Kyle and Jackie ‘O’ hit rock bottom in Melbourne

The parachuting of controversial Sydney radio duo Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson into the Melbourne appears doomed.

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson have revealed the death clause in their contracts.

The bold experiment of parachuting controversial Sydney radio duo Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson into the Melbourne appears doomed, with the show slipping to one of its worst ratings results after it launched in the Victorian capital in April last year.

In the third nationwide radio poll of 2025, the Kyle and Jackie ‘O’ breakfast program on ARN Melbourne’s KIIS101.1 claimed an audience share of just 5.1 per cent, down from 5.8 per cent in the previous survey.

Its cumulative audience (the number of people who listened for at least eight minutes during the survey period) fell from 446,000 to 416,000, according to the figures produced by research company GfK.

Sandilands and Henderson are the highest paid on-air figures in Australian radio, earning $10 million a year each, as part of a 10-year deal that runs until 2034.

ARN chief executive Ciaran Davis recently defended the pair’s failure to crack the Melbourne market, saying the syndication of the show “was never meant to be an overnight success”.

The show remains massively popular in Sydney, though, where its market share is 12.5 per cent, (up 0.2 percentage points), and its cumulative audience sits at 679,000.

The Kyle and Jackie ‘O’ show sits in second place in the Sydney breakfast timeslot, behind 2GB talkback host Ben Fordham, who increased his audience share in this survey to 16.7 per cent, up 1.1 percentage points.

19/2/24: 2GB Presenter Ben Fordham in his studio. John Feder/The Australian.

Mark Levy, who presents 2GB’s morning show, also retained top spot in his timeslot, returning a 15.5 per cent market share, unchanged from the previous survey.

Elsewhere in Sydney, ABC morning show host Hamish Macdonald experienced a ratings slide, falling 0.7 percentage points to a market share of 5.5 per cent, well down on the final ratings result of his predecessor in the timeslot, Sarah Macdonald, who was axed last November.

ABC Sydney lost market share in all timeslots, from breakfast right through to drive (where host Chris Bath slipped from 6.5 per cent to 5.3, to finish in eighth spot in her shift).

But ABC Melbourne finally showed some signs of improvement after a dramatic ratings downturn over the past two years.

Its much-maligned breakfast program, fronted by Sharnelle Vella and former AFL star Bob Murphy, lifted its audience share from 5.6 to 7.6 per cent, with the program’s cumulative audience jumping from 247,000 to 298,000.

The duo’s strong lead-in result also helped boost the audience for Rafael Epstein’s morning show on ABC Melbourne, which recorded a 6.8 per cent market share (up 2.2 percentage points).

Sharnelle Vella and Bob Murphy will host ABC Radio Melbourne breakfast in 2025. Picture: Supplied/Instagram

Nine-owned 3AW remains the clear market leader in Melbourne, though, despite the station shedding listeners across all timeslots in this survey.

Dominant breakfast duo Russel Howcroft and Ross Stevenson lead their timeslot with an 18.1 per cent share (down 0.7 percentage points), and morning show host Tom Elliot is also in top position in his shift, despite a fall from 15.6 to a 14.9 per cent slice of the market.

In second place in the Melbourne morning timeslot is Gold 104.3 on 13.2 per cent (up 0.3 percentage points).

3AW drive show host Jacqui Felgate fell from third to sixth in her timeslot, with her market share slipping 2.1 percentage points, from 9.9 to 7.8.

It was a disastrous survey for Triple M in its key markets of Sydney and Melbourne. Its breakfast programs (hosted by former NRL stars Beau Ryan and Aaron Woods in Sydney, and Mick Molloy, Nick Riewoldt, Titus O’Reily and Rosie Walton in Melbourne) both lost large chunks of their listenership.

The Melbourne show slipped 1.4 percentage points to a market share of 5.9 per cent, to leave the program sitting seventh in its timeslot. Triple M’s Sydney breakfast show fell 1.5 percentage points to 4.4 per cent.

In Brisbane, the Ash, Luttsy & Nikki Osborne show on Nova 106.9 retained top spot in the city’s breakfast market, with a 13.1 per cent share (down 0.5 percentage points).

Nova’s breakfast programs in Adelaide and Perth also claimed the highest audience shares in their respective cities. The Jodie & Hayesy breakfast show on Nova 91.9 in Adelaide recorded a 13.8 per cent market share (up from 12.8 per cent in the previous survey) to dethrone the rival 5MMM breakfast program fronted by Roo, Ditts and Loz on 13.6 per cent (up 0.4 percentage points).

The Nathan, Nat & Shaun breakfast show on Nova 93.7 in Perth remains one of the most dominant programs in any timeslot across the country, despite slipping 2.2 percentage points in this survey.

The program has an audience share of 19.5 per cent, well ahead of its nearest rival 96FM, whose breakfast show rose 1.5 percentage points, from 13.3 to 14.8.

The ABC Adelaide breakfast pairing of Sonya Feldhoff and Jules Schiller slipped 0.9 percentage points from 11.7 to 10.9 per cent to remain fourth in the timeslot.

In Perth, the Nine-owned talkback station 6PR lost ground in all timeslots.

The survey covered the period from March 9 to May 31.