Ettingshausen was named amongst the ten and was then further honoured by being picked as one of the three first immortals of the club along with Gavin Miller and Steve Rogers  With his retirement from rugby league, Ettingshausen launched his media career with his own television show on the Nine Network in 1997 titled, "Escape with ET". The show is essentially a fishing show hosted by Ettingshausen though it also focuses on many water sports (such as white water rafting and wakeboarding), off-road 4WD driving and other outdoors activities. The show has been currently running for eight years to date and in 2005 moved to rival network Network Ten. It usually had a celebrity appearing on each episode including former professional rugby league footballers such as David Peachey and Ryan Girdler along with others including Paul Kelly, John Barnes and Layne Beachley. In 2014, Ettingshausen won an Asian Television Award for best sports presenter. In 2015, Ettingshausen hosted the four part Discovery Channel series "Saltwater Heroes". In 2019, Ettingshausen competed in the sixth season of "Australian Survivor". He was eliminated on Day 14 and finished in 19th place.