Sam and The Fatman was a short-lived Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n sports television program

Television program

A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...

, shown on the Nine Network

Nine Network

The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...

 and its affiliates. The show was a spin-off from The AFL Footy Show

The AFL Footy Show

The Footy Show is a Logie Award winning Australian sports television program, shown on the Nine Network and its affiliates.This show, which is dedicated to the AFL and Australian rules football, made its debut on 24 March 1994 at the same time as the other version which relates to the NRL and rugby...

 and The NRL Footy Show

The NRL Footy Show

The Footy Show is a Logie Award-winning Australian sports variety television programme, shown on the Nine Network and its affiliates. Following the success of the AFL program of the same name, the Nine Network quickly developed a version for the rugby league market. The rugby league version has...

, with hosts Sam Newman

Sam Newman

John Noel William "Sam" Newman is a retired Australian rules football player and current television personality. He is a featured presenter on the AFL version of The Footy Show.-VFL career:...

 and Paul Vautin

Paul Vautin

Paul Vautin , is an Australian sports television personality and former rugby league footballer and coach. He currently hosts the NRL Footy Show and provides commentary for the Nine Network's coverage of rugby league matches...

 from those respective shows.

The show ran in the Thursday night timeslot, following the end of the football seasons. It featured a mix of sport and variety. The program's name was a pun of the TV show Jake and the Fatman

Jake and the Fatman

Jake and the Fatman is a television crime drama starring William Conrad as prosecutor J. L. "Fatman" McCabe and Joe Penny as investigator Jake Styles. The series ran on CBS for five seasons from 1987 to 1992. Diagnosis: Murder was a spin-off of this series...