Time to taste humble pie: KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O crash and burn in Melbourne radio ratings

Melbourne has made up its mind — the profanity-littered Kyle & Jackie O show on KIIS FM is no competition for the city’s breakfast market as ratings plummet down the ladder.

The Melbourne radio war is now a two-horse race, with Kyle Sandilands and Jackie “O” Henderson so far being noisy but largely ignored by listeners in the high-quality, hotly contested breakfast market.

The race is over this year for Sandilands and Henderson, who rather than being conquering heroes will have to get used to the taste of humble pie.

The Kyle & Jackie O show has tanked in Melbourne’s radio ratings. Source: Facebook

They will not be No. 1 FM by the end of the year, as Sandilands had predicted: instead the profanity-littered Kyle & Jackie O Show on KIIS FM will hover around the lower end of the FM ratings ladder.

The real battle is between Jase Hawkins and Lauren Phillips on Nova and Fifi Box, Brendan Fevola and Nick Cody on Fox FM, with Christian O’Connell on Gold nipping at both their heels.

Nick Cody, Fifi Box and Brendan Fevola are in the running for the top radio spot. Picture: Fox FM.

For all the bluster, boasting and big spending that accompanied the arrival of Sandilands and Henderson in April, audiences have failed to switch allegiances.

When Sandilands and Henderson defected from 2DayFM to KIIS FM in Sydney in 2014 they lifted the ratings of KIIS breakfast by six points in their first survey and rocketed at their new home to No. 1 FM in that market.

It was an incredible show of power to be able to move an audience across the radio dial with immediate effect. But that impact has not been replicated in Melbourne.

In the two surveys that the show has been active in since their arrival down south, it has improved its ratings by a mere 0.2 per cent.

In the most recent ratings survey released on Tuesday, Sandilands and Henderson hold 6.1 per cent of the breakfast audience and are fifth in the FM race.

Conversely, the Jase & Lauren Show, which was booted from KIIS at the end of 2023 to make way for Sandilands and his crew, topped the FM breakfast ratings with 9.9.

Nova’s Jase and Lauren show topped their former station KIIS FM in ratings. Picture: Supplied

Hawkins and Phillips do seem to have been able to move an audience across stations – they have pretty much done what Sandilands and Henderson did a decade ago, but this time the boot is on the other foot and the station getting the kick in the teeth is KIIS.

When Hawkins and Phillips left KIIS last December they were rating 9.1.

From survey 2 this year, which is when they joined Nova, they have recorded growth in every survey – survey 2 saw them rate 8.3, survey 3 recorded 8.7, survey 4 came in at 9.6 and now survey 5 has put them on top of Fox FM’s Fifi, Fev and Nick with 9.9.

Since survey 5 in 2023 when they were on KIIS FM, the Jase & Lauren Show has recorded continuous growth in the subsequent eight surveys that their show has been active in.

Hawkins and Phillips and Clint Stanaway were thrilled and grateful for the support of the Melbourne public in making them No. 1 FM and celebrated during an outside broadcast at the Arlberg Hotel at Mt Buller on Thursday.

“It has been overwhelming,” Hawkins said of their ratings victory. “I said to the guys the other day I am glad this moment happened when we are at Nova with this crew, because I don’t think it would have been this special somewhere else.”

Meanwhile on Wednesday, Sandilands offered a thinly veiled swipe at the Melbourne ratings during a segment on his show about vagina vaping.

He described Jase & Lauren as “the s--t Nova show”.

“You can only win by sooking and bitching and complaining for so long before that gets old,” he said.

In details released to the Australian Stock Exchange on August 22, ARN, the parent company of KIIS, stated it believed The Kyle and Jackie O Show could “unlock” a 10 per cent share of the Melbourne breakfast market “over time”.

More than ever the key words are “over time”, because for now the big-budget show is all but stuck in neutral.

The KIIS show is failing to deliver rating wins in Melbourne. Picture: Instagram

Irene Hulme from the Game Changers: Melbourne Radio Wars podcast said the show would struggle to make up ground on its competitors for the rest of the year, while predicting Christian O’Connell would return to No. 1 FM.

“Initially, there was the trial phase when Kyle & Jackie O entered the market, however, survey 4 to 5 would indicate that the audience is settling on their preferred breakfast show,” Hulme said.

“While there’s likely to be some small movement for the remainder of the year, I imagine the battle for second or third place behind Christian will be between Fifi, Fev & Nick, and Jase & Lauren.”

Originally published as Time to taste humble pie: KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O crash and burn in Melbourne radio ratings