Kyle Sandilands suspended, Jackie O exits show after on-air feud

KIIS FM has terminated Jackie “O” Henderson’s $100 million contract after she told executives she could not continue to work with Kyle Sandilands following an on-air feud with her co-star.

The decision, announced on the stockmarket late on Tuesday by KIIS’s parent company, ARN, said Henderson would no longer present The Kyle and Jackie O Show, which is in just the second year of a 10-year, $200 million contract signed in 2023.

Her controversial colleague Sandilands has been suspended for two weeks because of his “serious misconduct” and will have to show he has fixed his contractual breach or have his own contract torn up by ARN as well.

Henderson has been off-air after Sandilands berated her during a live broadcast on February 20, criticising her work ethic because she had looked into horoscopes during a discussion on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, which he said was part of a wider pattern.

“You’re off with the fairies, you are unfocused, you don’t give a shit … everyone in this building has mentioned it to me,” Sandilands told Henderson during the show as she fought back tears.

Henderson has been offered an alternative show on KIIS after the disintegration of her working relationship with Sandilands, which came amid pressure to reverse their show’s disastrous performance in the Melbourne market that had become a drag on ARN’s share price.

Representatives for both Henderson and Sandilands were approached for comment.

The announcement marked a sharp reversal from Tuesday morning, when Sandilands had said Henderson’s camp was preparing a statement that would say she was “returning in the future”, though he did not give any further details about when that would be, or in what capacity.

“It’s a tender situation here with the Jackie situation. And it’s sort of out of my hands, even though I lit the match,” Sandilands said at the beginning of Tuesday’s show.

“I signed off yesterday on some sort of a statement from Jackie’s camp and at the end I noticed, this is the only thing I really noticed, that Jackie will be returning in the future.”

“That was a good sign. So the intention is to come back, which is fabulous.”

Instead, ARN announced on Tuesday afternoon that Henderson had told the company she “cannot continue to work with Mr Kyle Sandilands.” As a result, it said, ARN had terminated her contract. The same announcement said ARN “considers that Mr Sandilands’ behaviour during the show on 20 February 2026 is an act of serious misconduct” and he would be off air for at least two weeks, during which time he could remedy the alleged breach or have his contract cancelled.

Sandilands and Henderson had, by some distance, the most lucrative radio contract in Australian media. It was designed to reflect the pair’s growing dominance in Sydney and planned expansion to other key metropolitan markets, such as Melbourne and Brisbane.

The show was launched into Melbourne two years ago, but floundered in the city. In the breakfast slot, which traditionally demands more advertising revenue than any other time of day, KIIS has lost more than 220,000 listeners under Sandilands and Henderson, or 36 per cent of its audience.

Hundreds of staff have been made redundant by KIIS’s owner, ARN, over the two years since the contract was signed, and there were more job cuts this week, this masthead has confirmed. ARN declined to comment.

Last year, ARN was forced to rethink its approach to the Kyle and Jackie O Show national rollout, which was part of the contract the pair signed running until 2034. It was forced to deploy additional censors on the show after breaches of industry codes relating to decency 12 times in 2025 alone.

Poor ratings have been compounded by a prolonged campaign by activist group Mad F---ing Witches, which has resulted in falling metro advertising revenue and lost ground to its main competitors, Nova and Southern Cross Austereo.

Sandilands has a long history of controversial remarks.

In 2009, he suggested actor Magda Szubanksi would be thinner if she had been in a concentration camp. Two years later he called a journalist a “fat slag” for critiquing him.

He also came under fire for a stunt in which a teenager was questioned into admitting she had been raped as a 12-year-old. “Right ... is that the only experience you’ve had?” Sandilands said in response.

Sandilands has repeatedly apologised at various points for his derogatory comments.

In Brisbane, KIIS brought back the previously dumped breakfast trio Robin, Kip & Corey for 2026, and it has also hired former Nova and triple j personalities Ben Harvey and Liam Stapleton to start in Adelaide next month. Sandilands and Henderson do not broadcast in those markets.

In the company’s full-year results released last week, ARN said KIIS’s performance suffered from “heightened advertiser sensitivity to brand safety” impacting revenue. ARN’s metro revenue across both of its networks, KIIS and Gold, declined by 16 per cent, or $28.3 million.

Last month, The Kyle and Jackie O Show dropped to a 5 per cent share in the eighth and final radio ratings survey of the year for Melbourne. It remained one of the top shows in Sydney, but its share has suffered somewhat during the same period, as have total listeners to the show.

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.