Rove to return to Australian airwaves?
Light entertainment star Rove McManus may make a return to broadcasting at the helm of the breakfast show on struggling Sydney station 2Day Hit 104.1.
According to a report in today’s edition of The Australian, an announcement from Southern Cross Austereo is “anticipated this week”.
The move would see McManus replace the Dan & Maz breakfast show, which has failed to rate since the departure of the Kyle & Jackie O Show from the network.
McManus last reached a regular mainstream audience with his Sunday night chatshow Rove on Ten, which ended in 2009.
Since then, his production company Roving Enterprises has delivered Ten’s successful daily news show The Project. Last year, McManus was a guest host.
He also briefly hosted a weekly chat show from LA for Foxtel. Recent years have seen him split his time between LA and Melbourne, raising the question of whether he would actually present the show from Sydney. The Hit Network’s newly returned drivetime show with Hamish Blake and Andy Lee is mainly presented from Fox FM’s studios in Melbourne.
A decade ago Rove presented a weekly radio show for the network, which was broadcast from Melbourne.
In the most recent set of radio ratings, released on Tuesday, 2DayFM’s share slipped back to 4% in Sydney with Den Debuf and Maz Compton posting another fall in the breakfast slot.
2Day FM’s fortunes have faded since Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson decamped to Kiis FM at the beginning of 2014.
A radio lineup pitting Sandilands against McManus in Sydney’s breakfast battleground would also threaten to reignite the long running feud between the pair. Sandilands reportedly previously labelled McManus “a piece of shit cable host”.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Four blood red moons and now this.
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Great move – it seems every time Rove goes on the Project ratings go up.
Will raise the bar for 2Day
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The Rove school of Comedy. Pull faces like you’re funny, talk like you’re funny, add laughter soundtrack. Greatest Alumni Rosso.
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2Day FM need to look at their playlist. They repeat a lot of songs during the day which is a turn-off especially when the songs are annoying to begin with. They need to perhaps follow Triple J – add more up-and-coming local talent, maybe even run a competition like Unearthed
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It would be great to get Rove’s intelligent, fun humour back on Sydney breakfast radio
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The end is nigh for Dan & Maz…better late than never.
Not really sure why SCA had such high hopes for them – as soon as they left Nova 919 ratings shot up, and since they started on 2Day ratings have barely risen above a 4%. Not even Hamish & Andy could save them…
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