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Kyle Sandilands must reconcile with his professional partner of 27 years, Jackie “O” Henderson, and convince her to come back on air within two weeks to avoid having his own $100 million contract torn up.
But staff at KIIS, which broadcast the pair until last month, see a reconciliation for Australia’s highest-paid radio duo as unlikely. Henderson told the station she could not work with Sandilands following his decision to berate her on air, and lost her $100 million contract as a result.
The pair had been signed on until the end of 2034 with contracts through their private companies that required them to jointly present The Kyle and Jackie O Show, according to sources familiar with the matter, meaning neither can fulfil their obligations without the other.
KIIS’ parent company, ARN, announced Henderson’s refusal to work with Sandilands on Tuesday night along with the termination of her contract, and accused Sandilands of breaching his own agreement. ARN suspended him for 14 days, during which he will have to “remedy” his “serious misconduct” on February 20 – when he berated Henderson until she was almost in tears – or face having his $100 million deal scrapped.
A source familiar with the matter, who was not authorised to speak publicly due to the sensitive nature of the dispute, said the remedy required was convincing Henderson to come back on air, so the pair could fulfil their contracts together.
KIIS’ shares were up about 3 per cent on Wednesday afternoon as the market digested the news.
Representatives for both media personalities and ARN did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
Multiple sources at ARN, who are not authorised to comment publicly, told this masthead they were “overjoyed” and “relieved” by the news of the pair’s departure, arguing their entry into the Melbourne market had been a failure that had cost revenue and jobs.
“The initial idea was that we’d introduce the [Sydney-based] show to Melbourne and then Brisbane before rolling it out nationally – but their performance in Melbourne was so bad that it effectively put the brakes on that plan, which forced the company to make all these severe job cuts,” the ARN employee said.
The cost of the pair’s record-breaking deal, which makes up two-thirds of its on-air talent costs, contributed to ARN’s decision to cut 240 jobs over the past year alone, with more redundancies under way this week.
In 2025, the show’s performance contributed to a metro advertising revenue dip of 16 per cent, or $28 million. ARN ceded ground to their key competitors, Nova and Southern Cross, in a market that only declined by 3 per cent overall amid falling ratings in Melbourne and a campaign by activist group Mad F–king Witches to pressure advertisers into taking their business elsewhere.
In Melbourne, the station had more than 620,000 cumulative listeners in the final survey of 2023; after two years of The Kyle & Jackie O Show, that figure had fallen by more than 200,000.
Another ARN employee said the impact of the job cuts were being felt “in every ARN office around the country”, where there were empty desks and fewer experienced people to do essential tasks.
But on Wednesday morning, KIIS continued to broadcast under fill-in presenter, Kent Small.
“There’s a saying in showbiz that ‘the show must go on’,” Small said. “You’re all back to work today. You’re waking up, living your life. My name is Smallzy. I am not here to replace either of them. I am just going to get us through.”
Sandilands has survived numerous previous scandals and bounced back from axings, such as in 2009 when he was removed from Australian Idol after a radio stunt where he responded to a teenage girl’s rape disclosure by asking if that was the only time she’d had sex.
Representatives for both Sandilands, Henderson and ARN did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
NSW Premier Chris Minns, who went to Sandilands’ wedding in 2023, told the ABC that he was surprised by the end of the show. “I don’t know the ins and outs of it, but I go on all of the [Sydney radio] programs, and I’ve known Kyle for many, many years,” Minns said. “I think it’s sad that these shows wind up.”
Pearman Media analyst Steve Allen said the end of the Sandilands-Henderson partnership could be a major relief to ARN because of the huge cost of their contract and advertisers’ decision to distance themselves from the program.
“This is not without its risks, however, it also offers ARN more potential flexibility,” Allen said.
While Henderson’s contract was the first to be terminated, she has been offered a new show with the company on terms that have not been disclosed, ARN’s announcement on Tuesday said.
Under its new chief executive Michael Stephenson, ARN has attempted to reframe the company from being viewed as a pure radio network into one with an expanding presence online.
Stephenson’s predecessor Ciaran Davis, who lured Sandilands and Henderson across from Southern Cross Austereo in 2013 and re-signed them a decade later on their mammoth pay deal, left late last year. Davis did not respond to a request for comment.
ARN chairman Hamish McLennan, who has been in the role since 2019, also did not respond.
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Calum Jaspan is a media writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Melbourne. Reach him securely on Signal @calumjaspan.10Connect via X or email.
Michael Lallo is a senior culture writer at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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