The collapse of The Kyle and Jackie O Show has left hundreds of thousands of people looking for something else to listen to in the morning, with some industry insiders questioning whether the duo could make a comeback.
ARN Media this week sacked Kyle Sandilands from his KIIS FM breakfast show, after the network found he had committed “serious misconduct” and claimed he had breached his $100 million contract.Â
He was previously stood down following a tense on-air exchange with co-host Jackie “O” Henderson when he criticised her work ethic and claimed she was “off with the fairies”.
He was given 14 days to remedy the situation, before he was sacked by the network on Wednesday.
Sandilands accused Henderson of being “off with the fairies” on-air. (Facebook: The Kyle and Jackie O Show)
Sandilands said he did not accept his termination, denied he was in breach of his contract and flagged future legal action.
“I want to be on air. I want to be with my audience. I want to do the job I have done my entire adult life,” he said in a statement.
The Kyle and Jackie O Show has long been touted as the most successful in Sydney, with  the latest 2026 radio ratings for January 18 to February 28 revealing the breakfast show was the number one FM program in the city.
According to the data, 630,000 listeners tuned into their program each day.
Media correspondent for the Australian Financial Review, Sam Buckingham-Jones, said if Sandilands decided to broadcast again in the future, around 20 or 30 per cent of Kyle and Jackie O Show listeners would follow him.
He said while Sandilands may find a home on radio “somewhere, more than likely he will launch a podcast”.
Podcasts could be a radical shift for Sandilands
Kellie Riordan, director of podcast production house Deadset Studios and former head of podcasts at the ABC, said more people than ever were switching to the online audio platform.
“Millennials and Gen Z are becoming the more dominant audience as they age and many of them simply don’t have a radio habit,” she said.
Kellie Riordan says few young people are regular radio listeners. (Supplied)
The latest Sydney radio ratings show a decline of more than 50,000 listeners across all AM and FM radio shows compared to the previous survey last year.
According to PodPoll’s survey in 2025, it found 9.6 million Australians were listening to podcasts monthly.
It marked an increase of 1.47 million people in the past year.
In the days before Sandilands’s contract was cancelled, the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) put further pressure on ARN Media, with additional licence conditions over his and Henderson’s several breaches of decency standards in 2025.
Millions of Australians listen to podcasts every month. (Patrick Breitenbach/flickr.com/CC BY 2.0)
The conditions were to apply to any program featuring Sandilands or Henderson and could have resulted in the broadcaster losing its licence if further breaches were found.
Lead producer for East Coast Studio, Martin Franklin, said there was more flexibility in podcasting but it would be a “radical shift for [Sandilands] in thinking about what he does and the possible repercussions of that”.
Martin Franklin says the podcast format could replicate a morning radio show. (Supplied)
“He could basically replicate a morning show … and just make it a daily podcast episode,” he said.
“He might end up having to be a bit more aware of what he’s delivering to his audience.”
Could podcasting have a moderating influence?
Henderson entered the world of podcasting two years before the on-air feud.
She co-hosted Her Best Life with her friend Gemma O’Neill about their lives and relationships.
Episodes, which have not always included Henderson, have featured interviews with a wide range of public figures and the podcast was next month scheduled to a host a public Q&A with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
Henderson has already dabbled in podcasting. (Supplied)
In addition to more editorial freedom and responsibility, Ms Riordan said podcasting could potentially be financially lucrative for Sandilands.
She said by establishing his own podcast, Sandilands would own the show, “which in turn, means he can commercialise and exploit the IP [intellectual property]”.
A pattern Sandilands could follow is from his fellow broadcasting colleague, Karl Stefanovic.
Along with co-presenting Channel Nine’s Today breakfast program, Stefanovic has launched his own interview podcast, which has been a ratings success.
Profiled guests have included conservative politicians, such as Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce, to conversations on vaccine mandates and immigration.
Sandilands says he does not accept the termination of his ARN Media contract. (Supplied)
Stefanovic recently had Sandilands on as a guest, where he shared his own interest in right-wing politics — perhaps a sign of Sandilands’s own potential to create a podcast within a similar scope.
When asked on the podcast — which aired on February 18 — what he would be if he did not have the money, The Kyle and Jackie O Show or the fame, Sandilands replied: “I’m nothing without all those things. That’s who I am … I wouldn’t know what to do.”
Mr Franklin said Sandilands would need to rely on advertising and sponsorship to monetise any potential podcast.
“It might be something that helps him moderate his language,” he said.
“But then again, maybe he feels like that is his brand and that is what people like, the shock factor.”