Where Sam Newman Goes Controversy Follows

Sam Newman is no stranger to controversy.

Unfortunately for him, however, his public comments in the past few months have come back to haunt him, leading to the cancellation of an upcoming gig at a South Australian pub.

An evening with Sam Newman was scheduled to be held on 16 April at The Lady Bay Hotel in Normanville, but has been cancelled with pub manager Steve Finlay saying the venue ‘just doesn’t like to be controversial’.

“When we started to get this sort of feedback, we made the decision to cancel the show,” Finlay told publication Adelaide Now.

“We’ve been booking cover bands which have been really well received, so I think we’ll be sticking to musicians.”

In June 2020, Newman made headlines after calling George Floyd a ‘piece of s**t’. Floyd’s death at the hands of police was the catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement.

This incident led to his 35 year partnership with Channel nine coming to an end.

Network bosses had warned Newman on several occasions to curtail his humour, labelling himself the ‘most polarising figure in Australia’.

“They want you to be as edgy as possible, because it’s all predicated on ratings, but they don’t want you to go too far so it’s frowned upon by people who give out the licences,’ Newman explained.

In November, Newman tweeted calling Joe Biden ‘mentally retarded’ but deleted the tweet after online backlash.

Irit Jackson, 6th April 2021