‘Ruthless’ Ten gives Rove McManus the boot

Rove McManus was given just two episodes to attract viewers to his new show before a ‘ruthless’ decision was made to axe it.

Triple Gold Logie winner Rove McManus and, right, scenes from his latest show Saturday Night Rove, which was canned after two episodes. Picture: DIIMEX

Three-time Gold Logie winner Rove McManus was given just two episodes to attract viewers to his new show before a “ruthless” decision was made to axe it.

Saturday Night Rove, which initially aired as a single episode during the Ten Network’s pilot week last year, premiered with 244,000 metropolitan viewers before dropping to 138,000 viewers last Saturday night.

“It was clear looking at the numbers that the audience we hoped would find a freewheeling live show on a Saturday night just weren’t there,” McManus said in a statement. “We spoke with Ten today and we both called it.”

McManus, best known for his TV variety show Rove, said the opportunity to air the show was “fun, no matter how brief”.

McManus with Kevin Rudd on the now-cancelled show. Picture: Twitter

A Ten spokeswoman said the show hadn’t resonated with viewers in the way it had hoped.

David Castran, the managing director of Audience Development Australia, said he was shocked Ten had aired the program, which was “undercooked”, “ill-prepared” and competing against live sport.

“It’s regurgitated television — there’s nothing new. People want innovation,” Mr Castran said. “For Rove to go in on a Saturday night was very optimistic, given the overall figures of live viewing that occur on that night.

“I can’t understand what Ten was expecting out of that decision.

“If you want Saturday night shows, you would be better off going to Daryl Somers.”

Saturday Night Rove was the first major television role for McManus in a decade. His first variety program, Rove, initially ran on the Nine Network before moving to Ten after a year and running until 2009. In 2006, McManus was embraced warmly by the Australian audience after the death of his actress wife, ­Belinda Emmett.

Since then, he has made several television and radio appearances, including a stint as Sydney radio station 2DayFM’s breakfast co-host in 2015 and host of Ten’s Show Me The Movie, which averaged 300,000 viewers this year.

“Television is a horribly ruthless business, I don’t think that’s changed,” Mr Castran said.

“Ten should have never gone into this. It’s just a waste of money. Ten’s Survivor, Bachelor, those shows are delivering in spades for the audience.

“There were segments that were ill-prepared and that also worked against Rove, but it does show you that … there’s just no way you can afford the money to spend on these sort of things.

“The good news is that Ten have seen that. Sam Chisholm used to say to me, ‘You make a wrong decision, just make another decision to get out of that decision’. Don’t let your pride get in the way of pulling the rug from whatever you need to do.”

McManus’s production company Roving Enterprises, which creates The Project, remains a successful operation.

Mr Castran, who at one stage reviewed 60-80 pilot shows a year for the networks, said McManus would not go without “food or water” thanks to his Roving ­Enterprises.

Saturday Night Rove was not the only program to struggle with low audiences this year. Ten also axed its game show Pointless, after its audience fell below 200,000 and its Sunday Night Takeaway also flopped.

Last week, Seven premiered The Proposal, which averaged just 309,000 viewers and Seven’s evening show Interview with Andrew Denton gave “itself the axe” after two seasons.

Media analyst Steve Allen said Ten had “to be ruthless”.

“When a show is not a series pre-record, all networks would behave in a similar way — Ten more so. The second outing was not working and dropping solidly on a small audience, therefore it’s out,” Mr Allen said.