Rove Review

In my opinion, Rove had a fantastic 2007. His move to Sundays proved a success, with the show regularly getting around the 1m mark. There were new segments and new faces and it put the show in a class above the previous Rove Live years. It was really funny and it seemed that they had achieved the right mix between written material and banter between Rove, "the gang" and the guests.

This is why when I found out that Rove would be making a few changes to this year's show, I was a bit suprised, but I was optimistic. Surely the show could only get bigger and better... but I was somewhat disappointed.

The first difference noticed were the opening credits. They were 10 times flashier and slicker than the last years. Mind, I had no problem with this, but I didn't see the necessity for them to be changed last year.

Rove's opening monologue was more or less the same- it was still quite funny, but this isn't what I had a problem with. Then it was time for "Carrie at the Newsdesk", also with flashier graphics. I don't know whether you were supposed to see Carrie sneak in from backstage or not but I suggest this should be cleaned up a tad, to match with everything else new and flashy, this looked messy in comparison. And whule the "News" was still funny, there was no banter between Carrie and Rove like there was last year. It used to relax things a bit and it could be quite funny. I don't know who decided that Carrie wasn't funny enough but I suggest they bring back the banter. Pete Helliar was funny as usual, not much different to his segment, which was good, Petespace is perfectly suited to him.

Ross Noble was funny and quirky as always and Rove's interview with Jodie Foster was OK, but those pre-recorded interviews are never as good as the live ones.

Hamish and Andy were also quite funny, but they deserve more time for their segment, and Hamish Blake needs more opportunity to do what he does best... be funny.

Dave Hughes' segment was quite good. It was better than last year's Hughesy loses it, which got quite tired- Hughesy probably did too. This was one of the only actual improvements to the show.

The main problem I had with the show was the amount of written material it now has. They have cut down the amount of banter to almost nothing to allow for more stuff like the Kevin Rudd sketch and I Love... at the end of the show. And while these segments were not exactly unfunny, it restricted the gang so much that they couldn't relax and Hamish or Pete couldn't come out with any spontaneous "winners".

The other problem I had was why they had to switch around the set. For a person like me, who had watched the show last year, the position of the couch which was switched to the other side, it seriously messed with my head. I don't know whether it was because Rove wanted the set to look more like Letterman's or not but it now does.

Nevertheless, Rove is still one of the funniest shows on TV and I hope that they realise that it thrives on spontaneous jokes and banter.