Kyle and Jackie O hit rock bottom in Melbourne

Provocative radio duo Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson have sunk to their equal worst ratings result since launching their show in Melbourne two years ago, ending 2025 on a low.

The show’s 5 per cent audience share for the eighth and final ratings survey of 2025, released on Tuesday morning, mirrors the show’s result in the final survey of 2024, albeit with 1000 fewer cumulative listeners.

It ends an already torrid year for the duo, who are on a pay deal worth $200 million over a decade, their network KIIS and parent company ARN Media.

ARN has been forced to employ multiple censors to ensure Sandilands and Henderson do not breach radio broadcasting codes. The pair broke the rules supposed to ensure decency on air a dozen times in 2025 alone.

As a result of the poor ratings combined with an extensive campaign from activist group Mad F---ing Witches, ARN’s advertising share has plummeted over the two years since the show expanded to Melbourne in April 2024.

The performance has also prompted a rethink of The Kyle and Jackie O Show’s planned national rollout that helped justify the hosts’ pay packets.

In Brisbane, the network has brought back the previously dumped breakfast trio Robin, Kip & Corey for 2026, and it has former Nova and Triple J personalities Ben Harvey and Liam Stapleton scheduled to start in Adelaide. Sandilands and Henderson are not broadcast in those markets.

While KIIS’ 5.4 per cent total audience share in Melbourne is poor compared to the network’s commercial rivals, ARN’s other station, Gold, delivered a 13.3 per cent total audience share, making it the top FM station by some distance and only marginally behind perennial market leaders, AM talkback station 3AW, on 13.9 per cent.

SmoothFM ended the year as Sydney’s top station with a 13 per cent share of the market, up 1.6 percentage points to beat 3AW’s sister station, Nine-owned 2GB, which fell from 13.8 to 11.2 per cent.

Nine (the owner of this masthead) fielded offers for its radio division in 2025 but has not yet reached a deal.

The ABC also announced one of its senior journalists, Isabella Higgins will replace Sabra Lane as host of its morning current affairs audio program AM in 2026 on Tuesday morning.

“I still recall my joy at getting my very first story on AM as a young reporter and can’t quite believe I’ll be taking on the role of host,” said Higgins, a former national Indigenous affairs and Europe correspondent. “Sabra Lane and all the other past hosts leave enormous shoes to fill.”

ABC Radio Melbourne finished the year on a 6.5 per cent share, marginally up 0.2 percentage points on the previous survey, with breakfast duo Sharnelle Vella and Bob Murphy ending the year on a high of 7.8 per cent.

The final survey period for 2025 was held between October 5 and December 13.

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