‘Everyone in this building has mentioned it’: Kyle berates Jackie on air for being unprofessional
Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson in less fractious times (Mumbrella)
UPDATE: Jackie ‘O’ Henderson will be off air for a few days, following the spat during Friday’s show.
Sandilands opened Monday morning’s episode of the Kyle and Jackie O by saying, “you might notice Jackie is not here. I spoke with her yesterday. She wants a couple of days off to gather her thoughts.” Sandilands added that the pair have only communicated via text message since the falling out.
Kyle Sandilands took his co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson to task on air on Friday morning for her lack of professionalism, claiming that everyone on their team has mentioned it to him at some point in the past month.
The ensuing bust-up, which appeared to be entirely unfeigned, marks a serious low-point for ARN’s $200m stars. Listen to the exchange below.
The on-air fight during the pair’s Kiis breakfast show erupted as Henderson was looking at Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s star chart on her phone during a segment. Sandilands said Henderson’s “fixation” with star signs has made her “almost unworkable”, to which she took great offense.
“Like, you might’ve done that in five minutes, but you are off with the fairies,” he said. When she denied this, and asked for an example, Sandilands said: “Listen to the program, you’ll hear yourself. Be aware of what’s really going on.”
Henderson said she was “offended” by the allegation.
“It’s too much,” Sandilands continues. “It’s affecting everything else. You’re too fixated on it. Every segment, every time you’ve spoken, you’re off with the — you don’t even know what’s going on.”
Henderson asked the production team if this was true, to which Sandilands countered: “Not one of them is gonna say anything. They’re all too terrified.”
The spat went on for five minutes, during which time various team members attempted to shut it down. The entire exchange was cut out of the podcast version of the show.
When Henderson argued that she never raises Sandilands’ current fixation on American politics and Trump, he argued it’s “a completely different thing … because you are not doing the rest of the job and everyone in this building has mentioned it to me. I’ve just said I’m not getting involved. That’s a management problem, I’ve got no problem.
“Everyone has said ‘What’s going on with Jackie? She’s off today.’ Everyone you can see has said something over the last month at some stage.”
After newsreader Brooklyn Ross tried again to interject, he said: “I’m not lying to her to make her feel bad. This is actually what people have said to me. I like that she goes off on these buzzes. I’ve got no issue, but it is affecting everything else.”
Henderson was audibly hurt, and close to tears during the argument.
“I’m not tiptoeing through this for another couple of weeks,” Sandilands said, later adding that “it’s affecting the whole sound of the program.”
Henderson pointed out Sandilands’ actions also affect the show.
“As I said, this is constant,” he continued. “You don’t know what the fuck is going on all the time, because you’re looking at that phone, playing in the stars, and it’s ridiculous.
“You can enjoy that, but you can’t take over your whole life.”
Henderson and Sandilands are currently on year three of a ten-year, $200 million deal with ARN. It is the most expensive radio contract in Australian history.
Kyle took Jackie to task on-air about her lack of professionalism
Last November, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) filed a notice of intention to impose an additional condition on ARN’s KIIS station licenses in Sydney and Melbourne restricting the Kyle and Jackie O Show from making any sexual references.
If successful, the condition will last for five years, and requires ARN to “ensure that the program does not broadcast content which is highly offensive to an ordinary reasonable listener, or which contains strong and explicit sexual references.”
The lack of governance over the show was brought up in Senate last week, when Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young slammed the pair’s “vulgar, disgusting, misogynistic, sexist rubbish” and compared them to “predators in the church being moved around, not being held to account”.
ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the matter of the possible new license conditions would be settled “in the coming weeks.”
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shocker. mean people start being mean to each other.
What a horrible person that bloke is. A bully with a mean-streak baked in. Hope she jumps and partners up with someone less toxic. for her own sake.
Now’s your chance Jackie, just walk away.
Is anyone surprised at this point?
ARN shareholders must be just loving this, on the (almost) eve of the company releasing their full year financial results.
I think Kyle’s real issue was her general disengagement from the show the past 12 months, and this is how it manifested
Staged.
Does anyone believe this?
Surely not.
I suspect we are all thinking the same things at this point.
MFW must wonder if they will ever run out of fresh material to use.
I am sorry, but who gives two hoots?
Probably lots of a specific Skyhooks song ….