According to the promos, Twitter loved Rove’s new show… but TV BLACKBOX can reveal the very tweets used in the promos actually said the exact opposite
Launching a new Saturday night show was never going to be easy and, despite the best wishes from TV fans wanting variety back on television, Saturday Night Rove has struggled in terms of ratings and viewer feedback.
Just 244,000 5 cap city viewers tuned in last week for the premiere episode but the promos for episode two have trumpeted wonderful feedback from viewers who loved the show.
There’s just one problem; most of the tweets used have been taken out of context and misrepresent the real feelings of those viewers.
Take this one;
“ROVE! Fantastic to have you back!!!” would indicate this viewer loves the show BUT when you look at the tweet in full you will see not only has 10 taken creative licence with the use of exclamation marks, but the tweet tells a VERY different story;
Rove it’s fantastic to have you back, but you need to listen to your loyal fans and change the format please
— Trevor White ™ (@TdwhiteWhite) August 25, 2019
So, “ROVE! Fantastic to have you back!!!” was actually “Rove it’s fantastic to have you back, but you need to listen to your loyal fans and change the format please”.
In fact Trevor White was so unhappy with the show he has tweeted his displeasure several times asking for the format to be changed;
Rove your format unfortunately was flat you need to go back to a format that works, it was disappointing
— Trevor White ™ (@TdwhiteWhite) August 24, 2019
@Channel10AU please re think the format for next weeks show, Rove Live worked for 9 years, we all tuned in because we all want to see the Rove we know and love but we didn’t
— Trevor White ™ (@TdwhiteWhite) August 25, 2019
Change the format please NAH to your current format Year to rove live
— Trevor White ™ (@TdwhiteWhite) August 28, 2019
There is absolutely no excuse for misrepresenting this viewers thoughts on the show.
But it gets worse;
“Amazing…FUNNY” screams the graphic but once again 10 did not represent RosieTheVenusaur’s tweet correctly;
#SaturdayNightRove Soo I kinda liked it, it's not amazing but it's funny and can we get some musical performances please?
— RosieTheVenusaur (@RVenusaur) August 24, 2019
How does “Soo I kinda liked it, it’s not amazing but it’s funny and can we get some musical performances please” become “Amazing… FUNNY”?
In all my years as a producer and promo producer I have never seen anything like this (and I made promos for Today Tonight and A Current Affair). To exclude the word “not” and try to sell it off as something else is beyond the pale.
And just like the previous user, this viewer followed up with more criticism of the show, this time regarding the explicit content in a 7.30pm timeslot;
#SaturdayNightRove Also a tad inappropriate for a 7:30-8:30 pm timeslot
— RosieTheVenusaur (@RVenusaur) August 24, 2019
A Network 10 spokesperson told TV Blackbox;
“The inclusion of these tweets was human error. We have updated our processes to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
In fairness to 10 this comes down to the promo producer who decided to put these tweets into the promo and it is possible management didn’t even know the tweets had been misrepresented.
There’s no doubt it was a difficult task finding positive commentary about the show but the person responsible for this deceit had the choice to keep looking or drop the concept completely.
They made a bad choice but let’s hope they learn from the experience.
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There is zero chance a promo producer went rouge & management didn’t know about this. If anything, it was a directive from management. That’s how their approvals process works. Every single promo is reviewed & revised by their management team from concept & base cut to final product.
You are right about all promos going through an approval process but not so sure managers would have gone through and double-checked the tweets were accurate representations. As a former promo producer I can tell you the work was never checked that closely.