Kyle and Jackie O lose listeners in final ratings survey

The Kyle and Jackie O Show’s final radio ratings survey ended with a whimper, losing listeners in Sydney, while the now “terminated” duo finished their two-year stint in Melbourne in eighth place.

The first radio ratings survey result of the year was released on Thursday morning, covering a period of time that for the majority of, the duo remained on air together before their blow up. But Jackie “O” Henderson’s one week off-air at the end of the survey period appears to have impacted the show’s total audience.

The share result for the duo that have dominated the Sydney market for two decades was unchanged from the final result of 2025, a 12.7 per cent share, four percentage points behind market leader Ben Fordham from Nine-owned 2GB.

But their cumulative audience took a hit, losing 60,000 listeners, ending on 636,000. Both breakfast shows on Nova and Smooth FM had more cumulative listeners across the period.

In Melbourne, however, the show had a very marginal 0.1 percentage point boost, rising to 5.1 per cent, yet it remained in eighth place in the slot. Cumulative listeners across the period were unchanged on 403,000 compared to the previous survey.

The first radio ratings period covered January 18 to February 28. Henderson left the show after she was berated by her co-star on air on February 20, leaving Sandilands to broadcast the show alone the following week, the final one of the survey period.

On Wednesday, Sandilands’ contract was terminated by KIIS-owner ARN after a 14-day suspension period set for the radio star to “remedy” his alleged act of serious misconduct and contractual breach.

Henderson’s own contract was torn up two weeks prior after her representatives had told the company she could no longer work with Sandilands.

Since launching into Melbourne, the show has lost KIIS more than 220,000 listeners at breakfast time, equivalent to 36 per cent of its audience. Less talked about, however, is their performance in Sydney. This result marks an audience loss of 215,000 listeners, or 25 per cent, compared to the same survey result two years ago. Even worse for ARN, the launch of Christian O’Connell on Gold in Sydney has bombed, dropping from a 9.7 per cent share to a 6.1 per cent share.

More to come

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