TV host Rove McManus isn’t exactly having a spectacular return to Australian television.
Aside from the dismal ratings for Saturday Night Rove, Network Ten has been caught “lying to viewers with fake fan reviews” of the show, according to TV Blackbox.
In an effort to up the ratings, Channel Ten released a promo featuring positive Tweets from fans, but many of these seemed largely out of context.
The Tweets shared by Network Ten were a huge exaggeration of the original message.
WATCH: Saturday Night Rove kicks off with brutal swipe at Karl Stefanovic
“Amazing… FUNNY !,” one Tweet from user @RVenusaur read in the advert.
In reality, the user had Tweeted: “#SaturdayNightRove Soo I kinda liked it, it’s not amazing but it’s funny and can we get some musical performances please?”
In another tweet, the Network paraphrased a tweet from @TdwhiteWhite by writing, “ROVE! Fantastic to have you back!!”
The viewer had actually posted: “Rove, it’s fantastic to have you back but you need to listen to your loyal fans and change the format [of the show] please.”
Channel 10 denied this was done deliberately in the following statement to TV Blackbox:
“The inclusion of these tweets was human error. We have updated our processes to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Rove was hit with disappointing news last week when Saturday Night Rove was largely criticized for its mature content.
Dubbed “crude and unfunny,” the Daily Mail confirmed that the program drew just 244,000 viewers in five capital cities and a national audience of 352,000.
Furthermore, 330,000 metro viewers reportedly preferred to watch a rerun of 1993 film Mrs Doubtfire on Channel Seven instead of Saturday Night Rove on Channel 10.
Despite having a tough crowd, Saturday Night Rove has still upped its average audience numbers by 23 per cent since its Pilot episode.
In related news, Rove will also be hosting Celebrity Name Game – a decision that came after Grant Denyer confirmed that he would not be hosting the show until further notice.
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