He’s back. Rove McManus has a brand new talk show, but he’s moved to pay tv and it’s now set in those United States.
I thought the show was surprisingly good, but I think it mostly owes to the fact that being located in Los Angeles means that the quality of guests is dramatically improved. The premiere episode featured Lisa Kudrow (Friends), Kathy Griffin (My Life on the D-List) and Jerry Ferrara (Entourage) – any of which could be considered a major guest for a talk show based in Australia.
The format is stripped back significantly from it’s predecessors, Rove Live and rove. with focus more on conversation with the three guests (who all appear from start to finish, rather than one at a time, or gathering one by one). I think I’ve mentioned in the past that I liked the idea, I mean it certainly works for Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show, but here I don’t think it pans out quite as well.
It felt a little bit empty, due to the fact that it was just Rove all on his own, without any of the sidekicks like Pete or the other billion people they had gathered by the end of it’s run on ten. They’ve tried to add gimmicks into the interviews (Random Question Hat, the 3 Leading Questions or Getting to Know You) but they all sort of fell a bit flat for me, and seemed so out of place with the lack of other ‘segments’.
Of course, most importantly: The theme music is amazing, the onscreen graphics are quite nice, and the set is probably up there with some of the nicest tv sets I’ve seen – which has guaranteed it’s place on my weekly viewing schedule.
I’m really hoping the show takes off, because I can see it being as great as his previous series have been, despite now being on cable, but it will need time to grow a bit. Ultimately I’d like to see other presenters added to the ‘Rove Team’, they wouldn’t have to be any of his old team, they don’t necessarily have to be anyone we’ve seen much of before, but adding in a few extra small segments (a la Ryan Shelton’s Investigationating) could really help the atmosphere of the program. That’s just my opinion anyway.
Rove LA airs Monday nights at 8:30pm* on FOX8: Subscription channel 108, +2 timeshift channel 150, or HD channel 208 (where available). *Daylight Savings time when applicable, check your local listing or EPG.
