Rove McManus’ show, Saturday Night Rove has been axed after just two episodes.
A Network 10 spokesperson told TV Tonight, “Unfortunately Saturday Night Rove hasn’t resonated with viewers the way we had hoped, so Rove and 10 have made the decision to remove it from the schedule. Rove is a sensational entertainer and a close friend of 10, and we thank him for all his hard work, and all the laughs, on Saturday Night Rove.”
Speaking to the publication, Rove said: “It was clear looking at the numbers that the audience we hoped would find a freewheeling live show on a Saturday night just weren’t there. We spoke with 10 today and we both called it.
“The opportunity to play live in front of Australia again was fun, no matter how brief, and I would like to thank my amazing co-stars, the behind the scenes team and everyone at 10 who got behind Saturday Night Rove.”
WATCH: Saturday Night Rove kicks off first episode with BRUTAL swipe at Karl Stefanovic
Prior to the airing of the pilot episode, Rove appeared to be aware of the challenges before him.
“Finding a way of getting people’s attention is the big one — there are so many options for an audience now,” he told Hit TV.
“But not only is the audience fractured, within each household the audience is fractured. You could have each individual member of the house watching their individual program on a laptop or a tablet or a phone. So how do you get everyone in a household together to watch something?”
The news comes after Network Ten was 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.
“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?”
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.”
However, it appears to be a moot point with the cancellation of Saturday Night Rove.
Its axing comes as no surprise as it 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 during the pilot episode.
By the second episode, the ratings had dropped to a dismal 138 000 metro viewers.
Channel 10 has not yet announced a replacement for Saturday Night Rove.
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