Rove McManus' happy announcement
Despite low ratings, popular TV personality Rove McManus has had a major win with his variety show Bring Back Saturday Night returning to Network Ten, it has been announced.
In August, the channel followed in the tradition of major American TV networks like its new owner CBS, and ran a number of pilot TV programs to test audience reaction and interest, and decided which ones should be green-lighted for a series.
Very pleased to announce that #SaturdayNightAU is officially on the air for @Channel10AU in 2019! Happy Halloween indeed. #10tvwithatwist pic.twitter.com/bT15EMUjSx
— Rove McManus (@Rove) October 31, 2018
The show, hosted by McManus, was only watched by just shy of 300,000 viewers – the lowest rating show of all of the eight shows – but the multiple Gold Logie winner says that in the social media age, television ratings aren’t everything.
“It’s not just about bare bones, there are a lot of other things to factor into it,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “And also, we had an overwhelmingly positive response on social media … I can’t remember the last thing I worked on that was overwhelmingly positive on social media, so that’s nice as well.”
Beverley McGarvey, Network Ten Chief Content Officer, said that there are few in the industry who have the experience to host a variety show.
“Rove is the best man for the job,” she said. “He is such a talent and he can do those big entertainment shows — it is a very short list of people that have that experience.”
It could be a chance for McManus to bounce back, at least on screen (his company Roving Enterprises is behind Network Ten's popular nightly news program The Project), after some career setbacks.
Some of his latest projects have failed to capture an audience including gameshow Show Me The Movie (although it will be back for a second series) and his radio show hosted with Sam Frost, who vied for love on The Bachelorette, was axed last year after running for 18 months on the Hit Network.
But one TV insider who spoke to the publication said that Network Ten was beholden to the TV host to green-light Bring Back Saturday Night because of his production deals with the broadcaster. He said the [age] had lost “currency”.
“Ten knows too well Rove’s currency has plummeted but executives need to keep him sweet,” they said.
“His production company is behind a number of Ten shows like The Project. They seriously don’t have any choice, if they don’t keep Rove happy, they’re stuffed,” they said.
In August, when the ratings came out for the variety show pilot, the Daily Telegraph quoted a “a highly placed television executive” as saying that, “the audience just does not like Rove anymore".
“When he was young, there was a real freshness to him and he seemed to be slightly too young to have that knowing way that he had,” they said. “There was this inherent charm in how young he was and that knowing schtick that he had.”
They added, “Now that he is just an older bloke, the knowing and the age line up so he has sort of lost that cheeky charm.”
But the TV insider believed that projects “properly produced” with McManus at the helm may work.
Media Week’s James Manning told the publication that the variety show’s difficult Saturday night time slot affected its initial ratings.
“It was a tiny audience but Saturday night is a difficult one to pull an audience if it is not live sport,” Manning said.
But McManus had plenty of well-wishers when he announced the return of the show on his Twitter account.
Said one fan: “About time you came back to the type of show you are great at. Looking forward to it.”
Did you watch Bring Back Saturday Night? Let us know what you thought in the comments section.