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Rove McManus - Source: rovedaily.com.au
After 10 years and three Gold Logie awards, Rove McManus has
farewelled Australia's mums for the final time.
McManus, 35, dropped one of the biggest bombshells in Australian TV
this year by announcing Sunday night's edition of Rove, the final
in the 2009 season, would in fact be the last ever.
And he delivered a neat variation on his slightly hokey closing
line, "Say hi to your mum for me", as wife Tasma Walton looked on
tearily.
"For the last time, thank you very much for allowing me into your
home - not in a creepy way, I haven't been sneaking in and perving
on you when you're asleep - but through the power of television, I
say thank you very much," he said.
"I'm Rove McManus. Say bye to your mum for me."
McManus told his audience his future as a television host was
uncertain.
"I'd like to think we will see each other again at some point in
the future, but until then, from the bottom of my heart and a tear
in my eye, I say thank you, thank you, thank you," he said.
At the top of the show, McManus said he had joked before about
leaving but meant business tonight.
"It is very short notice, I do realise that. But it's only a
decision that I came up with very recently," he said.
"And to be honest I didn't want a whole lot of fuss going into
tonight as I don't going out the other end as well.
"I also think tonight's the perfect night for it and we've got the
best setting possible.
"All our cast is here tonight to help wrap this baby up, you guys
are at home. Will you help send me off tonight?"
The crowd erupted into cheers and applause.
McManus and Network Ten released a statement confirming the end of
the show as it went to air.
"It was a difficult call to make but after 10 years it felt like
time to step away from the show and take a break to properly
reflect on what I want to do next as a performer," McManus
said.
McManus has hosted the hour-long variety show for 10 years - first
at the Nine Network and then, from 2000, on Ten - and through
personal triumph and tragedy.
He won gold Logie awards as Australia's most popular television
personality in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
McManus endured the death of his first wife, actress Belinda
Emmett, in 2006, in the glare of the public spotlight.
He married Walton before only close friends and family in a private
beach ceremony in Western Australia in June this year.
In the statement, McManus said the decision to end the show "came
off the back of discussions" with Ten in the past couple of
weeks.
He said The 7pm Project, a news-based chat show, and AFL talk show
Before The Game, both produced by his production company Roving
Enterprises for Ten, would remain on the network in 2010.
But no mention was made of his quiz show, Are You Smarter Than A
5th Grader.
Ten programming boss David Mott said McManus would remain a part of
the network.
"The end of Rove on Ten does not mark the end of Rove and Ten: a
relationship that spans a decade is harder than this to switch
off," he said.
