Are we all being played by Kyle and Jackie O?

Here we go again: another round of headlines about Kyle Sandilands and Jackie “O” Henderson. But are we being played by Australia’s most controversy hungry radio hosts?

Consider the timing of the pair’s on-air fight last Friday, which resulted in Henderson reportedly taking a week off from their KIIS FM breakfast program to “gather her thoughts”. The trigger for this clash was, of all things, a discussion about astrology, prompting Sandilands to question the work ethic of his co-host.

“You’re off with the fairies, you are unfocused, you don’t give a shit … everyone in this building has mentioned it to me,” Sandilands said in response to Henderson dissecting the “birth chart” of the disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew.

Thanks to the blaze of publicity this generated, we know what happened next: the segment devolved into an ugly fight, with a tearful Henderson stepping away from the show for the rest of this week. (KIIS is yet to confirm her return date, or to comment publicly.)

“But you really need to look at the timing of all of this,” says one former breakfast radio producer. “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.”

“If this really is a publicity stunt, it could backfire.”

Former breakfast radio producer

Why is this relevant? It all comes down to how radio ratings work. Each year, there are eight surveys in which participants record which programs they’ve listened to through a variety of platforms, including paper and electronic diaries.

“Although people are meant to be filling out their diaries every day, a lot of them get busy or just forget, so they end up completing them in batches or just doing it all at the end of the survey,” explains one FM radio veteran. “Radio stations know this, so they want their programs to be front and centre in people’s minds during this time – and one way to do that is to generate publicity at the end of the survey period.” (It’s important to note that ratings provider GfK is shifting towards platforms that allow respondents to effortlessly record their radio listening in real time, including live-streamed data and microphone-equipped smartwatches that capture “encrypted anonymised information”.)

It just so happens that the end of the current survey period is this week – the same week that began with Sandilands revealing that Henderson was taking a break from their program, sparking a media storm. And if Henderson does return to work on Monday, it will coincide with the start of a new survey period – helping put their Kyle and Jackie O program at the forefront of survey participants’ minds.

Meanwhile, the vacuum created by Henderson’s absence this week is already being filled by a welter of tabloid reports, ranging from Sandilands “breaking his silence” on Tuesday morning’s show (“She’ll be gone for the week, I’m told … I’m looking forward to her return”) to Henderson being trailed by paparazzi while visiting a pharmacy (“The 50-year-old picked up a bottle of Hydralyte, an electrolyte drink used to treat dehydration”).

Yet many in the industry are conflicted about whether this bust-up is just another confected outrage – or a real argument that got out of hand.

“Everyone knows Kyle and Jackie are the masters of creating their own drama,” says the industry veteran. “But people [who work 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.”

This is borne out by comments on industry website Radio Today. “This reeks of a desperate attempt to get PR, [it’s] totally staged,” one observer stated. “Sounds real to me … Kyle was being honest about his feelings,” argued another.

It’s fair to assume that Sandilands and Henderson are under enormous strain. Many reports claim they’re being paid $200 million between them as part of a 10-year contract. Whatever the real figure is, it’s causing all kinds of problems for parent company Australian Radio Network, which is yet to reap the kind of ratings (and revenue) that would justify such a colossal investment.

In Sydney, where The Kyle & Jackie O Show dominates the FM breakfast market, the pair ended 2025 with 12.7 per cent of the available audience, although they’re still behind 2GB’s Ben Fordham. But in Melbourne, they sank to a new low of 5 per cent, placing them in eighth position overall. Adding to their woes is the fact that Lauren Phillips and Jase Hawkins, who were dumped by KIIS Melbourne at the end of 2023 to make way for Kyle & Jackie O, were scooped up by Nova, where they ended the year with an 8.8 per cent audience share. (The first ratings survey of 2026 will be released in mid-March.)

“If this really is a publicity stunt, it could backfire,” says the former radio producer. “The problem is that in Sydney, Kyle and Jackie are huge out in Parramatta and Penrith and those outer western suburbs, where – without over-generalising – audiences are not as turned off by content [some people perceive as] misogynistic.

“But in Melbourne, the demographics are very different – they’re not the audiences that Fox or Nova are chasing. Melbourne wants to hear about AFL and the latest CFMEU [scandals]. Kyle and Jackie just aren’t making any inroads there; it seems Melbourne has made up its mind about them.”

Making matters worse are ongoing campaigns by activist groups such as Mad F—ing Witches, which relentlessly urge sponsors to boycott the program – making it even harder for KIIS to generate the level of advertising revenue that would warrant Sandilands’ and Hendersons’ eye-watering salaries.

“Perhaps the most generous thing I can say is that it’ll be a big job to turn all of this around,” says another radio producer. “How they do that is anybody’s guess.”

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.