Rove To Take Over From Conan O’Brien?

This morning we awoke, weak and weary from a vicious two-day battle with the dreaded lurgy (some virulent strain of cat AIDS, we think), and returned to our regular pre-dancing with death morning schedule of checking the newspapers online.

We know we’ve been pretty much out of it for two days - an eternity in pop cultural time - but this report stating that Rove McManus is a top candidate to replace Conan O’Brien in the States doesn’t really seem feasible to anyone else, does it? Surely this is the work of a fiction-happy publicist over at Roving Enterprise, and not actually a possibility? We are rubbing our eyes with disbelief!

Rove McManus has put his hat in the ring to become a US talk-show host by signing with American talent agency UTA.

The signing by the triple Gold Logie winner and Network Ten host comes less than two months after he made his US talk-show debut as a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Now he is likely to be a contender to replace talk-show host Conan O’Brien in two years.

Recycling Conan schtick such as the “photo of famous person with moving mouth and quips provided by amusing person” (we can’t recall the official name of the segment so this’ll have to do) is one thing, but stepping into Conan’s awfully hilarious and gigantic boots? Rove is, admittedly, much funnier now than he has been in years - but enough to replace CONAN MOTHERFUCKING O’BRIEN?

Rove, you have two years to get your shit together.