April 13, 2026 — 5:00am
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Problems keep mounting for the former teflon star, Kyle Sandilands, after the activist group, Mad F—ing Witches, set its sights on the Seven Network’s advertisers in a push to get the polarising personality dumped from his lucrative judging gig on Australian Idol.
As Idol heads into its two-part grand final tonight (Monday, April 13) and Tuesday, MFW has mobilised its brethren throughout this season of the show to lobby advertisers to abandon the program with the aim of getting Sandilands removed as a judge in 2027.
Kyle Sandilands is suing his former employer, ARN, for $85 million in the Federal Court.Louise Kennerley
The powerful advertiser boycott group caused havoc for ARN when it targeted advertisers on Sandilands’ KIIS breakfast show. Now, it’s using the same tactics against Seven to ratchet up pressure on the network as Idol reaches its conclusion.
With Sandilands gone from the airwaves – for now, at least – the group wants him gone from TV as well, where he presents a much more cuddly persona than on his radio show.
Idol has long provided Sandilands with a decent pay cheque, one he would no doubt like to hang onto after his mega deal with ARN was torn up in March, even if only to pay off his four mortgages. Sandilands is now suing ARN in the Federal Court for $85 million.
During an interview in January, Sandilands spoke candidly about his Idol deal, which he claimed was worth $1 million a year and has historically been renewed on one-year terms. He said the deal had been worth the same every year he had been on the show.
“I thought they would say, ‘No way’, and then they said, ‘Yes’, all these years ago,” Sandilands said of his fee back in January.
“I like to say I have never even had a pay rise … That is pretty good of me. It is very good money.
“I said to Marcia [Hines, his Idol co-judge] a few weeks ago, ‘I have never had a pay rise’, and she said, ‘You have been paid more than you deserve for decades’. I can’t argue with that.”
Kyle Sandilands (right), pictured with Mark Holden and Marcia Hines in the early 2000s, has had a long history as a judge on Australian Idol, both when the show was on Channel Ten and now on Channel Seven.Ten
Sandilands has been on Idol for nine seasons – five when it was on Network 10 and four seasons on Seven. But a Seven spokesperson would not be drawn on whether Sandilands would remain part of Idol next year.
“With the grand finale not even out the door yet, we haven’t locked our plans for Australian Idol for 2027. We are very happy with how the season and our judges have performed,” the spokesperson said.
In recent years, MFW has become a key agitator in pressuring broadcasters to part ways with talent. Just ask former Triple M radio host Marty Sheargold, who departed the network’s Melbourne breakfast show last February following outrage over his disparaging comments about the Matildas, Australia’s women’s soccer team, and also endometriosis.
As public uproar over his comments grew, MFW supporters started contacting advertisers on Sheargold’s show.
“That started to trickle through to me that there were some issues around a couple of key clients and that that was when I knew I was in deep, deep water,” Sheargold told the Game Changers Radio podcast recently.
“Then I spoke with Dave Cameron [then Southern Cross Austereo’s chief content officer] and he said, ‘Listen, I am going to the board to find out what they want to do. What do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘Why don’t we go our separate ways?’ I said, ‘Mate, I don’t need to know what the board want to do. I don’t need to hear from the CEO,’ and he said, ‘Well, all right, we will agree to go our separate ways’.”
Triple M, of course, is owned by Southern Cross Austereo. The same Southern Cross became the new owner of Seven earlier this year.
Ben Roberts-Smith saga inspires taxpayer-backed series
The story of Ben Roberts-Smith’s downfall from one of Australia’s most decorated – and, for a period, most celebrated – soldiers, to one facing five counts of war crime murder was always going to be a tantalising one for screenwriters. We just didn’t expect it to inspire a project so soon.
The story of the disgraced soldier appears to have inspired a new five-part series titled The Big Soldier, which has secured funding from Screen Australia. In an April funding announcement, Screen Australia does not name Roberts-Smith as a subject of the series, and it’s unclear how closely it will mirror real-life events. But the synopsis does sound familiar.
Ben Roberts-SmithSam Mooy
“When Australia’s most decorated living soldier brings a defamation case against a journalist, another battle is unleashed, one without bombs, bullets or Blackhawks; careers are ruined, reputations trashed, and the lives of many, including a young Afghan woman, are sent hurtling in unexpected directions, as the truth is eventually revealed,” the synopsis reads.
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A spokeswoman for Screen Australia declined to answer questions related to the project, deferring to its creative team.
Grand gala for Opera milestone
Melbourne’s “Operati” has turned out in force to toast a significant milestone for one of the city’s enduring high arts organisations.
Accompanied by her London-based granddaughter, Countess Zofia Krasicki von Siecin, one of the grand ladies of Melbourne, Lady Primrose Potter was among guests, many sporting serious post-nominals and impressive honorifics, at the gala at Sofitel Melbourne, marking the 21st anniversary of Victorian Opera.
Victorian Opera’s artistic director Stuart Maunder, Rachael Joyce, former premier Steve Bracks, Alessia Pintabona, Victorian Opera chair Genevieve Overell and Minister for Creative Industries Colin Brooks at the Victorian Opera’s 21st anniversary gala.Casey Horsfield/Supplied
A founding patron of the Victorian Opera, Lady Potter, now in her 90s and very much still a force of nature, is a noted philanthropist via the Ian Potter Foundation, established by her late husband, Sir Ian Potter, of which she is a life governor.
Guests, including former premier Steve Bracks, Minister for Creative Industries Colin Brooks and Victorian Opera chair Genevieve Overell and chief executive Elizabeth Hill-Cooper, were treated to performances by Antoinette Halloran, Rachael Joyce, Alessia Pintabona, Bailey Montgomerie, Samuel Dundas, John Wayne Parsons, Scotty Johns and Dr Rob Vincs.
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Fiona Byrne is the CBD columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
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