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Rove McManus (born John McManus II on 21 January 1974) is a multi Gold Logie Award winning Australian media personality. He is host of variety show Rove and owner of the production company Roving Enterprises.

Personal life

He was born in Perth, Western Australia to John and Coralie McManus, and grew up in Riverton, Western Australia. He attended Orana Catholic Primary School and Corpus Christi College, Bateman. He moved to Melbourne to pursue a career as a stand up comedian in the early 1990s. He married Australian actress Belinda Emmett on 29 January 2005 at the Mary Immaculate Church in Waverley, a suburb in the east of Sydney. Emmett died of metastatic breast cancer on 11 November 2006 at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney. As of October 2007, McManus is dating former Blue Heelers actress Tasma Walton.

He is a fan of the AFL Fremantle Dockers for which his first cousin Shaun McManus plays. He was named as the number one ticket holder of the club (a prestigious but largely symbolic position often given to Australian celebrities) in 2002. McManus' other interests include professional wrestling. He stood in the corner of Australian Wrestler Nathan Jones during a WWA show in Australia, and took a guitar shot from Jeff Jarrett. He also has a large collection of PEZ dispensers which has been mentioned on Rove Live on numerous occasions. He was a runner in the Queen's Baton Relay (which carried a baton around Australia before the 2006 Commonwealth Games). He used the baton in a segment on Rove Live to find out what privileges it would get him eg: getting a free beer from a pub, closing a 7-Eleven store and other examples.

McManus has appeared on the BRW Rich List, and is estimate to have an annual income of AU$4,000,000.

Career

Television

McManus worked as a scanner/digital painter on the animated television series Lil' Elvis and the Truckstoppers (1996). He hosted The Loft Live on community television station Channel 31 and subsequently landed ten late night episodes of his own tonight show, Rove, on GTV9 in 1999. The Nine Network cancelled the series at the end of its run. The Ten Network offered McManus a contract for a new show based on the old one in late 2000. The resulting Rove Live was almost identical to Nine's Rove. It has become a flagship show for Network Ten, and is also broadcast on TV3 in New Zealand. The show involves celebrity guests, comedy acts, variety segments, local and international comedians and live bands.

McManus started his own production company, Roving Enterprises in 2000 and has co-produced his show since the inception of Rove Live on Network Ten. The company has also produced a number of other programs including the sketch comedy program skitHOUSE, comedy show Real Stories and AFL football program Before The Game. Roving Enterprises has also produced the ARIA Music Awards since 2002, and it was hosted by McManus until 2004.

McManus undertook a live solo stand-up comedy show in 2005, touring Australian capital cities as well as Wellington and Auckland in New Zealand. During the tour, he was 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 and 2007 federal elections, but he did get the opposition leaders Mark Latham (2004) and Kevin Rudd (2007) to appear.

When Bert Newton fell ill in early June 2005, McManus was one of many presenters who hosted his show Good Morning Australia in his place. With Newton, McManus co-hosted a Roving Enterprises television special Ten Seriously 40, a look back at the history of the Ten Network.

In November 2006, his wife Belinda Emmett died from breast cancer. His career was put on hold indefinitely. His weekly show Rove Live did not screen its last two planned episodes of the year. At the time there were rumours circulating in the industry that he might quit TV for good. However, he returned to television in the competitive 8.30pm Sunday timeslot. The new show commenced 1 April 2007 with a major format overhaul on the old Rove Live, including renaming the show to simply Rove. He scored his highest ever audience of 1.69 million viewers. In September 2007, McManus made his debut as a game show host in the Australian version of the US game show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?.

McManus appeared as himself on New Zealand cartoon bro'Town. He has also appeared as a guest on NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno on 2 May and 25 July 2007. He was mentioned as a contender to replace Conan O'Brien as host of Late Night with Conan O'Brien when O'Brien takes over as host of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2009. Saturday Night Live comedian Jimmy Fallon has now been confirmed as the next host.

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 other 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. McManus has been a guest co-host on the Triple M radio program Get This. In 2006, McManus and Peter Helliar filled in for Merrick and Rosso while they were holidays. In the first week of their three week stint Meshel Laurie of Nova 106.9 co-hosted the show as well.

Other

He had a cameo voicing a pugilistic crab in Pixar's 2003 animated film, Finding Nemo. He appeared as the presenter of a secondary school discussion with Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama at Rod Laver Arena on 8 June 2007. Further, he directed the foreign film Torremolinos 73, released in 2003.

Awards

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: Most Popular TV Presenter, Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy Program and the Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television. In 2004 and 2005 he repeated his 2003 award haul, and in 2006 he won Most Popular TV Presenter. In 2007 McManus won Most Popular TV Presenter and Most Popular Light Entertainment Program for Rove Live.

References

1. "Belinda Emmett dead at 32". news.com.au. 2006-11-11. Retrieved 2007-09-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. "Rove 'holding up well' as thousands mourn Belinda". ninemsn. 2006-11-13. Retrieved 2007-09-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
3. Rove McManus finds new love with Tasma Walton - The Daily Telegraph, 25 Oct 2007
4. "Facts". Rove Online. Retrieved 2008-02-18.
5. Darren Devlyn and Marcus Casey (2007-03-08). "Rove back in harness". Herald Sun. Retrieved 2007-09-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
6. "Kate Ritchie wins gold at Logies". ninemsn. 2007-05-07. Retrieved 2007-09-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. "Second half TV line-ups revealed". ninemsn. 2007-06-26. Retrieved 2007-09-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
8. "Rove's US Hopes Take a Dive". Sydney Morning Herald. 2007-07-31. Retrieved 2007-10-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
9. "Rove in Leno's hot seat". The Daily Telegraph. 2007-04-28. Retrieved 2007-09-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• Rove McManus at IMDb
• Rove Website
• Rove's official biography
• Rove McManus factoids

• 1974 births
• Living people
• Australian comedians
• Australian radio personalities
• Australian Roman Catholics
• Australian stand-up comedians
• Australian television presenters
• Australian television personalities
• Australian voice actors
• Gold Logie winners
• Australians of Irish descent
• People from Perth, Western Australia
• Australian game show hosts