Digital Spy reports that Rove and wife actress Tasma Walton have bought a $1.2 million Los Angeles mansion with hopes of expanding their careers in the United States.

Rove who has appeared three times on E!’s Chelsea Lately has reportedly had talks with host Chelsea Handler for a permanent hosting gig.

The Australian chatshow host, who married actress Walton in a private ceremony last June, bought the $1.2 million property just outside Los Angeles to help the couple build successful international careers.

Talking about the country retreat style setting of their new home, Walton told Woman’s Day magazine: “It’s important because the world is so frenetic. I love bushwalking, and Rove’s a twitcher, so I’ve started enjoying bird-spotting, too.”

She added: “More and more, the idea of having a child appeals. And it hasn’t always been that way.”

You can see photos and the full story at the Woman’s Day website.

The ratings are in for ‘The Bounce’ which screened last night at 7.30pm on Seven in the AFL states (Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia). It scored 546,000 viewers across those three states, besting ‘The AFL Footy Show’ which had 437,000 viewers.

The Herald Sun also gave it a review following its premiere:

PETER Helliar channeled his inner Rove McManus for the debut episode of Channel 7’s new footy show, The Bounce, tonight.

The structure of The Bounce was nearly a carbon copy of McManus’s Sunday night entertainment show Rove, which ended last year.

A clearly nervous Helliar stumbled early with a too-fast opening monologue that was straight out of Rove. Later gags felt as if they were lifted from Helliar’s Pete Space segment on Rove.

A challenge for Helliar on The Bounce was always going to be doing the meat-and-potatoes hosting duties as well as being funny. It’s a dual role that undid super-talented comedian Mick Molloy on The Nation.

Tonight it wasn’t quite there but it was the first show and it will definitely get better. Peter Helliar just needs to relax.

Hamish & Andy have reportedly kicked in $1000 to C31 following yesterdays story from Crikey and reported here.

Hamish and Andy dig deep for Channel 31, kind of. Crikey’s story yesterday highlighting struggling Melbourne community TV station Channel 31’s desperate plight produced instant results, with Austereo comedy duo Hamish Blake and Andy Lee kicking in $1,000 for their alma mater shortly after our story went live. But that’s where it ended — sadly, no response has been received from C31’s other glittering graduates, including Rove McManus, Peter Helliar and Corinne Grant. McManus’ manager Kevin Whyte told Crikey that an email received yesterday morning was “the first we’d heard” of the subscriberthon and that he was happy to take out a basic subscription for himself, pending a response from Rove.

C31 Melbourne was the training ground for Rove McManus, Peter Helliar and Corrine Grant as well as Hamish & Andy, and is now asking for donations in their bid to switch to Digital broadcasting to secure their future and have claimed that the past stars of the channel aren’t helping them.

Channel 31 has been hit hard by the Federal Government’s mandated switch to digital television and the need to upgrade its studio facilities. Without an immediate cash injection the station could be forced to stick with its second-rate analogue signal, which is being switched off around Australia.

For years, Channel 31 has served as an incubator for talent that has then been poached by commercial networks keen to exploit the youth advertising market, with megastars Rove McManus, Corinne Grant and Peter Helliar all making the jump to the big league.

The question is should the past stars be expected to finanically help the station? Feel free to leave your comments below.

Also an interesting tid-bid from the Crikey story…

Speculation has been swirling for months that Rove will soon stitch up a lucrative Los Angeles-based chat show deal following high-profile appearances last year on the Jay Leno Show.

Rove will be on the Chelsea Lately panel for the 2nd time (3rd appearance on the show) Wednesday, March 17th at 11pm on E! in the U.S. It will most likely air Friday at 10.30pm AEDST on E! Australia. Check your guides.

Updated with video:

Peter Helliar’s new AFL Show on Seven “The Bounce” will premiere 7.30pm Wednesday March 24th in the AFL states (VIC, S.A. and W.A.) and will air in NRL states 12.30am Thursday (Wednesday Night).

Join Peter Helliar, Matthew Richardson and Leigh Matthews in this fun, family footy show that will entertain AFL fans around the country. Each week, there’ll be a look at the full teams for the weekend’s matches as well as other hot footy news, guests, stunts and gags, plus live crosses to wherever the pre-round action is happening.