Rove flops in US primetime debut

Rove McManus has flopped in his US prime time TV debut.

Americans gave Australia's talk show king a big thumbs down, with his new show, The List, finishing last in its time slot.

McManus has worked hard to break into the lucrative US TV market, but the ratings for The List were so poor it helped drag the network that gambled on airing the show, ABC, into a dismal third place to rivals CBS and NBC on Tuesday night.

The List attracted just 2.9 million viewers.

The show was soundly beaten in the 10pm time slot by a repeat episode of CBS' crime drama, The Mentalist, starring another Aussie Simon Baker.

The Mentalist was the highest watched show on any network on Tuesday with 10.8 million viewers.

McManus' The List was an hour long 2008 retrospective poking fun at celebrities, including Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Paul Hogan, Halle Berry and Paris Hilton, and offering humourous pieces of trivia. It was shot in a studio above New York's Times Square.

ABC gave The List a reasonable chance by programming a reality show, Rediscovered, hosted by Donny and Marie Osmond, the hour before.

Rediscovered scored 4.6 million viewers, but when it ended, almost two million viewers switched their TV's off or changed the channel rather than watch McManus.

 

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