Kyle and Jackie O Show axed as Sandilands vows to sue
An Australian radio giant has canceled its highest-rated show, with controversial presenter Kyle Sandilands vowing to sue his employer after tearing up his multimillion-dollar contract.
ARN told the ASX on Wednesday morning that the shock jock’s contract had been terminated, bringing the Kyle and Jackie O Show to an end after more than 20 years.
Sandilands has vowed to fight KIIS FM’s parent company ARN over the decision.
In his statement, he said, “I do not accept it. My lawyers told them last week that this would be invalid. So guess what? It is.”
“Let me tell you what really happened here. Jackie and I were on a blueprint. That’s it. It’s the kind of thing we’ve done hundreds of times over 25 years. And ARN took the situation and decided to burn the place down.
“They fired Jackie. They suspended me. They wouldn’t even let me pick up the phone to call her or anyone else on the show. Then – and this is what upsets me – when they made it impossible for the show to continue, they turned around and said: ‘You didn’t fix it. You are fired!”
ARN suspended the radio host on March 3 and issued him a breach notice for “serious misconduct” after he berated co-host Jackie “O” Henderson on air on February 20.
Sandilands has denied breaching his $100 million contract.
The row between the hosts arose after Sandilands criticized Henderson for reading Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s horoscope.
“You’re with the fairies… every episode, every time you talk, you don’t even know what’s going on,” Sandilands said during the broadcast.
On Wednesday, Sandilands said he apologized to his assistant presenter for two decades immediately following the outburst.
“In the two weeks since, I’ve done everything ARN has asked me to do. I said put me back on the air. I’ll work with Jackie. I’ll work with someone else. Whatever you need. Every time – ‘no.’ They weren’t interested. They didn’t want to fix it.”
“They thought they saw a chance to back out of the contract they signed with me a year ago and they took it.”
The Sydney ratings darlings are in the second year of a decade-long, $200 million contract that has coincided with a poor entry into the Melbourne radio market.
ARN’s share price has fallen 64 per cent since the 10-year deal was signed in November 2023.
The program was hit by repeated ethics breaches on Monday after the regulator found ARN had lost control of its content.
Sandilands added that ARN knew exactly what it would get when it signed the deal and that they had been working together for more than a decade.
“They knew how I worked, they knew the show, and they were happy to pay for it — because I made it. Number one ratings. Year after year. Hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for their business. I did my part. I always did,” he said.
“So, tell me – why would ARN choose to breach a contract and pay the legal consequences rather than honor the contract and pay me to do what I do best? That’s the unreasonable part.
“I have a contract until 2034. I have rights under that contract. And ARN did not honor the contract. So it’s up to my lawyers.”
ARN said on March 3 Henderson informed him he could no longer work with the co-host and Sandilands’ comments were considered a breach of his contract.
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