Problems keep mounting for the formerly Teflon star Kyle Sandilands, after the activist group Mad F—ing Witches set its sights on the Seven Network’s advertisers in a push to get the polarising personality dumped from his lucrative judging gig on Australian Idol.
As Idol heads into its two-part grand final on Monday and Tuesday, MFW has mobilised its brethren throughout this season of the show to lobby advertisers to abandon the program, with the aim of getting Sandilands removed as a judge in 2027.
The powerful advertiser boycott group caused havoc for ARN when it targeted advertisers on Sandilands’ KIIS breakfast show. Now it’s using the same tactics against Seven and Idol to ratchet up pressure on the network as the show reaches its conclusion.
With Sandilands gone from the airwaves – for now, at least – the witches want him gone from TV as well, where he presents a much more cuddly persona than on his radio show.
Idol has long provided Sandilands with a decent pay cheque, one he would no doubt like to hang on to after his mega-deal with ARN was torn up in March, even if only to help pay off his four mortgages. Sandilands is now suing ARN in the Federal Court for $85 million.
During an interview in January, Sandilands spoke candidly about his TV deal, which he claimed was worth $1 million a year and has historically been renewed on one-year terms. He said the contract has been worth the same every year he has been on the show.
“I thought they would say, ‘No way’, and then they said, ‘Yes’, all these years ago,” Sandilands said of his fee back in January. “I like to say I have never even had a pay rise … That is pretty good of me. It is very good money.
“I said to Marcia [Hines, his Idol co-judge] a few weeks ago, ‘I have never had a pay rise’, and she said, ‘You have been paid more than you deserve for decades’. I can’t argue with that.”
Sandilands has been on Idol for nine seasons; five when it was on Network Ten and four on Seven. But a Seven spokesperson would not be drawn on whether Sandilands would remain on the show next year.
“With the grand finale not even out the door yet, we haven’t locked our plans for Australian Idol for 2027. We are very happy with how the season and our judges have performed,” the spokesperson said in response to our question.
In recent years MFW has become a key agitator in pressuring broadcasters to part ways with talent. Just ask former Triple M radio host Marty Sheargold, who departed the network’s Melbourne breakfast show in February 2025 following outrage over his disparaging comments about the performance of the Matildas, Australia’s national women’s soccer team, and also endometriosis.
As public uproar over his comments grew, MFW started contacting advertisers on Sheargold’s show.
“That started to trickle through to me that there were some issues around a couple of key clients and that that was when I knew I was in deep, deep water,” Sheargold told the Game Changers Radio podcast in a recent interview.
“Then I spoke with Dave Cameron [then Southern Cross Austereo’s chief content officer] and he said, ‘Listen, I am going to the board to find out what they want to do. What do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘Why don’t we go our separate ways?’ I said, ‘Mate, I don’t need to know what the board want to do. I don’t need to hear from the CEO.’ And he said, ‘Well, all right, we will agree to go our separate ways’.”
Triple M is owned by Southern Cross Austereo, which became the new owner of Seven this year.
Ben Roberts-Smith saga inspires taxpayer-backed series
The story of Ben Roberts-Smith’s downfall from one of Australia’s most decorated – and, for a period, most celebrated – soldiers to facing five counts of war crime – murder was always going to be a tantalising one for screenwriters. We just didn’t expect it to inspire a project so soon.
The story of the disgraced soldier appears to have inspired a new five-part series titled The Big Soldier, which has secured funding from Screen Australia. In an April funding announcement Screen Australia does not name Roberts-Smith as a subject of the series, and it’s unclear how closely it will mirror real-life events. But the synopsis sure does sound familiar.
“When Australia’s most decorated living soldier brings a defamation case against a journalist, another battle is unleashed, one without bombs, bullets or Blackhawks; careers are ruined, reputations trashed, and the lives of many, including a young Afghan woman, are sent hurtling in unexpected directions, as the truth is eventually revealed,” the synopsis reads.
A spokeswoman for Screen Australia declined to answer questions related to the project, deferring to its creative team, which includes writer-director Paul Goldman. Others with writing credits on the project include Phillip Gwynne, Malcolm Knox and Amal Awad. Goldman didn’t respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.
Fiona Byrne is the CBD columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.