Hey, hey, it's... Rove?

There’s something a little Hey Hey It’s Saturday about Rove Live. The Gold Logie winner’s primetime variety show is starting to look a bit ragged round the edges, and somewhat, well, shop-worn. I know the crown hangs heavy, but the one-time king of variety is starting to look like the emperor in his new clothes.

Rove McManus still seems to have boundless energy for the show, and certainly appears a lot more comfortable than he was in the early years; but there’s often a fine line between being comfortable and being in a rut.

I mean, how many times do we have to be treated to Rove’s camera crew turning up at someone’s place and having them perform some lame challenge for a prize of dubious worth? Or be treated to the kind of wacky signs you can browse at length on the Internet in the tedious What The segment?

McManus tries to emulate the successful US variety shows fronted by the likes of Jay Leno and David Letterman. It’s probably no great surprise then that he copies their basic format to a tee. The show opens with McManus doing a monologue that misses as often as it hits. We’ll then be treated to some banter with a comedian, usually Peter Hellier; a bit of stand-up; interviews with the famous, the semi-famous and the latest loser from Big Brother or Australian Idol (love that cross-promotion); and some music.

One innovation introduced recently is to have a band-of-the-moment (such as Eskimo Joe or Dallas Crane) play in the return from each ad break. Being commercial TV, the band gets plenty of opportunities to show their stuff, but even that becomes a bit tedious after a while.

But perhaps Rove Live’s biggest problem is that the interviews that are its core are often rather pedestrian. Granted, the show’s not meant to be Enough Rope; but do we really need to know what a movie star’s favourite breakfast cereal is, or where they like to holiday in Australia? There are never any hard questions about why they chose their latest dog of a movie over any number of more deserving but lower-paying projects. It’s product placement disguised as journalism, with the star’s latest movie/CD/book the product. But then, hey, at least Rove gets better guests than David Tench.

If you want quality variety on your set, I’d suggest springing for pay-TV, where you can watch the real Leno, Letterman or O’Brien basically direct off the satellite. If your finances don’t stretch that far, I’m afraid Rove Live is the best we’ve got. That’s not saying much; but it does speak volumes for the quality (or rather, lack of) of locally produced variety at the moment.

Phil James

One of TV's high points - yes, it's Elmo on Rove Live (click play button below)

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Rove Live

On: Ten Network

Time: Tuesday, 9:30 pm

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