Kyle and Jackie O suffer ‘huge blow’ in Melbourne radio ratings

Kyle and Jackie O have been dealt a devastating blow in the radio ratings, with listeners turning their back on the “extreme” show.

Kyle and Jackie O’s dream of dominating Melbourne radio is officially dead.

The KIIS FM hosts suffered a near-fatal blow in the latest round of radio ratings which were released on Tuesday morning.

The show’s audience share dropped from 6.1 per cent in the previous survey (released in August) to 5.2 per cent.

They have lost 71,000 listeners since the previous survey, and are now the sixth highest rated FM breakfast show in Melbourne.

“It’s a huge blow,” Craig Bruce, host of the Game Changers Radio: Melbourne Radio Wars podcast, told news.com.au about the ratings result.

“It’s a self-inflicted wound, unfortunately. They have made every mistake a new show could make, and then some, over the last few months.”

Mr Bruce, who predicted these results on his podcast, said Kyle and Jackie O’s “extreme” content had put off Melbourne listeners.

“It’s too focused on sex, too focused on themselves and not enough on what might be important for their new audience,” he told news.com.au.

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O have co-hosted together for more than 20 years.

“ARN (the company that owns KIIS FM) should be panicking. They (Kyle and Jackie) have lost 200,000 listeners out of breakfast this year.

“The Melbourne audience have told them in no uncertain terms that this current approach won’t work.”

Kyle and Jackie O’s breakfast show, which has dominated FM radio in Sydney for 20 years, started airing in Melbourne back in April.

There are rumours the show will also be rolled out in Brisbane and Adelaide in the next 12 to 24 months, and Mr Bruce expects that will still be the case despite the show’s poor result in Melbourne.

“The $200 million bill has to be paid somehow,” he said, referring to Kyle and Jackie O’s massive 10-year contract which was signed last year.

The Fox FM breakfast show is the new number one FM breakfast show in Melbourne.

Melbourne ratings

There’s a new number one FM breakfast show in Melbourne.

Fox FM’s Fifi, Fev and Nick overtook Nova’s Jase and Lauren to clinch the top spot in the latest round of radio ratings.

The Fox team have a 10.0 per cent audience share compared to Jase and Lauren on 9.6 per cent.

Gold FM’s Christian O’Connell is in third place with an 8.3 per cent share.

Sydney radio ratings

Kyle and Jackie O lost 15,000 listeners in Sydney in the latest round of radio ratings, but they’re still absolutely dominating in the harbour city.

They’re the number one breakfast show in town with a 13.7 per cent audience share, ahead of 2GB’s Ben Fordham (12.2 per cent) and WSFM’s Jonesy and Amanda (10.6 per cent).

Originally published as Kyle and Jackie O suffer ‘huge blow’ in Melbourne radio ratings