John Henry Michael McManus (born 21 January 1974 in Perth, Australia) is an Australian comedian who has hosted numerous shows on television and radio, and is an occasional voice actor. He is also a producer, starting a production company called Roving Enterprises with long-time business partner Craig Campbell. McManus has won the Gold Logie, Australian television's most prestigious award, three times.
Born in Perth, McManus began doing stand-up in the early 1990s. It was here he met fellow comedian Dave Callan. In the mid '90s, Rove moved across the country to Melbourne, and began hosting a talk show called The Loft Live on C31, Melbourne's community TV station. Through this, he met long-time collaborator Peter Helliar. Despite having a budget of A$50 per episode, The Loft Live had a pretty decent following, drawing upwards of 100,000 viewers. This led to him being a roving reporter on a Foxtel show called In Fashion, hosted by a then-unknown Hugh Jackman.
In 1999, McManus took his talk show talents to Nine Network, hosting a weekly late-night show simply called Rove. After just ten episodes, Nine passed on doing another season, but Network Ten brought him over for 2000. The show was retitled to Rove Live, before going back to being called Rove for its final three years on-air (2007-2009). It remained a once-a-week show throughout its run on Ten.
Rove was unusual in the fact that, while having traditional talk show elements like interviewing global stars, there were numerous other people on the show besides McManus. For the show's first two seasons, McManus was joined by the aforementioned Helliar and Callan, as well as Corrine Grant. Each of the three had their own segment, then would sit in with Rove during celebrity interviews. Callan left the show after the 2000 season, and wasn't replaced, leaving Grant and Helliar as Rove's sidekicks. Grant left after 2005, being replaced by Carrie Bickmore, who anchored a parody news segment in the style of Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update". In 2007, many additions to the cast took place: comedy duo Hamish Blake and Andy Lee joined the show, along with Ryan Shelton and Dave Hughes; Shelton's then-girlfriend, Jess Harris, also turned up on a recurring basis. Hughes and Bickmore left midway through 2009 to host Roving Enterprises's new nightly comedic current affairs show, The 7PM Project (now just The Project). They were replaced by Kristy Warner and Judith Lucy. Helliar was the only original cast member from the Nine days to remain with the show throughout its entire run.
Rove aired its last episode on 15 November 2009, McManus bringing it to a close to pursue projects in the United States. His profile in America had grown thanks to numerous appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, catching Leno's attention when he filmed some episodes of Rove in the U.S. McManus then moved to Los Angeles, and began hosting a new talk show called Rove LA in September 2011. It aired on Fox8 in Australia. It was renewed for a second season, which aired in the U.S. on TV Guide Network (now known as Pop). It was not picked up for a third. Since then, McManus has hosted Riot, an American version of the French improv show Vendredi Tout est Permis (Friday Anything Goes), for Fox, and a comedy panel game show on Game Show Network called Lie Detectors.
In 2015, McManus moved back to Australia to begin hosting a new daily morning radio show on Sydney's 2Day FM called Rove and Sam, the "Sam" being Sam Frost, star of the first season of the Australian version of The Bachelorette. In January 2017, the show was moved to a nationwide primetime slot across the Southern Cross Austereo network, and cut down from three hours to one. This move didn't improve ratings, and the show was ended for good the following June.
McManus returned to regular hosting on Australian television in April 2017, hosting a new panel discussion show called Whovians for the ABC, which immediately followed each episode of the tenth series of Doctor Who, airing on ABC2.
McManus has also done voice acting, playing a crab in Finding Nemo, and a junior investor in Norm of the North, as well as making appearances on Robot Chicken. He's also had regular roles in several Australian-made cartoons (all created by Melbourne-based studio BES Animation), voicing main characters Hiro Karuta, John Stitt, and Max Cameron in Exchange Student Zero; The Mutt, Dr. Knutt, and Hodad in Monster Beach; and three of the cats (King Tubby, Cheeta, and Last Chance) in Kitty Is Not a Cat.
McManus is also an animal rights activist, receiving numerous awards for his activism.
Rove provides examples of:
- Affectionate Nickname: "Rove" comes from McManus's sisters; he's unsure of why they ever started calling him "Rove".
- Bromance: With Peter Helliar.
- Endearingly Dorky: His reaction to Peter Capaldi making a surprise appearance at the 2Day FM studios in November 2015. Unfortunately, the video seems to have disappeared from the web (this lone GIF
◊ seems to be the only surviving image of it), but it still exists in podcast form. Go to the 26:30 mark of this. - Even the Guys Want Him: He has locked lips with Chas Licciardello of the Australian comedy group The Chaser, Australian singer Vance Joy, and had multiple kisses with Ed Sheeran. This caused wife Tasma Walton to joke on Twitter that his agreed-upon free passes were Doctor Who and David Attenborough.
- Game Show Host: While in the United States doing an episode of his talk show, McManus came across Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, and was impressed. Through Roving Enterprises, he bought the Australian rights to the show, sold it to Ten, and made himself the host.
- Guest Host: It was rumoured in July 2010 that McManus would be given a six-week stint as guest host of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson while Ferguson took a vacation. Ferguson hit back at these rumours, posting a denial on Twitter, then making fun of the stories on the show with a koala puppet. Rove's management also denied the story.
- Happily Married: McManus has been married twice. His first marriage was to the late Australian singer and actress Belinda Emmett. The pair met at the opening of Fox Studios Australia in September of 1999 and began dating, becoming quite possibly Australia's most beloved celebrity couple. In 2001, Emmett was diagnosed with secondary bone cancernote , which she would battle for the rest of her life. McManus and Emmett married on 29 January 2005, but their marriage lasted less than two years, as Emmett succumbed to her illness on 11 November 2006. Her death sparked national mourning, drawing statements of sympathy from both then-Prime Minister John Howard, and then-Opposition Leader Kim Beazley. Rove Live's 2006 season was brought to an early end. McManus coped by shaving his head, and going to northern Queensland for six months; it was thought that he wouldn't return to TV. But he began grief counseling, and the 2007 season of Rove began on April 1, with McManus beginning the show with a quick address from backstage, thanking everyone for their support. This particular episode was the series's highest-rated. In June 2017, Emmett's parents stated that they remain close with their former son-in-law.
- In late 2007, McManus began dating Australian actress Tasma Walton, who introduced him to Belinda Emmett. The two married on 16 June 2009, and have a daughter named Ruby.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Nine offered him A$1 million to keep his talk show on their network, provided he drop Peter Helliar, Corrine Grant, and Dave Callan as his sidekicks. McManus rejected the offer out of loyalty to his friends. Helliar also said that Nine wanted Rove to host game shows, which he had no desire to do at the time.
