Rove McManus
Rove
McManus (born John McManus, 21 January 1974) is an
Australian variety show host, comedian and owner of
the production company Roving Enterprises.
Television
Born in Perth, Western Australia, McManus grew up
in Riverton and attended Orana Catholic Primary School.
He moved to Melbourne to pursue a career as a stand
up comedian. He hosted The Loft Live on community
television (Channel 31) and subsequently landed ten
late night episodes of his own tonight show, Rove,
on GTV9 in 1999. Channel Nine did not continue with
the series.
The
Ten Network offered McManus and his production company,
Roving Enterprises, another ten episodes of his show
in late 2000. The resulting Rove Live became a weekly
talk show on Network Ten, and is syndicated on TV3
in New Zealand. The show involves celebrity guests,
publicity stunts, comedians and live bands.
In
2002, he was nominated for the Gold Logie Award and
Rove Live won the Logie for Most Popular Light Entertainment
Program. In 2003, McManus won three Logies, including
Most Popular Presenter, Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy
Program and the Gold Logie for most popular personality
on Australian television. In 2004 and 2005, he repeated
his 2003 award haul, including winning another Gold
Logie.
Roving
Enterprises has produced a number of other programs
including the sketch comedy program Skithouse and
the AFL football program, Before The Game. Roving
Enterprises has also produced the ARIA Music Awards
since 2002, hosted by McManus until 2004.
McManus
undertook a live solo stand-up comedy show in 2005,
touring the Australian capital cities and Wellington
and Auckland in New Zealand, whilst still returning
to Melbourne each Tuesday to film Rove Live.
In
2004, he had a fatwa placed on him by John Safran
in an episode of John Safran vs God, for dropping
Safran's scheduled appearance on Rove Live. It was
later removed. He also unsuccessfully campaigned to
have Australian Prime Minister John Howard appear
on his program during the 2004 federal election. On
the 25 October 2005 episode, Rove Live had a segment
that Rove himself deemed "controversial"
when it aired a live TV vasectomy. For the season
finale, he offered six cars as prizes on his show.
After falling viewing figures, the show was revamped
for 2006, with the first episode of the new show airing
on 14 February. In 2006 his long time supporting presenter,
Corinne Grant, left the show.
Radio
In 1999 he was a regular host on Triple J radio. He
had a segment on the breakfast show (starring Wil
Anderson and Adam Spencer) on Friday mornings, Know
Your Millennium, a quiz show that looked into the
past.
In
2002 the Austereo radio network commissioned Roving
Enterprises to create a weekly radio program. Starring
McManus alongside regular TV colleagues Peter Helliar
and Corinne Grant, the show was originally called
Saturday Morning Rove. Broadcast from Fox FM every
Saturday from 10AM to Midday, it was actually pre-recorded
the day before to allow the performers to have a full
weekend of media commitments.
In
2004 the program moved to Friday mornings allowing
live phone callers, and was re-titled Rove Live Radio.
It was discontinued at the end of 2004. The style
of the program was very similar to Rove Live.
Other work
When Bert Newton fell ill in early June 2005, Rove
hosted his show Good Morning Australia in his place.
With
Newton, Rove co-hosted a Roving Enterprises television
special Ten Seriously 40, a look back at the history
of the Ten Network.
McManus
voiced a crab in Pixar's 2003 animated film, Finding
Nemo.
Personal life
McManus is represented by personal management company
Token Artists.
In
July 2004 he announced his engagement to his girlfriend
of three years, Australian actor Belinda Emmett. They
married on 29 January 2005 at the Mary Immaculate
Church in Waverley, a suburb in the east of Sydney.
Criticisms
Rove won the 2006 Fuglies award for "Australia's
ALL TIME Most Overrated TV Star". [1] The Fuglies
are annual awards, celebrating the worst of Australian
television. It is held in the run-up to the Logie
Awards and votes are collected over the Internet.
He has also been the Recipient of RALPH Magazine's
"Wanker of the Year" award on multiple occasions.
Trivia
He is a fan of the AFL Fremantle Football Club for
which his first cousin Shaun McManus plays. He was
named as the #1 Ticket Holder of the club in 2002.
McManus
is interested in professional wrestling
He
was a runner in the Queen's Baton Relay (which carries
a baton around Australia before the 2006 Commonwealth
Games). He based a segment of one of his shows on
trying to obtain special privileges using his Commonwealth
Games uniform and replica baton. He was able to run
around the Victorian Parliament chambers and meet
the Premier of Victoria Steve Bracks, as well as Bert
Newton who had just moved to a rival network.
Websites
ROVE
Live
Roving
Enterprises
Profiles
Comedy
Network
Ten
Articles
Comedy:
What Is It?, by Greg Tingle
Rove
Unlimited, by Sally Jackson - 5th June 2003
Rove
takes gold, by Michael Idato - 19th April 2004
Media
Man Australia does not represent Rove McManus
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