Veteran media analyst Peter Cox says that while expectations for the Saturday night show would have been low,its second-week crash forced 10's hand.
"Saturday night is the lowest rating night of the week for free-to-air,always has been. That's why[networks] don't want to spend too much time or money on it – they show old movies,overseas dramas,"says Cox.
"The killer on this one was the drop between the first and second weeks. On the 244,000 figure,they may have made the decision,'Well,let's see if we can build it up',but when it crashed down after the first week you're just left with'Wow'."
The show's quick demise marks another on-air misstep for McManus,who – despite producing a number of successful hits for 10 with his company Roving Enterprises,includingThe Project,AFL talk showBefore the Game,and various specials for Hamish Blake and Andy Lee – has struggled to reignite the Gold Logie-winning status he experienced over 10 years ago,before popular showRove aired its last episode in 2009.
Hosting roles on 10'sShow Me the Movie! and the ABC's nicheDoctor Who tie-inWhovians have been largely unmemorable – proving a decade can be a lifetime in television,says Cox.
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"What I don't understand about a couple of people on television – he's one,Andrew Denton's another – is that they seem to be a protected species. They do shows that don't work,come back and do another one,"he says.
"Rove is sort of a favoured son at 10,and gets given these opportunities... It's totally beyond me."
The show's struggles also suggest another death-knell to the prospect of live,variety-style programs on Australian TV,after 10's other offering –Sunday Night Takeaway,with Julia Morris and Chris Brown –similarly flopped earlier this year.
"In America,those kinds of late-night shows run at midnight. If you ran them at midnight here,you wouldn't have a man or a dog watching them,"says Cox,recalling the genre's heyday in the'70s and'80s with Graham Kennedy and Don Lane.
"Television's changed,viewing habits have changed,and since 2000 ratings have been on the slide across the board. You can't give away a drama on TV at the moment,and it's the same with these general entertainment shows,"he says.
"The TV-viewing audience is not only falling in total,but it's increasingly splintered. You need a pretty good driver to overcome that,and obviously Rove is not."