ...

(regular panelist) *

Tracey Holmes Tracey Holmes, an Australian journalist, is a presenter on ABC ''NewsRadio'', since January 2014, with an extensive career in television and radio, specialising predominantly in sport. She currently presents The Ticket at 11:00am every Sunday ...

(regular panelist) *

Peter Frilingos Peter Frilingos (1944–2004) was a sports journalist and commentator, best known for his work as a rugby league writer. His reporting methods and integrity came under severe scrutiny during the Super League war. While he originally supported ...

(regular panelist) *

David Hookes David William Hookes (3 May 1955 – 19 January 2004) grew up in Torrensville and was a South Australian and Australian cricketer, broadcaster and coach of the Victorian cricket team. An aggressive left-handed batsman, Hookes usually batted in ...

(regular panelist) *

Matt Shirvington Matt Shirvington (born 25 October 1978) is an Australian athlete and television presenter who held the Australian 100m national sprint title from 1998 to 2002. Shirvington is the third fastest Australian sprinter of all time. He qualified for ...

(co-host, 2013) *

Mark Bosnich Mark John Bosnich (born 13 January 1972) is an Australian former professional footballer, who played as a goalkeeper, and sports pundit. He played in England for Premier League clubs Aston Villa, Manchester United and Chelsea. He also played in ...

(regular panelist, 2013–2021) *

Julian Schiller Julian "Jules" Schiller is an Australian TV and radio personality. Schiller currently hosts ''Drive'' on ABC Radio Adelaide. He previously worked at Nova 91.9, Triple M, Fox Sports, and The Project. Radio In 1993 Schiller started writin ...

(regular panelist, 2013–2017) *

Merrick Watts Merrick Watts (born 18 November 1973) is an Australian comedian, radio and television presenter. He is best known for performing stand-up comedy and radio works as part of the comedy duo Merrick and Rosso with Tim Ross. Career Stand up Watts ...

(regular panelist, 2017–2020) *

Jamie Soward Jamie Soward (born 13 November 1984) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer. A New South Wales State of Origin and Indigenous All-Stars representative , he previously played for the Sydney Roosters, Penrith Panthers and ...

(regular panelist)

History

Launched in 1997 as ''The Back Page'', the show was originally hosted by journalist Mike Gibson and comedian

. In 2012, Gibson announced that he was leaving the show after 16 years and 720 episodes. Soon after, Birmingham announced he would not be returning to the show the following year after being informed he'd been demoted to a part-time panelist. In 2013, presenter

and athlete

took up the role of hosting the show. Shirvington left the show the same year, and was replaced by journalist

. From 7 October 2017, the show moved from its traditional Tuesday night time slot to air live at 7.00pm Saturday nights on the

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...

channel One, classified as the shows "Summer Series". Subsequent repeats are shown on Fox Sports throughout the week following. The episodes were shortened from a 1-hour to 45 minutes run time, and the title was changed to ''The Back Page'' as it was previously called when it originally launched. This run was short-lived however, ending on 25 November 2017 after just eight episodes. The show returned to its traditional Tuesday night slot on

on 27 February 2018. ''The Back Page'' celebrated its 25th year on air in 2021.

References

External links

* 1997 Australian television series debuts 2010s Australian television series English-language television shows Australian sports television series Australian television talk shows Fox Sports (Australian TV network) original programming {{Australia-tv-prog-stub

Current panelists

Former panelists

History

See also

References

External links