Rove makes US prime time TV debut

The chirpy Australian comic has been sniffing around the US the past 12 months for a talk show or regular TV gig and the debut of The List is viewed as a stepping stone to that.

The List involves McManus sitting behind a desk, and before a live audience, rattling off lists including "Most Important", "Most Provocative" and "Funniest" stories of 2008.

McManus also managed to include fellow Aussie Nicole Kidman.

The Oscar winner's new bub, Sunday Rose, was named the fifth weirdest celebrity baby name of the year.

Halle Berry's daughter Nahla was fourth, Gillian Anderson's son Felix was third (because his older brother was named Oscar - the two characters from the TV and Broadway show The Odd Couple) and second on the list was Gwen Stefani's son, Zuma Nestor Rock.

McManus scored plenty of laughs when he announced the weirdest Hollywood baby name for 2008 was Jack Black's son, Thomas.

"A normal celebrity baby name?" McManus asked his audience.

"How absurd is that?

"In a world of Apples and Shilohs, how will Thomas ever live down the pure unadulterated normalness of his name?"

The List faces a tough battle for ratings, with the show going up against the hottest new series in the US, The Mentalist, starring Australian actor Simon Baker, on the CBS network and the tried and tested crime series on NBC, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

McManus has a healthy bank balance thanks to his Australian TV talk show and production company, but if he manages to score a regular job in the US, he will hit the jackpot.

America's top two talk show hosts, Jay Leno and David Letterman, earn around $US30 million ($A44 million) a year.

Leno has taken McManus under his wing, inviting the Aussie on to his LA-based talk show three times in the past 18 months.

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