Rove (TV series)
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| Rove | |
|---|---|
 The 2007 title screen of Rove |
|
| Genre | Talk show / Comedy |
| Developer(s) | Roving Enterprises |
| Starring | Current Rove McManus Peter Helliar Carrie Bickmore (2006-) Meshel Laurie (2006-) Hamish Blake (2007-) Andy Lee (2007-) Dave Hughes (2007-) Former Corinne Grant (1999-2005) Dave Callan (1999-2000) Ron Steward (2005-2006) |
| Country of origin |  Australia |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 250 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Craig Campbell |
| Running time | Approximately 60 minutes (inc. commercials) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Channel Nine (1999) Channel Ten (2000 - ) |
| Picture format | 576i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV) |
| Original run | October 9, 2000 – present |
| Links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Rove is a weekly Australian television talk show hosted by and named after Perth-born comedian Rove McManus.
Contents |
[edit] History
A very similar show featured initially on the Nine Network in 1999, also named Rove, ran for 10 episodes. However, Nine decided not to renew the program and the cast moved to Network Ten the following year to produce Rove Live. The show reverted to the original title of "Rove" in 2007.
In 2004, the show began broadcasting on TV3 in New Zealand at a late night time slot, However the show gained an audience and popularity quickly and was given a Friday prime time slot. Though previously carrying the name Rove Live, it is not broadcast live in New Zealand but is generally aired the same week as the Australian broadcast.
As part of the 2006 re-format a new logo was released (see logo on the left). The show is sometimes known as Rove [Live] or Rove (Live), possibly owing to the use of (square) brackets around the word 'Live' in an earlier logo. In November 2006 Rove Live was put on hiatus until further notice due to the death of McManus' wife Belinda Emmett. Rove has made a personal message on the Rove Live website, citing that it "is a very difficult period for all of us and some time away is the best thing for me right now".[1]
[edit] Current Status
Rove returned to Network Ten on April 1, 2007, despite objections from the Australian Music Association and writer Rhoderick Gates (No More Rubbish from Rove, Gates, International Herald Tribune, 1 April 2007). Roving Enterprises has appointed a new series producer, Todd Abbott, to relaunch the variety show for 2007. It now occupies the premium timeslot of 8:30pm on Sunday nights. The show at the beginning of 2007 moved production from the Global Television facility in Nunawading to the Network Ten studios in South Yarra at the Como Centre. As a result of the move the show is now broadcast in the 1080i High Definition format, as High Definition facilities were not available at the previous location. Each year, the show's set changes in some way from the previous. In a previous year, the set was changed to be less like a "Late Night" show, comparable to Jay Leno's or Dave Letterman's shows and to seem more like a variety show, such as Hey Hey It's Saturday. In 2007, the show's set was reconfigured back into a more "Late Night" show again, even going so far as having a view of the Melbourne cityscape in the background.
In March 2007, Network Ten began a series of advertisements with the tagline "ROVE IS BACK ON TEN." In the advertisements Rove was seen walking down a runway and either ends up stepping in a bucket, or being blocked by a microphone. In both ads, he would say "It's good to be back", to which the voiceover says "Good to have you back." As of mid-march, Ten had not produced any advertisements stating particulars of the show. Peter Hellier returned to Rove's side, however in addition to this, Carrie Bickmore, who had previously only been the news presenter, had her part increased to be a more important part of the show. Along with this, following the cancellation of his show The Glass House, Dave Hughes joined Rove as a permanent member of the show. And finally, the comedy duo Hamish & Andy, who'd previously collaborated with Roving Enterprises with their television show Real Stories, have joined the show permanently also.
[edit] Show segments
[edit] Ratings
The show's ratings have been what would be considered low for a high budget program for some time. Before the 2007 series, the show had not had more than a million (Australian) viewers for months. The final show of 2005 was broadcast on 22 November. The show gave away six cars, and had media heavyweights Bert Newton, Jerry Seinfeld and Kath & Kim as guests. The show rated 19th for the day, with 797,000 viewers nationwide. On 16 May 2006 the ratings peaked over a million for the first time since 2002 where it attracted 1,110,000 viewers nationwide. Rove Live's ratings remain relatively low, however, as the final episode for 2006 attracted 700,000 viewers nationally.[2] It should be noted however, that this wasn't the intended final episode, but eventuated as the result of the death of Rove's wife Belinda Emmett.
The new series, which began April 1, 2007, attracted 1,693,000 viewers nationwide, and was the highest rating program for the day. This is due to the fact it went up against repeats of Grey's Anatomy and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on Channel Seven and Channel Nine respectively. Channel Ten estimates around 500,000 of the viewers who tuned into the re-launch episode are viewers who have never watched the show before. For the second episode of the season which aired on April 8, viewership fell sharply to 999,000 possibly due to the Easter long weekend as well as viewers not watching who were dis-satisfied with the April 1 show. Ratings are predicted to fall even further when first run episodes of Grey's Anatomy and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation return.
[edit] Rove Live related
[edit] Rove Live Radio
Rove, Peter and Corinne hosted a radio program originating from FOX FM in Melbourne for Austereo's Today Network, and selected regional stations up until 2004.
[edit] Soundtracks
Two soundtracks have been released featuring performances on the show, as well as a compilation of Rove's "What The?" calls, and a rap song about Home and Away character Alf.
