The Loft Live

The Loft Live
Directed by	Arnold Norris
Presented by	Rove McManus
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of seasons	8
Production
Executive producer	Marc Morel
Producers	Amber Kane, Rove McManus, Tim Wood, Kim Hope
Production locations	RMIT University Melbourne, Australia
Running time	Approx. 60 min. (Including Commercials)
Production company	RMITV (Student Community Television Inc.)
Original release
Network	C31 Melbourne
Release	1997 (1997) – 2000 (2000)

The Loft Live was a weekly live variety hour television program produced by RMITV that broadcast on C31 Melbourne. The cast included Rove McManus (1997–1999), Scott Brennan, Peter Helliar, Adam Richard, Myf Warhurst, Ged Wood, Bert Kennedy, Kim Hope, Matilda Donaldson, Bernie Carr, and special reporters. Like its predecessor Under Melbourne Tonight, The Loft Live provided a platform for up-and-coming talent to get airtime; it gained a following between 50,000 and 100,000 viewers a week.

Guests

Guests on the show included Larry Emdur, Livinia Nixon, John Brumby, Nadine Garner, Judith Lucy Jeremy Sims, Neville Stonehouse, Dylan Lewis, Francis Leach, John Safran, Edwin Maher.

Cast

Presenter	Role	Tenure
Rove McManus	Host
Ged Wood	Host
Kim Hope	Host
Peter Helliar	Supporting cast
Scott Brennan	Supporting cast
Adam Richard	Supporting cast
Myf Warhurst	Supporting cast
Bert Kennedy	Supporting cast
Matilda Donaldson	Supporting cast
Bernie Carr	Supporting cast

John Safran

In 2004, the first episode of John Safran vs God featured footage from The Loft Live. Episode 1 follows the plot that John Safran had appeared on The Loft Live with Rove McManus in 1997 after gaining popularity on the ABC TV show Race Around the World. After the taping of the episode of The Loft, Rove promised Safran that "If I ever can do anything for you ever, just ask". Five years later, in 2002, Safran's career had taken a beating after termination of his pilot commissioned by the ABC for an altercation he had with Ray Martin during the filming John Safran: Media Tycoon. By this stage, McManus was already at the top of Australian TV, routinely attracting more than a million viewers per episode on Rove Live. Wanting to gain publicity for his new SBS show John Safran's Music Jamboree, according to Safran, the SBS publicist had tentatively booked him in as a guest on Rove Live. However, before the taping of Rove Live, American singer P!nk replaced Safran as the guest. In 2004, in response to the perceived snub, Safran took a trip to the UK to jokingly get a fatwa put upon Rove by Omar Bakri Muhammad. The fatwa was later taken off when Omar Bakri was told by Safran that the pictures showing McManus mocking Islam were falsified. Safran later appeared on Rove in 2009 and thanked McManus for having him on despite the fatwa incident.