Rove (TV series)

Rove
The 2007 title screen of Rove
Format	Talk show / Comedy
Developed by	Roving Enterprises
Starring	Current Rove McManus (1999-) Peter Helliar (1999-) Dave Hughes (2007-) Ryan Shelton (2007-) Carrie Bickmore (2006-) Hamish Blake (2007-) Andy Lee (2007-) Former Corinne Grant (1999–2005) Dave Callan (1999–2000) Ron Steward (2005–2006) Meshel Laurie (2006)
Country of origin	Australia
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	9
No. of episodes	314 (as of 16 November 2008)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Craig Campbell
Running time	Approximately 60 minutes (inc. commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel	Channel Nine (1999) Network Ten (2000 - present)
Picture format	16:9
Original run	September 1, 1999 – present
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Rove (formerly Rove Live) is a Logie Award winning Australian weekly television talk show hosted by and named after Perth-born comedian Rove McManus.

History

The Loft Live

Rove McManus began his television career hosting The Loft Live on Melbourne's Channel 31, a community access television station. It was a straightforward tonight show, with a comic monologue from the host, pre-recorded skits and guest interviews. The show had unusually high production values for a community access show.

Rove

The Nine Network developed the show into a commercial production. In 1999, the show, named Rove, ran in a late-night timeslot for 10 episodes. The show featured McManus and three co-hosts he referred to as 'the kids on the couch': Peter Helliar, Corinne Grant and Dave Callan. However, Nine decided not to renew the program and the cast moved to Network Ten the following year.

Rove Live

The new show, very similar to the Nine production, was named Rove Live. The show is sometimes known as Rove [Live] or Rove (Live), possibly owing to the use of (square) brackets around the word 'Live' in some of the show's graphics.

Dave Callan left the show after one year, to pursue standup comedy and radio opportunities. Corinne Grant left the show at the end of 2005, to concentrate on The Glass House and other interests. Carrie Bickmore joined the cast in 2006, presenting a parody news segment. Meshel Laurie joined the cast for only one year.

In November 2006, Rove Live was suspended until further notice due to the death of McManus' wife Belinda Emmett. Rove wrote a personal message on the Rove Live website, saying that it "is a very difficult period for all of us and some time away is the best thing for me right now".

2007 revamp

The show reverted to the title of Rove in 2007. Production moved from the Global Television facility in Nunawading to the old Seven Network studios in South Melbourne. It now occupies the premium timeslot of 8:30pm on Sunday nights.

Peter Helliar returned to Rove's side. Bickmore's role in the show increased. Following the cancellation of the show The Glass House, Dave Hughes joined Rove. The comedy duo Hamish & Andy, who had previously collaborated with Roving Enterprises with their television show Real Stories, began appearing every second week. Their associate Ryan Shelton also began presenting a segment each week.

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 traditional tonight show and more like a variety show, such as Hey Hey It's Saturday. In 2007, the show's set was reconfigured back into a more traditional tonight show again, even going so far as having a view of the Melbourne cityscape in the background.

In July 2007, a special show was filmed at Times Square in New York City. Rove, Helliar and Adam Hills attended, and a live Australian audience was present. In late July a second special was filmed in Los Angeles at the Bob Barker Studio.

Cast

Current

• Rove McManus - Host (1999 – present)
• Carrie Bickmore (2006 – present)
• Hamish Blake (2007 – present)
• Peter Helliar (1999 – present)
• Dave Hughes (2007 – present)
• Andy Lee (2007 – present)
• Ryan Shelton (2007 – present)

Former

• Dave Callan (1999 – 2000)
• Corinne Grant (1999 – 2005)
• Meshel Laurie (2006)
• Ron Steward (2005 – 2006)

Format

The show starts with Rove performing a comedic monologue about a variety of news events that have occurred during the previous week. He then always delivers a segue from his last topic to introduce Peter Helliar and Carrie Bickmore, who then proceed to present their respective segments - PeteSpace and Carrie at the Newsdesk.

PeteSpace, a parody of social-networking website MySpace, consists of Helliar presenting a selection of celebrities, news-makers and online video clips that make up his top events of the week.

Carrie at the Newsdesk is a parody news report, similar to the long-running Weekend Update segment of the American sketch show, Saturday Night Live. The segment has been presented by a variety of personalities in Bickmore's absence. While on maternity leave in 2007, Bickmore was replaced by Jane Hall and Meshel Laurie. In 2008, Bert Newton presented the segment when Bickmore was ill.

Throughout each show, Rove will interview several celebrity guests, where he has gained a reputation for being a very relaxed and non-confrontational interviewer. Each interview ends with a segement titled 20 Bucks in 20 Seconds, where Rove asks the guest a series of quick questions, ranging from random nonsenical questions to questions about the guests career or life. The segment always ends with the question "Who would you turn gay for?" (or in the case of a homosexual guest, "Who would you turn straight for?"). if Rove likes the answers the guest has given, which he invariably does, the guest receives a $20 note, or in the case of two guests, a $10 note each. At the end of the interview, Rove will usually spruik the product or event the guest is promoting, and the words The Plug will appear on the screen.

Throughout the course of the show, a variety of other segments are shown, presented by members of the Rove cast:

• Help Me, Hughesy! is presented by Dave Hughes. Hughes answers letters submitted by fans, who request his help, though during the course of the year Hughes has changed the segment to involve him trying to help general members of the public on a particular issue.

• Kevin Rudd: PM is a small dramatic-comedy mini series about the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. The series involves video news clips of Rudd that are spliced together. Two other segments are occasionally shown, not necessarily every week.

• Hamish & Andy Comedians Hamish Blake and Andy Lee present a pre-recorded skit occasionally.

• Ryan Shelton also presents a segment known as Investigationing with Ryan Shelton.

Prior to the final segment, Rove crosses over to Tom Piotrowski, a Ten News finance reporter at CommSec, for a parody financial update.

The final segment of the show is These Things We Love, in which each cast member, and usually each guest, describe something that they purportedly love.

The show will usually end with a live performance from a band in the studio, and McManus will end the show by saying his trademark line "Say hi to your mum for me!". Starting in 2005 the band performs before the closing credits. In previous years the credits would roll while the band performed. In 2006, Rove had a house band, which may have been the same band as the main act, or an Australian band of much smaller stature than the main act. They would play live music when returning from ad breaks.

Former show elements

• Amazing Talents: Viewers with 'amazing' (or just plain bizarre) 'talents' are brought to the studio and given a few minutes to display their skills. This could be balancing lawn furniture, or nailing a fork into each nostril. This is comparable to the "Stupid Human Tricks" segment on The Late Show with David Letterman.

• Flick Your Switch: The show broadcasts a live video shot of an area of an Australian city. Rove then asks those residents of the area who are watching the show and willing to respond to flick their houselights on and off, sometimes to give answers to questions.

• Guides: Rove, Pete and Corinne created guides to help people. The guides they did were: Guide To Having A Baby, Guide To Driving, Guide To Breaking Up, Guide To House Hunting and Guide To Job Interviews.

• Hang Up, Don't Hang Up: Rove called a regular audience member from a different time zone, and tried to engage in conversation. However, during the call Peter Helliar revealed random instructions from the keypad of an oversized phone prop. For example, Sing your words, or Make the live-lister say the word 'bucket'. If Peter pulled out Hang up, Rove hung up and ended the call without saying goodbye or even finishing his sentence.

• Hot Topic: A vox populi segment, in which purportedly random people were asked their opinions. These answers were evidently scripted, and many of their responses included references to Network Ten shows.

• Hughesy Loses It: Dave Hughes engaged in a weekly rant about something trivial, this is very similar to Nickelodeon's "Dave's Raves" a years prior by Dave Lawson on Sarvo. He often used the catchphrase 'Seriously!'

• I Want My Stuff Back: Rove helps a 'Live Lister' receive back property that they have lent to someone.

• It Takes You: Parody of It Takes Two, in which Rove picked a member of the audience to sing with a celebrity. This segment appeared once on June 3, 2007. The professional was Dean Geyer.

• Live List: Viewers can register their name, address and various other details on the show's website to join the Live List. A broadcast team will occasionally visit a viewer (the first the viewer knows about it is when they see the front of their house live on television). What happens from then on varies greatly—from performing a quick two-minute interview live from their house, to being sent away to perform a certain task (usually to win a prize), sometimes being sent as far away as Fiji, New York City or the United Kingdom.
• My Charader: Charades. The title is a play on the song "My Sharona" by The Knack. The game is hosted by Rove and involves two teams. Before Corinne Grant left the show, she and a guest would play on one team, and Peter Helliar and a guest on the other team.

• Not So Frequently Asked Questions: Rove, Peter and Corinne are asked questions that aren't asked very often. This usually ends with a pre-recorded skit.

• The Pentagon Of Probable Embarrassment: Rove has an audience member spin a wheel with a one in five chance of winning $5000, although the other four items on the wheel are repelling. Other items on the wheel included: "Breakfast in your pants", "Kiss Pete's Grandma", "Soup on your head", "Eat a Fish Eye" and "Mega-Wedgie".

• Petesclusive: Peter Helliar will chat to a 'guest' (celebrity or world figure) who has recently been involved in a famous story or scandal. Helliar's guests are a photograph of the famous person with his or her mouth digitally replaced by Rove's mouth. This is similar to a regular bit on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

• Ron's Review: 78-year-old Ron Steward reviewed a new movie and a rating out of 5 stars. Ron's Review occurred around every three weeks. Peter Helliar also reviews the same movie. The main humorous appeal of this segment was the fact that Ron was quite an elderly man which led to a variety of jokes regarding Ron's age, which, although many were at his own expense, he appeared to take in good humor. Another humorous part of the segment is Ron's ever recurring rating of 3 and a half stars (out of 5). In 2006 Rove conducted a semi-humorous campaign to have Ron nominated for the best newcomer Logie award.

• Rove's Audience's Got Talent: Parody of Australia's Got Talent, where Rove plucked a member of the audience and put them into a performance utilising a particular talent. Peter Helliar, Dave Hughes and a celebrity guest acted as judges. This segment has only occurred twice.

• Roving with Rove: A pre-recorded vox populi segment in which McManus asks people in street for their thoughts.

• Rydeas: Comedian Ryan Shelton presented a new invention or idea, often incorporating the syllable 'Ry'.

• So Rove's Audience Thinks They Can Dance: Parody of So You Think You Can Dance, where Rove picks a member of the audience, dresses him or her in an unusual costume, and forces him/her to dance. Like It Takes You, this segment has only appeared once.

• Sex Office: a drama/sitcom style television show set in the 1970s, in which everyone in the office (except one individual) is engaging in frequent casual sex.

• Tell Us Where To Go: At a viewer's request, Corrine Grant was sent on location somewhere in Australia to witness a local event, to see a local landmark or to meet a local personality. The segment is pre-recorded and introduced by Rove and Corinne in front of a large map of Australia (without Tasmania) lowered onto the stage. At the end of the segment, Corinne gives Rove a present from the adventure (something sexual or inappropriate or both), and a magnet is placed on the drop-down map approximately where the location was. Due to Australia being very closely populated on the eastern coast, and southeastern corner in particular, the "approximate" placement of the magnets has been evermore loosely interpreted. This segment was dropped with the departure of Grant in 2005.

• Two Minutes at Your House: In addition to being chosen to participate in stunts and contests, "Live List-ers", as they are referred to, may be visited by the show's camera crew for a live crossover to their house lasting about two minutes. In reality, these segments are often well beyond the suggested two minutes, as the timer doesn't commence counting down until the person has been verified to be at home, and Rove tells the clock to start. If a particular story isn't finished, pet not shown, or talent not displayed, the segment will often continue even if the timer has expired. Some broadcasts have hinted at prior planning of the segment.

• What's Hot, What's Not: Rove would describe something that is hot (popular) at the moment and compare it with something that is not (eg What's Hot - Lamborghinis. What's Not - Lamb Bikinis. What's Hot - Desperate Housewives. "What's Not" - Dentist Archives).

• What the...?: Rove receives viewer submissions of objects that might make one say "What the...?" The submissions could be newspaper clippings, DVD boxes, photos of odd signs or animals doing inappropriate things to each other. Many are mistakes of translation from foreign languages or other unintentional humor. This segment was abandoned in 2007.

• Who's in the Swivel Chair?: A celebrity was pushed around the studio on a swivel chair. Each week the name of the celebrity was announced by Bruce Mansfield.

• Words that sound better when said by Dave: Dave Callan recited certain words and names which, owing to his thick Irish accent, sound quaint to the Australian audience. The sketch was abandoned when Callan left after the first series in 2000. Some of Callan's famous words include: 'trousers', 'haberdashery', 'Archbishop Desmond Tutu' and 'man-boob'.

• Joke credits: At the end of every episode there were fake credits shown with the real credits. There was a common theme for the credits each week.

• Song parodies: Rove performs a parody of a recent music video. He has parodied Shannon Noll's What About Me, Missy Higgins's Scar, Britney Spears' Oops!… I Did It Again and Sophie Ellis Bextor's Murder on the dancefloor.

• Sketches: Rove, Pete and Corinne Grant performed three sketches on the show together. The first one was about a sleepover, the second was about wheelchair rugby and the third was about horse racing.

Ratings

The show has sometimes struggled in the ratings. This was most obvious in the ratings for the final show of 2005, which 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 only 797,000 viewers nationwide.^[1]

On 16 May 2006 the ratings peaked over a million for the first time since 2002 when 1,040,762 viewers watched nationwide. This episode involved an intruder entering the Big Brother house live during the show.^[2]. The final episode for 2006 attracted only 700,000 viewers nationally.^[3] This wasn't intended to be the final episode, but eventuated as the result of the death of McManus's wife Belinda Emmett.

The first episode of the revamped series, which began April 1, 2007, attracted 1,693,000 viewers nationwide, and was the highest rating program for the day.^[4]. For the second episode of the season which aired on April 8, viewership fell to 999,000.^[5]. The third episode was shown on April 22 achieving around 1,073,000 viewers.^[6] Since then, the show has consistently rated above 1,000,000 viewers nationally.

Rove's final show for 2007 featured then Leader of the Opposition Kevin Rudd, as well as Australian Greens leader Bob Brown, comedian Jerry Seinfeld and actor Jason Donovan. It was watched by 1.368 million viewers.^[7] The season premiere for 2008, broadcast on March 30, only attracted 777,000 viewers.^[8]

International broadcasters

In 2004, the show began broadcasting on TV3 in New Zealand at a late night time slot. The show quickly gained a following and it was given a Friday prime time slot (8:30pm-9:30pm). It was not broadcast live in New Zealand (in spite of its former title Rove Live) but is aired five days after the Australian broadcast.

Other media

Radio

Main article: 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 until 2004. It was initially known as Saturday Morning Rove. It was then called Rove Live Radio.

Soundtracks

Two soundtracks have been released featuring musical performances from the show, as well as a compilation of Rove's What The?, and a rap song about Home and Away character Alf.

See also

• List of Australian television series

References

External links

• Rove at the National Film and Sound Archive

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