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ARN Media, the company that until recently was the home of The Kyle and Jackie O Show, may be engulfed in legal fights with its star presenters, as they push to get paid out the remainder of their $200 million deal.<\/p>\n
But ARN chief executive Michael Stephenson appears to have other things on his mind. The former Nine salesman has been sounding out a number of big names across the Australian media business in an effort to defibrillate the company\u2019s program slate \u2013 and arrest the company\u2019s plummeting share price.<\/p>\n
The latest big-name talent to receive a call from the company is the Seven Network\u2019s former Sunrise co-host Samantha Armytage, according to two sources familiar with the approach. Armytage is host of The Golden Bachelor, broadcast by Nine Entertainment, publisher of this masthead.<\/p>\n
![\"Sam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/b2005b381d606f5c982d499e127a9ea7643faa4c.jpeg\")
Sam Armytage at the 2025 Logies Awards in Sydney.Sitthixay Ditthavong<\/p>\n
Apparently the parties have yet to meet, one of the sources said, and there haven\u2019t been any formal discussions over a deal. Still, Armytage becomes the latest in a string of big names who ARN has kicked the tires on over a possible contract, as it develops \u201cseveral new shows<\/a>\u201d. ARN and Armytage declined to comment.<\/p>\n The highest-profile talent being chased, as regular readers of this column would no doubt recall, is Today show co-host and right-wing podcaster Karl Stefanovic<\/a>, whose signature has become a priority for ARN, CBD hears. The company has also sounded out Eddie McGuire, though it\u2019s unclear whether he\u2019d be interested in such a move.<\/p>\n Related Article The approaches represent a harried move into the talent market for ARN this year. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, CBD hears agents across the business have been clamouring to get their clients in front of the company\u2019s leadership team, now it\u2019s known that Stepho and Co are on a shopping spree.<\/p>\n The talent frenzy, of course, makes up just one corner of the circus that has engulfed ARN as it faces not one but two major legal battles with its own presenters.<\/p>\n As a result, one of the high-profile agents we wouldn\u2019t expect to be involved in the talent feeding frenzy is Gemma O\u2019Neill, best known for managing Jackie \u201cO\u201d Henderson. On Tuesday, ARN told investors Henderson had followed her former co-host Kyle Sandilands and launched legal action in pursuit of the $82 million remaining on her contract.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill, as it turns out, also worked briefly with Armytage last year, according to two sources familiar with their relationship. While those close to the pair insist they\u2019re on good terms, we can only guess it wasn\u2019t fruitful, given the arrangement lasted only a few months before they split in July last year.<\/p>\n But then again, O\u2019Neill had a lot on her plate. The company she had operated for years went into voluntary liquidation late last year, with more than $540,000 in debts. The overwhelming majority of that was owed to the Australian Tax Office.<\/p>\n A statutory liquidator\u2019s report filed with the corporate regulator on March 19 by Grant Thornton said the firm\u2019s initial investigations into O\u2019Neill indicate her company became insolvent as early as December 2, 2024. O\u2019Neill didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment in time for publication.<\/p>\n However that matter shakes out, we have no doubt O\u2019Neill will be crossing all her limbs in the hope Henderson gets anywhere close to the $82 million and change she\u2019s trying to extract from ARN via the court \u2013 from which we\u2019d expect O\u2019Neill to take a cut. After all, she\u2019s got bills to pay.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n News Corp\u2019s $281,000 new loos<\/p>\n Every time we hear the words \u201cNews Corp\u201d and \u201ctoilets\u201d in the same sentence, it\u2019s difficult to suppress the thought of long-time Murdoch lieutenant and former editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph Col Allan relieving himself<\/a> in the sink of his office.<\/p>\n Related Article But more than 20 years after Allan\u2019s former News Corp colleague and Crikey founder Stephen Mayne posted that tale online, it looks like staff of the Daily Telegraph, The Australian and news.com.au<\/a> may finally get some bathrooms worthy of relieving themselves in.<\/p>\n One of two development applications lodged with the City of Sydney for News Corp Australia\u2019s Holt Street headquarters proposes an upgrade to the building\u2019s bathrooms, and to allow for compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act. The new loos are set to cost about $281,000, according to the application.<\/p>\n According to the site plans filed with the council, it looks like the men\u2019s and women\u2019s bathrooms on levels one through five, where the company\u2019s executives sit, are set for a revamp. We hear they\u2019ve long been due for a refresh.<\/p>\n The second development application relates to a proposal for \u201cminor alterations and additions\u201d to the building, at a cost of $704,655. The site plans were pretty light on detail. Thankfully we aren\u2019t just stupid \u2013 a neighbour wrote in to express their concerns over the noise that could be generated by what \u201cappears to be the addition\u201d of two air-conditioning units on the roof of the citadel.<\/p>\n New loos and air-conditioning? A News Corp spokesman was in no mood to entertain our queries.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>. <\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Karl](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/add32be686e667ac2e811b53c770db85f4dd226b.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"SMH](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/011c9f30fb8d7cc32ac7f7d6546e5e41a724dad0.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ab5a84e8e0d496a18d8ee0840b9e76db665bd930dbec056bbdff735781725ddd.png\")
John Buckley<\/a> is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 2, 2026 \u2014 5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-579386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}