Barnsey gives Denton’s ‘Interview’ its highest ratings of the year

Aussie music royalty Jimmy Barnes gave a no-holds-barred look back on his life on Andrew Denton’s Interview.

Barnes joined the show on Tuesday, May 28, and opened up on his problems with substance abuse, masculinity and friendship.

The episode gained 458,000 metro viewers for Seven (up on last weeks 413,000), performing strongest in Melbourne with 165,000. Nationally it picked up 718,000 viewers, which will rise higher taking into account catchup and on-demand viewers.

The show was 16th for the night and 8th of all non-news and current affairs programs.

There are even more tuning on on the Interview podcast, which has proven extremely popular, rising to #1 on iTunes in its first week.

Jimmy spoke about his relationship with masculinity and went deep into his substance use, and was also joined in part by his revealed that during the height of his substance abuse, on the day before his performance at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

“It wasn’t because I was not paying respects to the show, I was just hoping I could get through it.”

(CW: Self-harm). Looking back at his decades of substance abuse, @jimmybarnes now considers it one "long drawn out suicide attempt." #InterviewAU pic.twitter.com/wisQlj9T8k

— Andrew Denton's "Interview" (@InterviewAU) May 28, 2019

The evening’s ratings were led by Nine’s The Voice, which drew 915,000 overnight metro viewers.

It was the top entertainment show of the night, topping the 25—54 and 18—49 demographics and coming second for the 16—39 age group to Masterchef.

Meantime ABC’s The Recording Studio returned to the Top 20 with 322,000 viewers.

Jimmy Barnes takes to the road for his ‘Shutting Down Your Town’ Australian tour this September and October.