‘I blame everyone in Melbourne’: Kyle Sandilands unleashes in on-air tantrum after KIIS FM ratings flop

Kyle Sandilands has unleashed on his “pearl-clutching” Melbourne listeners, blaming them for his show’s horror ratings while executives work to clean up the crass content.

Horror radio ratings have triggered a Kyle Sandilands tantrum with the KIIS FM breakfast host lashing out at Melburnians describing them as “pearl clutchers” who love “the shitshow” that “we a---holed.”

Meanwhile, ARN, the parent company of KIIS FM, has revealed that The Kyle & Jackie O Show, Sandilands radio vehicle, will clean up its act and stop spewing out endless graphic sexual content in an effort to “change the perception” of the program.

It might however take longer than management think to change perceptions in Melbourne where the show has been slammed for months for being crass, grubby, profane and obscene while ratings have sunk.

Kyle Sandilands unleashed at his Melbourne listeners in a cruel tantrum after his show failed to climb the radio ratings ladder. Picture: Instagram

In an outburst unlikely to win him any more fans down south, Sandilands reacted to feedback from a listener on Thursday, who criticised the number of games played during his show, and let rip, blaming management and Melbourne listeners for the boring content.

“This is senior management again, butting their nose in, ‘Oh, here’s a great idea, let’s bring games on that we did 15 years ago’,” Sandilands said.

“And you know, because of the lacklustre ratings and — I blame everyone in Melbourne. It is your fault, you are late to the party, you are pearl clutchers, you all love the shit show that used to be on here that we a---holed, after years of shit — a---holed them over to Nova.

“They got one month of number one and now they are starting to go back down the gurgler again, but everyone keeps (a long censoring beep) … over it.

“If you want to listen to shit, listen to shit, that is fine by me.

“At the end of the day he is a ranga from Brisbane, he is not even a Melbourne guy, so who is the joke on? Pests.”

Sandilands called Jase & Lauren’s show ‘shit’ while his show remains behind theirs in ratings. Picture: Supplied/Nova

To translate the steaming slurs, Sandilands was saying that the latest ratings showed that Melbourne listeners were listening to the Jase & Lauren Show on Nova instead of his show and that Jase & Lauren had been dropped by KIIS last year to make way for him in Melbourne.

Nova’s Jase Hawkins, who is originally from Brisbane, and Lauren Phillips had a 9.6 share in the most recent ratings survey, down from 9.9.

Fox FM’s Fifi, Fev and Nick was Melbourne’s No1 FM breakfast show with a 10 share. The overall No1 breakfast show was 3AW’s Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft with a commanding 22.5 share of audience.

The Kyle & Jackie O Show is languishing in seventh place with a 5.2 audience share, dropping from 6.1 in the previous survey.

Interestingly the negative feedback on the content of the show was also coming from the female members of The Kyle & Jackie O team who on Friday all chimed in to tell Sandilands that they were “over” having boring, attention seeking Only Fans girls on the Naked Dating segment.

Fox FM’s Fifi, Fev and Nick is Melbourne’s No1 FM breakfast show. Picture: Supplied

On the same show, Sandilands referred to Melbourne as “apparently the city that can’t stand us.”

Meanwhile, ARN chief content officer Duncan Campbell blamed the “tall poppy syndrome” for the belting The Kyle & Jackie O Show is getting in Melbourne, while admitting that dialling up the sexual content for the Melbourne launch had been the wrong move.

“Kyle has now pulled back on that quite considerably. They have stopped the graphic sexual content,” Campbell told Mediaweek.

“The show is about relationships, so it is not going to be a sanitised show. After changing the graphic sexual content it will take time to change the perception. It’s a long game. We are in the trenches. We have a lot of ground to make up.”

The much talked about $200m, 10 year deal struck by The Kyle & Jackie O Show with ARN/KIIS starts in 2025.

In the Sydney The Kyle & Jackie O Show sits on top of the breakfast market with ratings of 13.7.