Global car giant Nissan will terminate its sponsorship deal with The Footy Show at the end of the 2016 AFL season in the wake of Sam Newman's scathing rebuke of Age journalist Caroline Wilson.

The news comes as the embattled program posts slumping ratings figures, after moving from its regular Thursday timeslot to a Wednesday.

Fairfax Media has learned that crisis talks took place between Nine managing director Ian Paterson and Nissan Australia chief executive Richard Emery last week, after Newman defended his close friend Eddie McGuire over the "ice bath" furore.

During a Triple M radio segment McGuire said he would pay $50,000 to see Wilson held underwater, and later called the award-winning journalist a "black widow" who will "burn you like everyone else".