Rove McManus | |
|---|---|
.jpg) McManus in 2018 | |
| Born | John Henry Michael McManus (1974-01-21)21 January 1974 (age 52) |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1997–present |
| Television | Rove |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 1 |
John Henry Michael "Rove"McManus[1] (born 21 January 1974) is an Australian comedian, producer, media personality and television and radio presenter. He was the host of the eponymous variety showRove and the comedy talk showRove LA, and is the co-owner of the production companyRoving Enterprises with business partner Craig Campbell.[2] McManus hostedWhovians on theABC from 2017 to 2020.
McManus was born inPerth, Western Australia, to John and Coralie McManus. He attended Orana Catholic Primary School inWilletton before completing grades 8–12 atCorpus Christi College inBateman. He acquired the nickname "Rove" as a child, from his sister.[3]
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McManus has performedstand-up comedy both nationally and internationally, appearing at events such as the 2010Just for Laughs festival inMontreal and hosting the 2013 International Comedy Gala.[citation needed] In 2005 and 2008, he undertook live stand-up comedy shows, touring Australian capital cities as well asWellington andAuckland inNew Zealand. During the tour, he returned to Melbourne each Tuesday to filmRove Live.[citation needed]
McManus has appeared onGood Morning Australia,John Safran vs God,Pulp Sport,The Living Room,The Project,Studio 10,Celebrity Name Game,Have You Been Paying Attention New Zealand? andHughesy, We Have a Problem.[citation needed] His first recorded television appearance was as a child, when he appeared in the ABC television seriesKaboodle as Marty in an episode titled "Marty Makes A Move".[3]
McManus was a producer of the animated seriesLi'l Elvis and the Truckstoppers, voicing a character in the 1997 episode "Monkey See, Monkey Do".[4] Later that year, McManus began hostingThe Loft Live, which was produced byRMIT University'sstudent television stationRMITV for the community television station Channel 31. There, he met long-time co-hostPeter Helliar.[citation needed] McManus then appeared as a reporter onFoxtel's programIn Fashion, hosted byHugh Jackman. He took an offer from theNine Network for ten late-night episodes of his own variety show,Rove, in 1999; however, the series was cancelled at the end of its run. In 2000, McManus was offered the opportunity to produce a new version ofRove forNetwork Ten, launchingRove Live.Rove Live became a prominent show for Network Ten, seeing broadcasts onTV3 in New Zealand, and followed a variety show format, showcasing weekly celebrity guests, comedy acts, variety segments, live bands and local and international comedians.[citation needed]
During the2004 and2007 federal elections, McManus unsuccessfully sought to haveJohn Howard, the then–prime minister of Australia, appear on his program. While Howard did not appear, then–opposition leadersMark Latham andKevin Rudd appeared on his show in 2005 and 2007 respectively. After being elected prime minister, Rudd appeared on the show again in 2008 and once more on 28 June 2009.[citation needed]
WhenBert Newton fell ill in early 2004, McManus was one of many guest presenters who hosted Newton'sGood Morning Australia program, presenting its episodes on 24 April and 12 October 2004. The following year, he and Newton co-hosted a Roving Enterprises television specialTen Seriously 40, which examined the history of the Ten Network.[citation needed]
In 2004, McManus appeared in comedianJohn Safran's television showJohn Safran vs God in a segment where Safran convinced the controversialUK Muslim clericOmar Bakri Muhammad to put afatwa on McManus, showcasing pictures of McManus mockingIslam. The fatwa was later taken off when the pictures were found to be falsified.[citation needed]
In 2005, McManus co-hosted the tsunami appeal Reach Out with fellow presentersEddie McGuire andAndrew O'Keefe on television networksSeven, Nine and Ten. The appeal raised over $20 million for tsunami relief efforts around Asia and motivated the trio to host the Logie awards together a few months later.[citation needed]
In November 2006, after his wifeBelinda Emmett died of breast cancer, McManus took indefinite leave andRove Live did not screen its last two planned episodes of the year. At the time, there were unfounded rumours circulating in the industry that McManus may quit his television career. He returned, however, in the competitive Sunday 8:30 pm timeslot on 1 April 2007 with a major format overhaul, including renaming the show to simplyRove.[5]Rove achieved its largest audience of 1.69 million viewers.[6] In September 2007, McManus made his debut as a game-show host inthe Australian version of theUS game showAre You Smarter than a 5th Grader?.[7]
On 2 May 2007, 25 July 2007 and 29 October 2008, McManus appeared as a guest on NBC'sThe Tonight Show with Jay Leno and later appeared as a regular on the show.[8] In 2011, he hosted a segment titled "Rove Across America" onThe Tonight Show. Jay Leno and Ed McMahon also made a small pre-recorded appearance at the beginning of McManus' shows in Los Angeles, offering advice for the night's performance.[citation needed]
On 23 December 2008, McManus made his debut as host on American television as the host of anAmerican Broadcasting Company specialThe List.[9]
On the 2009 series finale ofRove, shown on 15 November, following several weeks of rumours that the show was going to end, McManus confirmed live on the show that it would be ending with the 2009 finale. He stated, "It's purely my decision. It's not one I've made lightly or flippantly. The timing was right to stop, stand back and see what happens next".[citation needed]
In May 2011, McManus relocated toLos Angeles, California, and began a hosting role on a new talk show,Rove LA. The show debuted on 19 September 2011 onFOX8, with catchup airings onThe Comedy Channel, and ran for two years.[10]
In 2013, McManus featured as a subject in the Australian version of the seriesWho Do You Think You Are?.[citation needed]
McManus has also appeared as a round-table guest on theE! Network late-night talk showChelsea Lately. He has also made intermittent appearances onTV3's satiricalPulp Sport series, usually performing menial tasks for the hosts, Bill and Ben.[citation needed]
In 2014, McManus hostedRiot, the US version of theFrench light-entertainment improvisation showVendredi Tout est Permis ("Friday Anything Goes"). It screened onFOX for one season and its executive producer wasSteve Carell.[11]
On 1 May 2014, McManus appeared on the American comedy show@midnight, presented byChris Hardwick onComedy Central. He emerged as the winner, being declared by Hardwick as having won the Internet and being the funniest person in the world for the next 23-and-a-half hours.[12]
In April 2015, theGame Show Network in the United States debuted a new show hosted by McManus calledLie Detectors, in which audience members decide which of three comedians is telling the truth.[citation needed]
In 2017, McManus presented the newAustralian Broadcasting Corporation panel showWhovians to tie in with their broadcast ofthe tenth series ofDoctor Who; the show aired onABC TV Plus.[13] Its second season began on 8 October 2018 onABC TV Plus as a companion to the first episode ofthe eleventh series ofDoctor Who, and as noDoctor Who series aired in 2019, the third series began on 9 February 2020 to tie in withthe twelfth series ofDoctor Who.[citation needed]
In 2018, McManus returned to Network Ten to host a new panel show,Show Me the Movie!.[14][15] He also voiced King Tubby, Cheeta and Last Chance in the children's television seriesKitty Is Not a Cat.[citation needed]
In 2018, McManus received approval for a new show,Bring Back...Saturday Night, after airing a pilot episode duringNetwork Ten's pilot week.[16][17] The series premiered on 24 August 2019 under the new titleSaturday Night Rove.[18][19] It lasted two episodes before its cancellation,[20] after viewership dropped from 244,000 to 138,000, below the 200,000 viewers cutoff set by the network.[21]
In 2024, McManus guest starred in theBluey episode "The Sign",[22] voicing aToy Fox Terrierreal estate agent named Bucky Dunstan.[23]
In 2025, McManus appeared on the comedy quiz show,Big Backyard Quiz.[24]
In 1999, McManus was a regular host onTriple J radio and had a segment on the breakfast show (starringWil Anderson andAdam Spencer) on Friday mornings,Know Your Millennium, a quiz show that focused on the past.[citation needed]
In 2000, he filled in onTriple M Sydney'sAndrew Denton Breakfast Show with co-hostAmanda Keller andMike Fitzpatrick.[citation needed]
In 2002,Austereo commissioned Roving Enterprises to create a weekly radio program starring McManus alongside regularRove colleaguesPeter Helliar andCorinne Grant. The show was originally calledSaturday Morning Rove and was broadcast onFox FM every Saturday from 10 am to midday; it was pre-recorded the day before to allow the performers to have a full weekend of other media commitments.[citation needed] In 2004, the program moved to Friday mornings, allowing live phone callers, and was retitled asRove Live Radio. It was discontinued at the end of 2004.[citation needed]
In 2006, McManus and Helliar filled in forMerrick and Rosso while they were on holiday. In the first week of their three-week stint,Meshel Laurie ofNova 106.9 also co-hosted the show.[citation needed]
In October 2015,Southern Cross Austereo announced that McManus andSam Frost would host breakfast on2Day FM with the show titledRove and Sam, replacingThe Dan & Maz Show.[25] McManus was on a three-year contract beginning from the start of 2016, which included the remuneration of shares valued at $350,000 every six months.[26]
McManus had a cameo voicing a crab inPixar's 2003 animated filmFinding Nemo.[citation needed] He appeared as himself on the New Zealand cartoonbro'Town and voiced a number of characters inCartoon Network'sExchange Student Zero.[citation needed]
McManus voiced additional characters inNorm of the North.[citation needed]
In 2014, McManus worked on the filmCookies From Outer Space withYahoo Serious.[27]
In 2000, McManus started the production companyRoving Enterprises; he currently co-owns it with his business partner, Craig Campbell.[2] The company co-producedRove Live and produced theAFL football comedy panel programBefore the Game during their runs on Network Ten. The company also producesThe Project. Its past projects include thesketch comedy programSkithouse, theparody showReal Stories,Rove LA and, between 2000 and 2004, the hosting and production of theARIA Music Awards.
McManus has won theGold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian three times, in 2003, 2004 and 2005, and was nominated for it in 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.[28] He has won 16Logie Awards in total and has been nominated for several others for his work onRove andAre You Smarter than a 5th Grader?. In 2000, McManus was nominated for "Most Popular New Talent – Male" and in 2010, he was nominated forMost Popular TV Presenter.
| Association | Year | Award | Result |
| Logie Awards | 2000 | Most Popular New Talent | Nominated |
| 2002 | Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy (forRove Live) | Won | |
| Gold Logie | Nominated | ||
| 2003 | Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy (forRove Live) | Won | |
| Most Popular Presenter | Won | ||
| Gold Logie | Won | ||
| 2004 | Most Popular Light Entertainment Program | Won | |
| Most Popular Presenter | Won | ||
| Gold Logie | Won | ||
| 2005 | Most Popular Light Entertainment /Comedy | Won | |
| Most Popular Presenter | Won | ||
| Gold Logie | Won | ||
| 2006 | Most Popular Presenter | Won | |
| Gold Logie | Nominated | ||
| 2007 | Logie Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy | Won | |
| Most Popular Presenter | Won | ||
| Gold Logie | Nominated | ||
| 2008 | Most Popular Presenter | Won | |
| Gold Logie | Nominated | ||
| 2009 | Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy | Won | |
| Most Popular Presenter | Won | ||
| Gold Logie | Nominated | ||
| 2010 | Most Popular Presenter | Nominated | |
| Gold Logie | Nominated |
Between 2008 and 2010, McManus was a director of the Australian chapter of the conservation charityFauna & Flora International, for a period serving as the vice president.[29] He has been a patron of international wildlife conservation and animal welfare charityFree the Bears[30] since 2019, having first visited a Free the Bears sanctuary in Cambodia in 2008. He regularly hosts fundraising events[31] in support of the charities' work to rescue and rehabilitate threatened bears in Asia and has taken part in the charities annual "Night in a Cage" fundraising challenge, most notably spending the night in a cage within an abandoned zoo in Tasmania in 2025 and raising almost $15,000.[32]
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McManus married actress and singerBelinda Emmett in 2005 at theMary Immaculate Church inWaverley, aneastern suburb of Sydney. Emmett died of metastatic breast cancer on 11 November 2006 at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney after eight years with the disease.[33] McManus began dating actressTasma Walton in October 2007. They married on 16 June 2009 in a private ceremony on a beach inBroome, Western Australia.[34] They have a daughter, born in 2013.[8][35]
McManus is a supporter of theFremantle Football Club in theAustralian Football League, for which his first cousinShaun McManus played 228 games.[36] From 2003 to 2005, McManus held the ceremonial position of the club'snumber-one ticket holder.[37] McManus is also a lifelong fan of professional wrestling; he interviewed wrestlersRic Flair andJohn Cena on his talk show and has managed wrestlers as part of the formerWorld Wrestling All-Stars promotion.[38]
On 8 June 2007, he appeared as the presenter of a secondary school discussion atRod Laver Arena with14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso in attendance.[39]
