All Stories FeedNo more Rudd on Rove, please
Memo to Kevin Rudd’s minders, and Rove’s producers too:
If he’s going to appear on the show again can we please ban the political agenda? There are plenty of other television programmes for this kind of content: The 7:3o Report, Lateline, Meet the Press even Sunday Night, A Current Affair and Today Tonight are all supposed to have current affairs in them.
Rove is pitched as variety / light entertainment. There was very little of it in this exchange. Rudd enthralled us with the wonders of ‘ute-gate’ fake emails, climate change, education, global recession, jobs, schools and assorted dry talking points. Sure he was answering Rove’s question, but it was a laboured, pardon the pun, reply.
An appearance on Rove is a chance to communicate with a wide, young audience. It would have been a great chance to showcase the PM’s personal side. Instead his third appearance was his dullest so far.
At one point our intrepid host had to ask of one of Rudd’s anecdotes: “is this going to be a long story?”
Sure sounded like it.
Dave Hughes tried to jump in and save another moment.
We even missed out on any hope of Rudd appearing on set with Bruno, though there were reportedly joint pics posed backstage. Which is more than John Howard would have ever agreed to.
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I’m sorry our prime minister insulted the “intelligence” of the average 10 viewer. Seriously.
I fully agree with David. The fact that Rudd is “too busy” to go and answer potentially hard questions on Lateline, Insiders, Meet the press etc. – but he has enough time to parade himself this way – is something I found worrying.
You gotta be joking David.I think it’s great that Kevin Rudd makes apperances on the show,good on him,remember John Howard always refused to be on.Just gives you a lighter side to him,as he enjoys coming on and having a laugh,which the show is all about.I know people that don’t like him but have enjoyed his previous appearences,i think that says it all.I think you can come up with a better story lol
I found him boring as well, but what do you expect he is a millionaire politician trying to be “your everyday guy”. Obviously not fooling anyone else either..
Apparently, the Katie Holmes’ reference was removed so that Rove could interview her during her current visit with Tom. Current Affair did the same thing last night (or was it Richard Wilkins yesterday morning?). And, yes, Bruno has been recycling the same few gags.
I agree with the person who says people should chill out and stop indulging in negative ranting on blog spots.
I think it’s great we live in a country where an interview with a Prime Minister begins with “dude!” and one of his answers is interrupted with the question “is this going to be a long answer?”.
Sure K Rudd is a media manipulator par excellence but I would have thought that was a necessity in his job and who says only the media gets to do the manipulating?
Rove is often an astute and entertaining interviewer and the K Rudd interview was obviously not pre-scripted. The whole K Rudd – Bruno set up provided out of the ordinary and fun entertainment.
Oh yeah, and if you disagree with me … You Suck.
David why are you surprised by this? At the end of every interview there is “A Plug”. This was just Ruddy plugging himself. Rudd was asked a question by Rove on a topic which has been headline news all week, sepcifically “What is Utegate all about?” Rudd answered it as best he could without getting bogged down, infact making the point that he wants to focus on the big issues, not small minded political point scoring. You make it sound like he gave a policy speech.
Just be thankful we have a leader who has a sense of humour, scripted or not, rather than John Howard butt kissing George W and Ricky Ponting!!!!!
On the American talk shows like Leno and Letterman etc, when they have political guests on they make the interviews very serious and political. But then Leno and Letterman take themselves more seriously than Rove.
A good thing on Rove this week was the 5 minutes or so when they were showing news clips and taking the piss out of Richard Wilkins ala the Daily Show. Good work. I wish there was a show like that, Media Watch but with a comedian. The 7pm Project might go there.
Kevin rudd only went on Rove (which was a last minute addition), so he could be sent up by Brüno, as after The Chasers tried to take him up on his offer of “Anytime Anywhere” and could not get into a Rudd Press Conference … it was done as PR too say “See I don not mind being sent up.”
And yes I am that cynical.
ok, first of all, like many people have said, Kevin Rudd is not a comedian, he’s the PM of Australia, he isn’t paid to be funny. Second of all, of course he is trying to reach out to the younger generations, they vote too you know.
Kevin Rudd spoke about politics because it’s what he does, not to mention he was asked about politically related topics. He has to watch out for what he says because it’s all about stretching the truth to the other scavengers of parliment house. You know, i think Rudd likes appearing on rove, it’s something different for him, and it looks like he has fun.
And my god Bruno was funny, i couldn’t stop laughing about the whole knitted body costume for a long time.
I think some people need to look at the positive side of things and stop jumping on the computer as soon as they feel like whinging about why the world isn’t good enough!
and now the bad replies start because the negative people want the last word. please…go on with your droning
“Which is more than John Howard would have ever agreed to.” Yes because John Howard was a professional.
Ever since his first appearance this has been highly unprofessional. It was a different circumstance in the states in the last election as it became such a popularity contest and so little to do with policy but it was also alarming foreshadowing of the future of Australian politics.
It isn’t appropriate.
The jokes Rove made on sunday night regarding michael jackson were very disrespectful. Rove should be ashamed of himself. im sure he wouldnt have liked jokes being made about belinda when she died. he was way, way out of line!!
For the record I actually enjoyed his first 2 appearances, including the one before his election in which he nominated Hillary over Obama (yes we remember). But this one was a snore-fest full of point-scoring.
Im with David on this, K-Rudds appearance on Rove last night was a pointless, at times cringeworthy waste of time…during election campaigns, he wants us to vote for him so I see the point of him appearing, but his interview last night was a waste of time for him, Rove and most importantly, the viewers…
and good work airing you opinion David, everyone else gets to, so, why shouldnt you…
personally I don’t watch the show much but I tuned in briefly last night only to hear Rove making jokes at the expense of Michael Jackson. i thought it was in very poor taste to say the least. It wasn’t that long ago that the man’s own wife had passed away and I’m sure that if anyone were making jokes at her expense he wouldn’t appreciate it one bit.
Whether your a fan or not I find it in extreme poor taste to be taking cheap cracks at someone elses expense. Especially when that person has just passed away and not even buried yet.
Shame on you Rove!!
Which is why the post was addressed to Rove producers and Rudd minders.
I don’t know what you’re expecting David. It might be opinion, but it isn’t really a poignant one. A man who isn’t an entertainer goes on a show, and gets asked a political question.. what’s he to do? Stand up and tap dance? What would it look like if he didn’t answer it? That would be bigger news than if he actually did Tap Dance.
I’m not sure what he was doing on the show either, but he was, and you can’t blame the man for answering the questions he was thrown.
If he had longer, he might’ve showed us how he does his hair. Great stuff for the Y-generation who spend more time on their hair than any generation in the history of Homo Sapiens.
Great to see your opinion, David. I didn’t ‘get’ Ruddy on Rove last night either….not sure where the value is in responding to a variety of questions with ‘I’m sure you’d feel that way too’ *exhale through nose* (or similar) as he did several times… I would’ve preferred to watch something that made me proud of my Prime Minister who presented as a hard-working, articulate, progressive Australian rather than the homophobic vibes I got from him last night….
I don’t think you should have to defend giving your opinion on your own website.
Keep the opinion’s coming David… whether I agree or not I still appreciate getting you’re take.
Read TV week if you would rather an opinion less… “everything’s swell” reporting.
@ Marco and @ James,
Whenever Sacha Baron Cohen does an interview in character they are always scripted. He was very definitely looking at the autocue. Check out Ali G’s interview with Michael Parkinson for the same thing.
bruno is only a character, even if you were homophobic why would you feel uncomfortable around someone who is only pretending to be gay. i don’t think that is why rudd would have had a problem, if in fact he did have one, it would have been fear that he was going to be pranked in some way.
I read in a mag last year that rudd had a gay butler wroking for them at the time so i dont think he would have been that uncomfortable around Bruno … he might have actually liked it and better still improve upon that nerdy image .. what a missed opportunity !!
Keep up the good work David. Your news and opinion is always valuable and entertaining…. and time to go Rove.
Even if David was ‘pushing an agenda’ – which is just an absolutely ridiculous statement – I do believe this site is his and if he wanted to could print the most biased stories he felt like.
Just because you don’t agree does not make him biased.
Of course there is opinion. It’s a media commentary blog. That said it is only opinion -thankfully we have plenty who agree and disagree with me on all manner of topics. Healthy debate is a good thing.
If I am commenting on shows, networks, programming, public image, talent, executives, media campaigns etc it’s impossible not to have an opinion, and frankly I would like to think it has helped define this site.
David I agree with Andrew. Sometimes it appears you have your own agenda to push.
Spot on David. Rove is no spot for any politician, of any political persuasion. Rudd was truly propagating or at least just spurting rehearsed lines. I know most entertainers do this when interviewed, but at least they are half funny. It was awkward alright, and I think the crowd’s reaction to the whole segment spoke for itself.
David,
Judging by last nights ratings, I think we can be assured he WILL be back. Even without Bruno.
@Marco – I took Bruno to be looking at himself in the TV with him on the screen…
agree david totally, if rudd is going to go on a show like rove who has young viewers watching then he should atleast act like a human being. his segment was boring, they should have had a challange for the pm.
I have no doubt that Rudd’s minders would have insisted that he not appear on camera with Bruno. It would have been a pre-condition of his participation in the show and quite a sensible one from Rudd’s perspective
I was really hoping to see Bruno and Rudd on set at the same time too. It seems they did get a photo together though, just unfortunate they weren’t on set at the same time.
There have always been opinion pieces, dating back to 2007 when the site started. As a media commentator it is my role to provide opinion and contextualise. Most of the stories on here include comment, even in Programming stories. For instance in that vertical you will see posts with ‘news’ that a show has moved and then ‘opinion’ on why, but it still comes under Programming.
Rudd’s appearance on Rove is also news in mainstream media, so why wouldn’t it qualify as News here?
The site has always been and will continue to be a mix of news and opinion. It is a media commentary blog.
how come there are so many opinion pieces by david recently? there was the ‘appalling’ article yesterday and now this. in the past, david posted unopinionated pieces allowing readers to post opinions but now all people are saying is ‘i agree’ and ’spot on’ which makes it less interesting.
this article shouldn’t be under ‘news’ but under ‘opinion pieces’ or ‘editorials’.
i agree with juzzy, i thought the word that was censored was katie holmes too based on seeing his lip movements, and yes the reason for censoring must have been fear of a defamation suit by tom cruise.
You can find a pic of Kevin Rudd with Bruno backstage at Rove on the front page of The Australian newspaper today.
How bad was Bruno constantly looking off to what I can only gather was an auto-cue to prompt him with his lines??? There were some very funny bits though, including the shock at seeing the bits in Rove’s knitted outfit. I just whizzed through the recording when Rudd came on….yawn.
i actually though that rove would pay tribute to Michael Jackson rather than try to make jokes, although they weren’t overly offensive, they weren’t funny either and seemed like they were just for the sake of it.
does anyone know if mj was mentioned on the american talk shows(letterman, o’brian etc) and if they where tribute or jokes?
Bruno was good but Rove is not a very on the spot comic like other comedy talk show hosts and really needs to work on having a genuine conversation rather then asking the scripted questions and being lost for words the rest of the time.
It was funny when he came out in the outfit and was chased head first into the camera knocking him flat on his back, he seemed a bit uptight about Bruno antics at some points i felt.
“…even Sunday Night, A Current Affair and Today Tonight are all supposed to have current affairs in them.”
LOL
Well put.
How come Bruno didn’t get to stay for the rest of the show? Did Kevin Rudd throw a tantrum and demand that Bruno not stay for the rest of the show?
I don’t watch Rove anymore, but i have to say that just looking at Rudd makes me sick. The guy is a hypocrite. He criticises China for censoring their internet connection and blocking political content, then when in power, not only does he have the nerve to threaten to censor everyone’s internet connection in some ridiculous ’standard’ which only anti-democratic countries would do and already plan to block political content, but he also has the nerve to hide this issue and use his puppet Stephen Conroy to do his dirty work. Any video games unsuitable for children – banned. Any web pages unsuitable for children – banned. Any mistakes occur – blame the Russian Mob. I really wish more people are aware of this issue and pin it on Rudd.
I don’t care who’s on Rove as long as they’re entertaining. Last night, the Prime Minister was not entertaining but I’ll admit he has been in the past. For mine, that’s a failing of the show’s producers and Rove as host, to let a political animal run a segment as a platform for their agenda. You can’t blame the politician, it’s like complaining while a lion is tearing your leg off…that’s their nature and that’s what they do if you let them.
As Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd has to be extremely careful what he says as it will be taken out of context and made front page headlines the next day. At least he bothers to go on Rove, which is more than John Howard ever did. John Howard didn’t even want to acknowledge the younger audience that watch Rove and that’s one of the reasons why he lost the election.
I am very relieved that Kevin Rudd at least did not try to be funny, as that would be more cringe worthy to watch. He is who he is, and I admire him for going on the show knowing that he is leaving himself wide open for criticisms of being dull and boring…he was especially brave following Bruno and the on-going parody of himself Kevin Rudd PM. I think, given who he is and his personality, he did the best he could and took it all in good spirits. Has anyone ever said to the Prime Minister “is this going to be a long and boring answer” like Rove did last night (or words similar).
Bruno would have been a lot funnier if I didn’t read the exact same jokes in the Qld Sunday Mail yesterday morning.
The fashion and pets joke, Middle Earth, Iranian President and sushi/carbs jokes, the jokes about Cohen and his wife (complete with again faked out removed line).
Really dissapointing.
As Rudd walked in I turned off………Ugh sooooo boring.
Rove was good last night except for the PM..
I hate it when Rove is fed questions – it was so obvious that Rove had been given a list of questions to ask both Bruno and Rudd.
I also find it pathetic and embarrassing that our national leader needs to go on a variety show to push his agenda; he is such a media whore. Rove is not a journalist; he’s barely a comedian, and it’s a waste of airtime. The only thing I learnt from that ‘interview’ is how much Rudd enjoys a camera.
Oh, it was Katie Homes that was muted in Bruno’s joke. Interesting that’s the only joke that got censored, but I guess Tom & Katie are in town now, and Ten don’t want to get sued.
Yawn @ P.M.
While they’re at it, get rid of the stupid and expired “Kevin Rudd – P.M. Series 2″ segments. They were never funny, and they never will be.
Rove’s episode was actually quite decent last night, because there was no Ryan Shelton and his philosophisationing, and Bruno was hilarious.
Yeah, I would have liked to have seen Kevin and Bruno on set together. That was a let down!
David – the PM is just doing his job.
You hit the nail on the head when you said he was replying to Rove’s question. Ask a different type of question, and you’ll get a different type of answer.
yeh I saw the pm interview- in one sense, he was asked by rove about the ute gate scandal, it was pretty big news so you can’t exactly not mention it. But I guess it could have been more entertaining.
Kevin Rudd why would you go on Rove? I know you have a “look at me” complex but dear me last night was truly pathetic.
…but what did bruno say ???? *
*something was bleeped out, a name probably, in a joke during the show. hmmm
Just remind me – he is the Prime Minister, not an entertainer, isnt he? I think we should leave the “sideshow” antics and entertainment to Mr Turnbull – he is a clown, after all!
yes yes…but one question…who’s name was silenced on the last question on the Bruno interview…when referring to Sasha Cohens poor wife not getting as much sex as …. then the TV went silent for the name…check the tapes…iam sure it was deleted…and now iam intrigued….lol
Kevin Rudd is the Prime Minister of Australia. He isn’t selling a pop album.
I don’t need to know who Rudd would turn gay for – Instead I’d like to hear his opinion on some serious topics.
You know, I would have to agree… Rove is about the personality of the person on the show – it’s not a political agenda show….
I’m a Rudd fan and have my photo with him – but last night kinda left me going blah… But I also think it was hard for him being second after Bruno…
Bruno was very funny, but want I really want to know is: whose name did he mention that was bleeped out??? It was in reference to his story about the PM’s sex life.
I don’t think Matt Preston liked it either. When asked, “is there anything you wouldn’t eat?”, he replied, “Kevin Rudd”.
Amen.
It was unfunny and drawn out. He is a massive nerd. That’s what I expected. Everyones talking about him this morning and not about corruption/utes… he acheived his goal.
Was it too much to ask for a Letterman v McCain interview?
Australian TV is ripe for a youth/action oriented political program, such a shame we don’t have anyone dissect politics for the masses on TV here.
I couldn’t agree with you less. I think it is refreshing to see the prime minister appear on a variety / light entertainment show. A lot of younger voters wouldn’t even know what the 7:30 Report, Lateline or Meet the Press is, and ACA/TT isn’t the place for journalism.
Naturally, the interview was nothing compared to Bruno’s (which had me PMSLing from start to finish), it was good to see him and that he answered the questions asked.
Guess everyone has (and is entitled to) their own opinion on it. If Rudd continues his once-a-year appearance on Rove, I would be happy.
Truly cringe-worthy television. Reminiscent of having one of your parents tag along when you go to the pub with your mates. Mind you, KRudd has always been Mr Serious, even back in the Sunrise days it was Joe Hockey who was the comic foil of the pair.
Agreed. A laboured and painful experience for all involved. Kevin trying to be “down with the kids” was also painful, as he tried to remember his pre-written “jokes”.
The anti-Turnbull jokes before the PM even showed up just played as sucking up.
Like you said Mike, no more please!
Embarrassing.
You comments on the PM’s appearance on Rove are spot on David,