Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O just got a $30 million deal and thanks to listeners, they’ve earned it

JACKIE O declared she got what she’s “really worth” after she and Kyle Sandilands landed a new $30 million deal. I hate to say it, but I grudgingly agree, says Susie O’Brien.

SELF-PROFESSED “white trash royalty” Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O have just signed a deal giving them as much as $30 million over the next five years.

Jackie O was quoted over the weekend saying she got what she’s “really worth”.

I hate to say it, but I grudgingly agree.

I never thought I’d ever admit it in print, but these sleazy pests, celebrity chasers and stunt-pullers have earned their multi-million payday thanks to their huge following around the country.

ARE KYLE AND JACKIE O BRINGING THEIR SHOW TO MELBOURNE RADIO?

For more than a decade now, they have been the highest-rating breakfast act on Sydney FM radio stations, often commanding more than 10 per cent of the total audience share.

That is two and a half times more than some of their big-name celebrity rivals such as Rove McManus.

Kyle Sandilands may have called a journalist a “fat slag,” boasted about pretending to be disabled so he could beat the queues at Disneyland and hooked a 14-year-old rape victim on a lie-detector.

Kyle and Jackie O. More celebs celebrating Australia Day.

But — astoundingly — it hasn’t made any long-term impact on his popularity.

In fact, I bet every time someone like me writes a piece calling him “Vile Kyle” and his sidekick “Jackie OMG,” they pick up 5000 new listeners.

All that matters is the listeners they attract and the money they make for the station — about $30 million in advertising a year, according to one estimate.

Money talks; and it means the shamefully low standards they set are willingly overlooked.

The news of their multi-million payment has been met with predictable outrage from commentators, but this disaster-prone duo has always thrived on such negative publicity.

In fact, I wonder how many of their recent controversies were manufactured from the outset just to attract outside media attention and act as ratings bait.

Their whole schtick is to push the boundaries, court controversy and try to be as offensive as they can be.

Audiences are lapping it up and that’s why they can name their price.

Kyle and Jackie O are so popular that they have the ability to make or break, not just a radio timeslot, but an entire radio station.

As long as the audience tunes in, it’s hard to argue they don’t deserve their pay packets despite the tacky on-air stunts.

The fortunes of Austereo bombed after the pair left 2DayFM, with the station struggling to fill the vital Sydney breakfast slot. Meanwhile, KIIS is at the top of the ratings, led primarily by their show.

It’s no wonder KIIS is rumoured to be looking at syndicating the breakfast show in other markets next year. At present the pair have a national audience due to a one-hour of highlights being screened each evening on nearly 70 stations.

Not only are their listeners loyal, they’re also high engaged on social media, with an estimated two million active fans who are young and impressionable with high disposable incomes. In other words, just the kind of listeners advertises love.

As many fans of the show see it, more outrageous, the sleazier and the tackier, the better.

As Sandilands told one interviewer, “we are white trash but don’t give a shit”.

While media commentators are cringing, mainstream audiences love the pair’s irreverence and the fact they never know what’s going to happen next. One minute they’re calling Ronan Keating a “two-foot dwarf” (and playing the comments back to him) and the next they’re giving away mum-and-daughter boob jobs for Mother’s Day.

Outrage won’t change the way these two run their show — because the audience loves it.

There was also the time they paid a male listener $1000 to perform fellatio on himself — at 8am in the morning, no less. An outraged news piece duly followed, but the station said they’d had no complaints.

Both Kyle and Jackie O also make themselves part of the act, with Kyle talking about his battles with his weight, his painful childhood, his relationship with his girlfriend and his father’s death. Jackie O has talked about how her father fat-shamed her and her lack of grooming downstairs before the birth of her daughter.

Celebrity interviews are a big part of the show’s content, with the pair styled by station managers as “worldwide stars themselves” chatting to their famous friends.

It was recently revealed many of the stars such as Carmen Electra, Scott Disick, Kris Jenner, Kelly Osbourne and Giuliana Rancic are actually on the show because they are paid to speak — not that that would worry most of the show’s audience.

At that time of the morning, listeners don’t care about the ethics of it all: they’re racing around getting to work or getting kids ready for school.

You have to wonder where it’s all going to end. Four years after the suicide of British nurse Jacintha Saldhana as a result of a disgraceful radio skit, gotcha calls, stunts and tasteless pranks are still common.

But outrage will do nothing to fix the situation. The only way the reign of King Kyle and Joker Jackie will end is by listeners turning off and tuning in to broadcasters with genuine talent for a change.

Sadly, this isn’t likely to happen any time soon.

Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist.

@susieob