Pop the champagne ‘cos Kyle Sandilands and his co-host Jackie “O” Henderson have split after more than 20 years on-air, marking the end of the infamous Kyle and Jackie-O Show.
The breakup seemed to begin two weeks ago, when an on-air dispute led to Henderson taking a leave of absence. Now, KISS FM’s parent company ARN has made it official, stating that Henderson could no longer work with Sandilands and that the show would be pulled “effective immediately.”
And, for the first time since my bestie finally ditched that nightmare Hinge man she was seeing, I am greeting this break-up with a cheer.
Within the Australian media landscape, they became infamous for their controversies, seemingly speaking and acting as they chose, with little thought to decency or sensitivity. The show racked up 12 Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) regulation breaches in 2025 alone.
Before we leave the show in our rearview mirror, let’s not forget its marred history and the kind of content we allowed to stay on our airwaves for over two decades.
The 2009 lie detector scandal
In perhaps the most notable of their controversies, the Kyle and Jackie-O Show aired a radio segment that saw a 14-year-old girl strapped to a lie detector and quizzed about her past sexual experiences in front of her mother. When she admitted on air to having been raped at the age of 12, Sandilands replied, “Is that the only experience you’ve had?” The comment led to a brief suspension of the show and widespread calls for the presenter to lose his job.
Only a few short months after the lie detector segment, Sandliands was again briefly suspended for comments made about Magda Szubanski, in which he said the actress should go to a “concentration camp” to lose weight. “You put her in a concentration camp and you watch the weight fall,” Sandilands said.
Szubanski, whose father is from Poland, said: “I couldn’t give two hoots about what Kyle says about me, but to trivialise what happened to people in concentration camps is abhorrent.”
The 2011 fat slag rant
In a rant that triggered an ACMA investigation, Sandilands labelled a journalist a “fat slag” after the News.com.au editor wrote about the future of The Kyle & Jackie-O show, and its declining ratings.
“What a fat, bitter thing you are”, Sandliands said. “You’re a piece of shit.”
He went on to air the writer’s name, Alison Stephenson, and threaten her, saying, “watch your mouth or I’ll hunt you down”.
Mocking Paralympians during the 2021 Paralympic Games
In a segment aired during the 2021 Paralympic Games, Sandilands and Henderson referred to the Paralympics as the “Special Olympics” and called it “horrific” before mocking a vision-impaired high-jumper for landing “on his arse on the ground.”
The comments were once again flagged by the ACMA and, in 2023, were found to have breached decency standards.
The 2025 mushroom trial blunder
During the mushroom trials that swept through Australian media like a type-A housemate after a kick ons, the Kyle and Jackie-O Show was almost found in contempt of court, following on-air comments made by Sandilands about the then-defendant Erin Patterson.
Sandilands accused Patterson of being guilty, calling her “a big lump” and saying it was time to “lock that bitch up”. Though she has since been found guilty, at the time Patterson was maintaining her innocence, prompting Justice Christopher Beale, the judge presiding over the case, to ask the media to “engage their brains” when discussing the then ongoing trial.
These are just a few of the many controversies that have characterised the Kyle and Jackie-O Show‘s storied past. Notably, with each passing bout of bad press, regulatory intervention and even suspension, they somehow stayed on air.
It begs the question: what is the role of the ACMA if, amidst the suspensions, investigations and warnings, the pair were able to monopolise our airwaves so effectively?
All we can do now is acknowledge, move forward, and hope that the gap in the market is filled with a kinder, shock jock-free show.
