Comic's shock announcement

Australian talk show king Rove McManus has stunned viewers by unexpectedly quitting his show after ten years.

The comedian made the surprise announcement at the start of Sunday night’s show, prompting gasps and cries of ‘no’ from the studio audience.

The episode was due to be the last in the current series, but McManus told the audience it would be the last ever.

He said: ‘I’m sorry. This is purely my decision, it’s not one I’ve made lightly, or flippantly or easily, but I think the timing is right. I need to stop, take a step back and see what happens next.

‘It is very short notice, I do realise that. But it's only a decision that I came up with very recently. And to be honest I didn't want a whole lot of fuss going into tonight

The 35-year-old added that he wanted to quit on a high, while it was still his still his decision to stop.

Shot in Melbourne, his show attracted about 800,000 viewers a week, and gave many international comedians their first major Australian TV exposure when they arrived in town for the annual comedy festival. McManus performed his own stand-up show at the 2008 festival – read Chortle’s review here.

Rove won an Australian Logie award for Most Popular Light Entertainment Programme five times.

Here is his on-air announcement:

Published: 16 Nov 2009