After a series of setbacks, Channel Seven desperately needs saving.

The network’s recent, admittedly valiant, attempts at new shows – Cannonball, Australian Spartan, Hell’s Kitchen – have flopped.

Then came a huge blow in March when Seven lost the broadcasting rights to the Australian Open, typically one of its biggest ratings winners, to Channel Nine.

All that’s left now is a very drawn-out My Kitchen Rules season nine, which failed to hold a candle to the ratings of Nine’s Married at First Sight, and a hopeful host of risky new prospects.

One person who could be the hero Seven needs – and deserves – is Andrew Denton, revered interviewer and former ABC star who has returned to the network after more than 20 years to host a new talk show, simply titled Interview (premiering on Tuesday, April 17 at 9pm).

Much like the beloved Enough Rope, which saw Denton reduce his celebrity guests to mush with his gently probing questions, Interview is a return to the art of proper conversation.

“The times we’re in now, they’re so volatile and everyone is dying to take offence at every moment,” Denton tells the New Daily. 

“I guess it’s almost an experiment to see whether it’s possible to have a quieter, less judgemental conversation in a time which is not quiet and is highly judgemental.”

Really, Denton is seeking to fill a hole long left gaping in Australian television.

While the Brits have Graham Norton, Alan Carr and, previously, Michael Parkinson, and the Americans have plenty of late-night hosts, Australian audiences are notably lacking a figure able to entertain and ask the tough questions at the same time.

Sydney-based Denton, 57, who is father to one teenage son, Connor, with his wife of 14 years, ABC host Jennifer Byrne, admitted he’s taken long timeouts in his career because he finds television “challenging” thanks to the long hours and constant scrutiny.

Fully recovered from the bypass surgery he underwent last year for advanced heart disease (he jokes he is now “heart attack proof”), Denton is keen to get back to interviewing a mix of high-profile guests and lesser-known people with a story to tell.

Bill Murray has been approached and a celebrity comedian and legendary rockstar are also likely to feature in the first few episodes.

Andrew Denton was forced to withdraw from his pro-euthanasia campaigning last year to undergo heart bypass surgery. Photo: Channel Seven

Politicians are unlikely to be approached given they rarely stray off script. Denton would make an exception for Barack Obama and Donald Trump, but reveals his bucket list guest is Rupert Murdoch.

What he doesn’t want is contrived performances from highly media-trained celebrities with nothing more to say than the release date of their next film.

“In the final year of Enough Rope there was one guest in particular, I won’t say who, that [I found out later] had actually rehearsed her appearance,” he recalls, unimpressed.

Denton isn’t the only familiar face Seven has poached from a public broadcaster to increase its industry cred in 2018.

RockWiz host and SBS Eurovision regular Julia Zemiro will soon kick off her hosting gig on All Together Now, a reality talent show that places hopeful singers in front of a judging panel of 100 music industry professionals.

There’s also the Dannii Minogue-led Dance Boss, dating series double act Take Me Out and Back with the Ex, and The Mentor, which drops entrepreneur Mark Bouris in the middle of struggling businesses to overhaul them.

But really, it’s Denton who is the most intriguing prospect amid the onslaught of reality formats.

And if anyone is aware of the pressure to succeed in a climate where sport and reality are the only real winners, it’s him. More than a few times at the show’s media launch he jokes about failing.

“It’s a bold experiment,” Denton admits of Interview. “If things aren’t working we’re obviously going to bring a whole lot of cooking and renovating into episode three.

“By episode four, Pete Evans will be hosting.”

The writer was flown to Sydney by Channel Seven.