Live comedy McManus has performed
stand-up comedy both nationally and internationally, appearing at events such as the 2010
Just for Laughs festival in
Montreal and hosting the 2013 International Comedy Gala. In 2005 and 2008, he undertook live stand-up comedy shows, touring Australian capital cities as well as
Wellington and
Auckland in
New Zealand. During the tour, he returned to Melbourne each Tuesday to film
Rove Live.
Television McManus has appeared on
Good Morning Australia,
John Safran vs God,
Pulp Sport,
The Living Room,
The Project,
Studio 10,
Celebrity Name Game,
Have You Been Paying Attention New Zealand? and
Hughesy, We Have a Problem. His first recorded television appearance was as a child, when he appeared in the ABC television series
Kaboodle as Marty in an episode titled "Marty Makes A Move". Later that year, McManus began hosting
The Loft Live, which was produced by
RMIT University's
student television station RMITV for the community television station Channel 31. There, he met long-time co-host
Peter Helliar. McManus then appeared as a reporter on
Foxtel's program
In Fashion, hosted by
Hugh Jackman. He took an offer from the
Nine Network for ten late-night episodes of his own variety show,
Rove, in 1999; however, the series was cancelled at the end of its run. In 2000, McManus was offered the opportunity to produce a new version of
Rove for
Network Ten, launching
Rove Live.
Rove Live became a prominent show for Network Ten, seeing broadcasts on
TV3 in New Zealand, and followed a variety show format, showcasing weekly celebrity guests, comedy acts, variety segments, live bands and local and international comedians. During the
2004 and
2007 federal elections, McManus unsuccessfully sought to have
John Howard, the then–
prime minister of Australia, appear on his program. While Howard did not appear, then–opposition leaders
Mark Latham and
Kevin Rudd appeared on his show in 2005 and 2007 respectively. After being elected prime minister, Rudd appeared on the show again in 2008 and once more on 28 June 2009. When
Bert Newton fell ill in early 2004, McManus was one of many guest presenters who hosted Newton's
Good Morning Australia program, presenting its episodes on 24 April and 12 October 2004. The following year, he and Newton co-hosted a Roving Enterprises television special
Ten Seriously 40, which examined the history of the Ten Network. In 2004, McManus appeared in comedian
John Safran's television show
John Safran vs God in a segment where Safran convinced the controversial
UK Muslim cleric
Omar Bakri Muhammad to put a
fatwa on McManus, showcasing pictures of McManus mocking
Islam. The fatwa was later taken off when the pictures were found to be falsified. In 2005, McManus co-hosted the tsunami appeal Reach Out with fellow presenters
Eddie McGuire and
Andrew O'Keefe on television networks
Seven, Nine and Ten. The appeal raised over $20 million for tsunami relief efforts around Asia and motivated the trio to host the Logie awards together a few months later. In November 2006, after his wife
Belinda Emmett died of breast cancer, McManus took indefinite leave and
Rove Live did not screen its last two planned episodes of the year. At the time, there were unfounded rumours circulating in the industry that McManus may quit his television career. He returned, however, in the competitive Sunday 8:30pm timeslot on 1 April 2007 with a major format overhaul, including renaming the show to simply
Rove.
Rove achieved its largest audience of 1.69 million viewers. In September 2007, McManus made his debut as a game-show host in
the Australian version of the
US game show
Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?. On 2 May 2007, 25 July 2007 and 29 October 2008, McManus appeared as a guest on NBC's
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and later appeared as a regular on the show. On the 2009 series finale of
Rove, shown on 15 November, following several weeks of rumours that the show was going to end, McManus confirmed live on the show that it would be ending with the 2009 finale. He stated, "It's purely my decision. It's not one I've made lightly or flippantly. The timing was right to stop, stand back and see what happens next". In May 2011, McManus relocated to
Los Angeles, California, and began a hosting role on a new talk show,
Rove LA. The show debuted on 19 September 2011 on
FOX8, with catchup airings on
The Comedy Channel, and ran for two years. In 2013, McManus featured as a subject in the Australian version of the series
Who Do You Think You Are?. McManus has also appeared as a round-table guest on the
E! Network late-night talk show
Chelsea Lately. He has also made intermittent appearances on
TV3's satirical
Pulp Sport series, usually performing menial tasks for the hosts, Bill and Ben. In 2014, McManus hosted
Riot, the US version of the
French light-entertainment improvisation show
Vendredi Tout est Permis ("Friday Anything Goes"). It screened on
FOX for one season and its executive producer was
Steve Carell. On 1 May 2014, McManus appeared on the American comedy show
@midnight, presented by
Chris Hardwick on
Comedy Central. He emerged as the winner, being declared by Hardwick as having won the Internet and being the funniest person in the world for the next 23-and-a-half hours. In April 2015, the
Game Show Network in the United States debuted a new show hosted by McManus called
Lie Detectors, in which audience members decide which of three comedians is telling the truth. In 2017, McManus presented the new
Australian Broadcasting Corporation panel show
Whovians to tie in with their broadcast of
the tenth series of
Doctor Who; the show aired on
ABC TV Plus. Its second season began on 8 October 2018 on
ABC TV Plus as a companion to the first episode of
the eleventh series of
Doctor Who, and as no
Doctor Who series aired in 2019, the third series began on 9 February 2020 to tie in with
the twelfth series of
Doctor Who. In 2018, McManus returned to Network Ten to host a new panel show,
Show Me the Movie!. He also voiced King Tubby, Cheeta and Last Chance in the children's television series
Kitty Is Not a Cat. In 2018, McManus received approval for a new show,
Bring Back...Saturday Night, after airing a pilot episode during
Network Ten's pilot week. The series premiered on 24 August 2019 under the new title
Saturday Night Rove. It lasted two episodes before its cancellation, after viewership dropped from 244,000 to 138,000, below the 200,000 viewers cutoff set by the network. In 2024, McManus guest starred in the
Bluey episode "
The Sign", voicing a
Toy Fox Terrier real estate agent named Bucky Dunstan. In 2025, McManus appeared on the comedy quiz show,
Big Backyard Quiz.
Radio In 1999, McManus was a regular host on
Triple J radio and had a segment on the breakfast show (starring
Wil Anderson and
Adam Spencer) on Friday mornings,
Know Your Millennium, a quiz show that focused on the past. In 2000, he filled in on
Triple M Sydney's
Andrew Denton Breakfast Show with co-host
Amanda Keller and
Mike Fitzpatrick. In 2002,
Austereo commissioned Roving Enterprises to create a weekly radio program starring McManus alongside regular
Rove colleagues
Peter Helliar and
Corinne Grant. The show was originally called
Saturday Morning Rove and was broadcast on
Fox FM every Saturday from 10 am to midday; it was pre-recorded the day before to allow the performers to have a full weekend of other media commitments. In 2004, the program moved to Friday mornings, allowing live phone callers, and was retitled as
Rove Live Radio. It was discontinued at the end of 2004. In 2006, McManus and Helliar filled in for
Merrick and Rosso while they were on holiday. In the first week of their three-week stint,
Meshel Laurie of
Nova 106.9 also co-hosted the show. In October 2015,
Southern Cross Austereo announced that McManus and
Sam Frost would host breakfast on
2Day FM with the show titled
Rove and Sam, replacing
The Dan & Maz Show. McManus was on a three-year contract beginning from the start of 2016, which included the remuneration of shares valued at $350,000 every six months.
Film McManus had a cameo voicing a crab in
Pixar's 2003 animated film
Finding Nemo. He appeared as himself on the New Zealand cartoon ''
bro'Town'' and voiced a number of characters in
Cartoon Network's
Exchange Student Zero. McManus voiced additional characters in
Norm of the North. In 2014, McManus worked on the film
Cookies From Outer Space with
Yahoo Serious. ==Roving Enterprises==