Do we like Rove McManus?
Our score: 8 out of 10. No harmful words or company turned up, a long clean run and a bit of fundraising, though the record is thin on his politics.
Rove grew up in Willetton, Perth, went to Catholic schools and caught the acting bug early with drama classes and school musicals. He left Perth at 21, did some art school, then headed to Melbourne to chase comedy. Born John Henry Michael McManus, he picked up the nickname and ran with it.
The arc from there is classic Aussie telly. He started as a roving reporter, then hosted community TV on Channel 31, then Rove on Nine and Rove Live on Ten from 2000, which won him a stack of Logies. He's also co-run the production company behind The Project, and had a stint in LA hosting Rove LA.
Not everything landed. Saturday Night Rove, his 2019 attempt at a live variety show, was cancelled after just two episodes. That's a flop, not a scandal, and the reporting shows him taking it on the chin and getting on with the next thing.
On the harm test, we went looking and came up empty. We found no campaigning against LGBTQ+ people, no conspiracy-theory slide, and no culture-war grifting, and his recent projects are mainstream comedy and TV. To be fair, he doesn't do a lot of political commentary, so the record is thin rather than glowing. A March 2026 Fringe review called him a clean comic and still the nicest guy around.
The recent stuff is a good-natured comeback tour. He toured a stand-up memoir of his talk-show years through Fringe festivals in 2026, and he fronts Celebrity Escape with a cast of Aussie and Kiwi comedians. He's also said he loves giving like-minded comedians a chance to show what they can do, and he joined Perth's Telethon in 2021 as a bucket-list moment.