Channel Nine has axed founding host Paul Vautin from the Logie-award winning The Footy Show as the program undergoes its most dramatic overhaul in 24 years.

Footy Show executive producer Glenn Pallister this week told Vautin, who is holidaying in the US, the show would no longer exist in its current format and he would not be a part of it. Vautin has one year of his contract to run and is likely to spend it in the commentary box calling matches.

There was confusion on Tuesday over whether the show had been axed to make way for a new one-hour program headed by Vautin's co-host Erin Molan with more of a focus on football.

Some panellists and many others at Nine have been told the show had been dumped. Others at Nine insisted it had not because The Footy Show brand was so iconic. We won't know until round one next March.