A radio veteran says the collapse of The Kyle and Jackie O show has likely come as a relief for bosses who may have struggled to pay their $200million contract – and reveals why the unlikely duo were never going to last.
KIIS FM’s parent company ARN announced on Tuesday that Jackie ‘O’ Henderson’s $100million contract had been terminated. The pair’s landmark 10-year deal in 2023 remains the biggest media contract in Australian history.
Henderson told executives she ‘cannot continue to work with Mr Kyle Sandilands’ after his harsh on-air comments in late February left her in tears. Sandilands has been suspended and given 14 days to ‘remedy’ the breach, or else faces termination.
Craig Bruce, who was previously program director at 2DayFM during Kyle and Jackie’s reign at the station, shared his thoughts on the clash.
‘For people [who] have worked around the show, most have said they suspected it wouldn’t last the 10-year contract they had signed,’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘They are two very different people. There was a lack of communication happening off the air, and in between songs.’
Bruce added the termination of their 10-year deal with ARN – in which the hosts were reportedly paid $200million in 2023 and earned approximately $47,000 per episode – would come as a relief to company executives.
‘It’s too much for any radio show. The money never, ever made any sense,’ he said.
‘Thank goodness it didn’t last 10 years, because I don’t know who was going to be paying the bill.
‘There’s not going to be that amount of revenue floating around in the radio industry in 10 years from now to pay for a $20-million-a-year show, as they reportedly are.
‘The deal was just all in [Sandilands and Henderson’s] favour. It was a mistake for ARN to present that to them in the first place and I think they would be relieved today.’
The discontent behind the scenes of the show led to a dramatic on-air meltdown that escalated the pair’s personal issues, the radio expert added.
‘The culmination of a bunch of conversations that should have happened behind the scenes? There’s a blow-up on the radio,’ Bruce said.
‘I spoke to Kyle last week. He said, “I’m on the air. The mics are on. I’m realising it’s going south. And I just kept digging”. And that’s what has happened.
‘The conversation – about “Are we working hard enough?” which was essentially Kyle’s question to Jackie, or “Are we focused enough on the product?” – is a fair and reasonable question for a co-host to ask his partner.
‘It shouldn’t have happened on the air but it speaks to the quality of the relationship. There’s obviously some tension that built up and then that 10-minute moment we heard two Fridays ago was clearly one of many.’
The argument in question erupted on The Kyle and Jackie O Show on February 20, after Sandilands, 54, accused Henderson, 51, of being unfocused at work.
Henderson broke down in tears when the pair were discussing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor after Sandilands criticised her decision to analyse the disgraced royal’s birth chart.
He lambasted his co-star, claiming her love for astrology was affecting her work and had been noticed by her colleagues.
When Henderson attempted to defend herself and accused him of launching an attack on her, he stated he was only stating the ‘facts’.
An emotional Henderson said she was deeply ‘offended’ by his brutal comments during the clash.
She has been absent from the show since, taking a leave of absence with the expectation she would return on Tuesday.
But on Tuesday evening, it was announced Henderson’s contract had been officially terminated and that ARN has offered her the possibility of an alternative show.
Sandilands, meanwhile, effectively has two weeks to fight for his job. He has been suspended and given 14 days to ‘remedy’ the breach, or else faces termination.
ARN provided written notice to Sandilands stating that it considers his behaviour during the show on February 20 ‘an act of serious misconduct which is in breach of ARN’s services agreement with Quasar Media’.
Bruce said precautions could have been taken to prevent the split.
‘It doesn’t need to spell the end of a show when those things are going on,’ he said.
‘They should have been talking more. They should have invested more time in their relationship.
‘The thing that audiences notice first is chemistry, and they notice rapport, and they notice when hosts are getting on – and they also notice when that is not happening.’
He suggested audiences had noticed The Kyle & Jackie O Show ‘hasn’t been as good as it once was’ because their relationship hadn’t been protected.
‘And that is okay, lots of relationships break up. They’ve been together for 27 years,’ Bruce said.
‘It’s an amazing run, but that was the remedy, and they didn’t address that many years ago.’
The renowned radio stars first teamed up back in 2000 as co-hosts of the Hot30 Countdown on 2Day FM.
The Kyle and Jackie O Show kicked off on 2Day FM in 2004 and lasted a decade, before the radio duo made the jump to KIIS FM in 2014.