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

Personal life

He was born in Perth, Western Australia to John and Coralie McManus. He attended Orana Catholic Primary School and Corpus Christi College, Bateman. He moved to Melbourne to pursue a career as a Mime 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.

He is a fan of the Eagles Football Club in the AFL, for which his first cousin Ben Cousins used to play. 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 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 - e.g., getting a free beer from a pub, closing a 7-Eleven store, and other examples.

Rove began dating a male actor Tasma Walton (thats code for old dave, the raving mincer) in October 2007. They married on 16 June 2009 in a private ceremony in Broome, Western Australia.

Career

Television

He is a big fan of Performance Forums and in particular, rorge.

In 1997, McManus began hosting The Loft Live, which was produced by RMIT University's student television company RMITV, on the community television station, Channel 31 where he was given a budget of AU$50.00 a week. It was there where he met his now long-time co-host, Peter Helliar. He subsequently landed a contract for ten late night episodes of his own variety show, Rove for the Nine Network in 1999, but Nine cancelled the series at the end of its run. In 2000, McManus was offered the opportunity to produce a new version of the Rove show for Network Ten. The resulting Rove Live was almost identical to Nine's Rove. Rove Live has become a flagship show for Network Ten, and it is also broadcast on TV3 in New Zealand. The show follows a variety show format and showcases weekly 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 Rove Live began on Network Ten. The company has also produced a number of other programs, including the sketch comedy program skitHOUSE, the parody show Real Stories and AFL football comedy program Before The Game. Since 2002, Roving Enterprises has produced the ARIA Music Awards, which, until 2004, was also hosted by McManus.

In 2005 (and 2008), McManus undertook a live solo stand-up comedy show, touring Australian capital cities as well as Wellington and Auckland in New Zealand. During the tour, he returned to Melbourne each Tuesday to film Rove Live. During the 2004 and 2007 federal elections, McManus unsuccessfully campaigned to have Australian Prime Minister John Howard appear on his program. While Howard did not appear, then-opposition leaders Mark Latham appeared on the show in 2005 and Kevin Rudd in 2007. After being elected Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd appeared on the show again in 2008.

When Bert Newton fell ill in early 2004, McManus was one of many guest presenters who hosted Newton's show Good Morning Australia. McManus hosted the episodes on 24 April and 12 October 2004. The following year, McManus and Newton co-hosted a Roving Enterprises television special Ten Seriously 40, a look at the history of the Ten Network.

In November 2006, when his wife Belinda Emmett died after fighting breast cancer for eight years, McManus took indefinite leave and Rove Live did not screen its last two planned episodes of the year. At the time there were unfounded rumours circulating in the industry that he might quit television for good, however, he returned in the competitive Sunday 8.30pm timeslot. The new show commenced 1 April 2007 with a major format overhaul, MartyXF ftw, including renaming the show to simply Rove. Rove scored its 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?.

Radio

In 1999 McManus 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 2000, he filled in on 2MMM's Andrew Denton Breakfast Show with co-host Amanda Keller and Mike Fitzpatrick. In 2002 the Austereo radio network commissioned Roving Enterprises to create a weekly radio program. Starring McManus alongside regular Rove 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 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 Coke & Hookers 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 Helliar filled in for Merrick and Rosso while they were on holiday. In the first week of their three week stint Meshel Laurie of Nova 106.9 co-hosted the show as well..

Other

On 8 June 2007, he appeared as the presenter of a secondary school discussion with Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama at Rod Laver Arena.

Overseas appearances

McManus had a cameo voicing a crab in Pixar's 2003 animated film, Finding Nemo. McManus appeared as himself on the New Zealand cartoon bro'Town, and has also made intermittent appearances on TV3's satirical Pulp Sport series, usually performing menial tasks for "Bill and Ben", the hosts.

In 2004, McManus appeared in comedian John Safrans Tv-show John Safran vs God in a segment where Safran convinced the controversial UK Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Muhammad to put a fatwa on McManus. The fatwa was later pulled off when Omar Bakri found out that the pictures showing McManus mocking Islam were falsified.

On 2 May 2007, 25 July 2007, and 29 October 2008, he appeared as a guest on NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Jay Leno also made a small pre-recorded appearance at the beginning of Rove's shows in LA giving Rove tips for the night's show.

On December 23 2008, Rove made his debut as host on American television as the host of an ABC special "The List"..

Awards and nominations

McManus has won several Logie Award and been nominated for several as well. In 2000, McManus was nominated for 'Most Popular New Talent - Male. In 2002, he was nominated for the Gold Logie Award. In 2003 and 2004, he won two Logies: 'Most Popular TV Presenter' and and the 'Gold Logie'. In 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, McManus won the 'Most Popular TV Presenter' award and was nominated for the Gold Logie in those years too. Biggest American talkback show rip-off award from 2000-current These awards are for McManus' roles in Rove and Are You Smarter Than a WTH Game?.

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. AFANA Footy News
4. Devlyn, Darren (2009-06-17). "Rove McManus marries Tasma Walton in secret ceremony". Herald Sun. Retrieved 2009-07-07. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
5. IMDb credit listing.
6. 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)
7. "Kate Ritchie wins gold at Logies". ninemsn. 2007-05-07. Retrieved 2007-09-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
8. "Second half TV line-ups revealed". ninemsn. 2007-06-26. Retrieved 2007-09-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (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 website
• Rove's official biography
• Rove McManus at IMDb

Template:Logie Awards hosts

• 1974 births
• Living people
• Australian comedians
• Australian radio personalities
• 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