Kyle Sandilands has given an update on the status of hit radio show amid his falling out with co-host Jackie “O” Henderson. And he insists it is “not over”.
On February 27, Kyle, 54, returned to the airwaves of KIIS FM’s The Kyle and Jackie O Show. This followed a no-show by both hosts the previous day.
The TV and radio personality – who explained he’d taken a sick day on Thursday after being up all night with unwell son Otto, three – insisted he hadn’t “vanished” as rumours over the future of the embattled show swirl.
“I haven’t vanished, everyone,” he told listeners. “According to the newspapers, The Kyle and Jackie O Show was over, and I vanished.
“It just goes to show you can never believe what you read in any of the newspapers. I feel they may have had their phones cut off – no-one even rang to check.”
Why are Kyle and Jackie O feuding?
Following a particularly nasty exchange with her long-time friend and co-host on February 20, Jackie has taken a leave of absence from the show.
While it is expected that she will return on Monday, March 2, no fixed date has been set.
Kyle called Jackie, 51, out for being “almost unworkable” due to what he deemed a “fixation” on astrology.
“You’ve had your head looking into the stars… It’s too much. It’s affecting everything else. You’re too fixated on it,” Kyle declared.
He claimed Jackie was often “off with the fairies”, oblivious to what was going on on the show. And apparently, he wasn’t the first to point it out. Jackie adamantly denied any such thing.
“You don’t know what the f*** is going on all the time, because you’re looking at that phone, playing in the stars, and it’s ridiculous,” Kyle insisted.
“That is so unfair, I have been in here doing the segment totally fine and normal,” a clearly upset Jackie argued.
With Jackie taking some time to “gather her thoughts” in the wake of their argument, Kyle has been presenting the show solo for the week, with the help of producers.
Is Kyle and Jackie O’s feud a publicity stunt?
On February 25, Kyle told listeners he felt bad for hurting Jackie’s feelings and regretted their exchange. He further denied that the spat was a “publicity stunt”.
According to insiders, however, all might not be as it seems. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the timing points to a calculated stunt.
“You really need to look at the timing of all of this,” a former breakfast radio producer told the publication.
“It’s the last week of the current radio ratings survey period – and when Jackie returns on Monday [as expected], it’ll be the start of a new survey period.”
Another radio veteran added that with eight surveys a year, it’s imperative to be front of mind in the public at the end of a survey period.
This is due to the fact that many people fill them out at the last minute rather than daily during the survey period. It’s common knowledge within radio stations, they add.
“And one way to do that is to generate publicity at the end of the survey period,” they explained.
With the current survey period ending on February 27 and the next one kicking off on March 2, the fight speaks volumes to those in the know.
“Everyone knows Kyle and Jackie are the masters of creating their own drama,” the industry vet said.
“But people [working in commercial radio] are genuinely divided about whether Jackie was doing her best acting or whether she was genuinely upset. I’d say that opinion is split 50/50 on this one.”
Of course, the pair recently signed a new 10-year contract allegedly worth a whopping $200 million. Thus, it’s doubtful that Jackie won’t return to the show that made her a household name.
Still, as one radio producer notes, “It’ll be a big job to turn all of this around. How they do that is anybody’s guess.”
