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Rove LA: Sept 19 / 26

Rove McManus lands some Hollywood names for his first FOX8 show next week: Lisa Kudrow, Kathy Griffin and Entourage's Jerry ‘Turtle’ Ferrara.

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Rove LA will premiere with a good list of guests, no doubt indicative of the rapport he has built up with his many celeb interviews during his time with TEN.

First guests are Lisa Kudrow, Kathy Griffin and Entourage‘s Jerry ‘Turtle’ Ferrara.

A week later it’s Hugh Jackman, Steve Carrell and Tim Gunn.

McManus is also working the press, giving feature interviews to News Ltd. and Fairfax today.

Yesterday the NT News dug up an old article about John ‘Rove’ McManus who once worked in the Digital Department at the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, working on Li’l Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers. I had no idea!

This exciting new celebrity talk show shot in front of a live audience at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, incorporates the hottest guests every week and joining Rove for his premiere episode will be mega sitcom star from Friends Lisa Kudrow, Emmy Award winning comedian Kathy Griffin and Entourage star Jerry ‘Turtle’ Ferrara.

Rove LA will continue to deliver star power every week including confirmed guests for episode two (September 26)- America’s funniest man Steve Carrell, home grown international superstar Hugh Jackman and the very stylish Tim Gunn from Project Runway.

The one hour series will also provide viewers with Rove’s take on the LA way of life and brings a weekly slice of Hollywood taking you beyond the tourist traps to discover why the phrase ‘Only in LA’ was coined.

Monday, September 19 at 8.30pm AEST on FOX8.

26 Responses

  2. Rove is a terrible communicator and sadly thinks he is the ‘big star’. Well he’s not, he never has been, the ‘stars’ are the talent he manages to convince to be on his show. Rove is not talented and never was funny. Now he’s in his 40’s sadly his ‘nasty’ is more obvious now, his general dislike for people is hard to mask, combine that with his enormous ego, the fact that he cannot communicate to save his life and his lack of ‘ funny’, and you have a stinker of a show. It was painfully uncomfortable to watch from the minute he was criticising LA – the very town he is trying to make his mark in – to the awkward jibes at his guests to try to be their ‘odd buddy’. I felt deeply sorry for the three trapped guests and the fact that Kathy Griffin was having to ‘save’ the awkwardness with her quick wit. She naturally and generously picked up the tempo and pace for a very lost Rove caught up in his am I still cute at 40? routine’. Sad sad very sad. Hope he goes soon before he completely embarrasses Australia…..Getting Americans to eat vegemite and laugh at their reaction has been done to death by Norman Gunstan, Humphries, Hogan et al. Cringe factor 10.

  3. I agree, it was a pretty good show, at one point Lisa couldn’t stop laughing. Kathy was crude and predictable but still a lot of laughs. The Vegemite thing was a bit predictable but fun, it goes great on crumpets in the morning!

    And with the guest stars next week I’ll be back.

    Shame 7MATE or someone else didn’t pick up the FTA rights but this is a Foxtel production, I can’t remember was FTA ever in the running to show this?

  4. Just watched and was a pleasant surprise…a really good show with guest well engaged and entertaining. Well done Fox8…we will be setting Series Link now on the IQ.

  5. Rove looks different.. he looks so skinnier then what he was in 2007 he just looks like he hasnt been eating much….. he should eat big meats. i dont watch this show anymore due to the fat i watch better things on foxtel. and i cant wait for big brother to return on channel 9 next year.

    For a fact Rove was popular back then.. but why are all this shows doing the so what live in usa? specialy that other show on channel 9… copy cats or is it that australia is boring to do the show here ?

  10. @Gyng
    You’re obviously suffering a case of cultural cringe. You may think Americans don’t want Australians on their television screens but you coudn’t be further from the truth. There’s heaps of American shows which have Australians in the cast: Simon Baker (The Mentalist), Jesse Spencer (House), Ryan Kwanten (True Blood), Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck). Just to name a few. And there’s heaps of new shows in the new season line up that feature more Aussies: Margot Robbie (Pan Am), Rachel Taylor (Charlie’s Angels), Poppy Montgomery (Unforgettable).

  11. Too many are quick to judge before seeing the product. I like Rove but also agree his interview skills have always been lacking. I am also surprised by the guest list – not great names and thought they would have got some more relevant and current guests.

    Having said that, let’s see how he goes this time round and see what the show is like. I will be tuning in to give it a go with an open mind.

  12. David of course I appreciate your appetite and expertise for ratings figures, please excuse the tone of my posting which did have an element of telling you how to suck eggs.Rove LA ratings should make for interesting reading.

  13. David your readers may tune in to FOX 8 but Pay TV is ruled by Sport not FOX8.ROVE in LA on FOX 8 Network may attract 60,000 viewers,these numbers may get your average Pay TV exec warm and fuzzy but in the main are insignificant.In the world of Free To Air TV Rove would struggle to draw a respectable audience on a secondary digital network.Gyng’s post may have seemed a touch vitriolic but he’s not to far off the mark declaring “no one will watch him”.

    1. Stephen: Having regularly posted Pay TV ratings for longer than I care to remember I’m very aware of how sport rates. FOX8 shows frequently follow after sport. I’ll file results regardless of how it performs.

  14. Rove is great! Very sad I don’t have Foxtel to see this so hopefully I can find ‘other’ means of watching.

    I always thought he made his guests feel like friends on his show and they always seemed very comfortable and there was hardly a bad interview.

  16. How this show make money given no one will watch it? If no one watched Rove on 10, how many less than no one will watch him on Pay TV?
    What’s with the desire to host a show out of the USA? The Hamish and Andy thing is soooo bad. I lasted half of one skit. Just not funny. How Rove has managed to make a career out of being a very ordinary interviewer and just not funny is a mystery. He’s the Karl Stevanovich of talk show hosts. but wait – he’s going to make it big in the US – like Kym Wilson, Toni Pearen, Zoe Ventouras, Jamie Durie, etc etc etc. Enough already – America has plenty of dud tv talent. They don’t need ours too!

    1. If nobody watched Rove on TEN how did he remain so long on the network, and land Gold Logies for that matter. Rove LA is also being shown on FOX8 which even TV Tonight readers indicated was their top-viewed channel on Pay TV. I get that Rove has those who dislike him, or don’t warm to his interview style, and that’s all valid. But let’s not let emotion blur some basic fundamentals.

  21. Let’s hope it’s better than Hamish and Andy Gap Year. To be fair that show has gotten somewhat better but so many of the gags still pointless and fall flat. I’ve got more hope for Rove since he’s done it for a decade.

  22. Can’t wait to see Rove back on TV. His Sunday night shows on TEN became something to look forward to all week, and when he went off the air everyone was devasted. It should be interesting to see him film his show from the U.S. and whether or not it knocks Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year out of the water seems though Rove gave them boys their career with their segments on Rove Live, which were followed by their specials (Regifted and Caravan of Courage).

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