Will ‘The Voice Australia’ finally create a bonafide star this year?

Industry buzz suggests the latest season of The Voice Australia could actually create a bonafide star – even if it’s someone returning from past years to have a second bite at the cherry.

The contestants have been of a high standard, the coaches’ chairs have been swivelling, which is why the Nine Network show is powering up in the ratings.

After reaching a season-high on Sunday (June 2), Monday night’s show reeled in 1.008 million overnight metro viewers.

The show is still #1 with the 25—54 and 18—49 demographics, which would see its advertisers push the glee button.

But it was #3 with the 16—39 age group, behind 10’s Have You Been Paying Attention (Monday’s viewing audience: 707,000) and Masterchef (681,000).

With the biopic building up interest in Elton John, Nine had another hit with the back-t-back hits Brit Icon: Elton John, which drew 410,000 and put it at #20.

The ABC’s Q&A looked like it was plucked out of a Jimmy Barnes songbook, looking at the heartland doing tough, and reaching 382,000 viewers.

Appropriately, Barnes was on the show, and in good form.

He interrupted when the politicians on the panel were spouting clichés or trying to score points off each other about what went wrong at the federal elections.

They should, he emphasised, think about what they could actually do to help frantic working-class parents feed their children.

Talking about the behaviour of the major parties during the elections, he snapped, “The scare tactics have been brutal. I think it is dishonest. I think it’s uncool.”

With that spray, and possibly the last chance we’ll hear the word “uncool” uttered on Q&A, he and Troy Cassar-Daley did ‘Shutting Down Our Town’, about the effect of Barnesy’s former hometown Elizabeth, South Australia, after the Holden plant got closed.