Jackie O project surges amid $82m showdown<\/a><\/p>\nBut even if the ratings haven\u2019t been as brutal as they could have been, ARN still has the problem of finding A-list talent.<\/p>\n
News.com.au understands that Aussie star Sophie Monk, comedian and radio veteran Dave \u2018Hughesy\u2019 Hughes and former radio talent-turned podcast duo Toni and Ryan are just some of the top-tier talent that at this point aren\u2019t interested.<\/p>\n
When news.com.au approached Hughesy, he said he has a \u201cnever say never\u201d mindset, but right now it\u2019s not happening.<\/p>\n
The keenest at the moment seems to be Bianca Dye, who filled in for a few weeks, but she\u2019s not a household name. <\/p>\n
She is also working the room, so to speak, by replying to Facebook comments advocating for her to get the job in radio fan groups.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a growing theory that Karl Stefanovic\u2019s Friday afternoon show is a soft launch for the broadcaster.<\/p>\n
Then, once his contract is done and dusted at Nine in December, he\u2019ll make the play for breakfast.<\/p>\n
But the growing success of his podcast makes that a hard rumour to rely on. Why bother with gruelling breakfast hours if he\u2019s already created the perfect job for himself? <\/p>\n
Another insider pointed out that the ratings blow isn\u2019t something the broadcaster can brush off as growing pains.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ratings are terrible, and this is all just the beginning, and this is not going to get better,\u201d the insider claimed.<\/p>\n
They added that such a low share is a \u201cbrand new\u201d reality for the broadcaster, which has ridden the Kyle and Jackie O high for over a decade.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also the added problem that ARN has been slow to replace The Kyle and Jackie O Show, and the audience is dropping. <\/p>\n
Mike E is hosting the breakfast show, but is seen more as a \u201ctemporary permanent\u201d replacement. <\/p>\n
To co-host with him, the broadcaster has been rotating talent from Bianca Dye to Abbie Chatfield, but clearly that strategy isn\u2019t resonating. <\/p>\n
The insider pointed out that the longer ARN takes to put together a new show, the harder it will be to win back audiences, and the bigger job it\u2019ll be for whoever takes the microphone to turn it all around. <\/p>\n
\u201cLogically, you\u2019d want to move quickly while there is still an audience, but the longer they go without \u2026 the steeper the hill is going to be to climb,\u201d the insider claimed. <\/p>\n
\u201cBreakfast in general is difficult. The hours are tough, and the scrutiny is through the roof. It\u2019s tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
The insider theorised that another reason ARN will find it hard to attract A-list talent is how things ended with Kyle and Jackie.<\/p>\n
Their 10-year, $10 million contracts were both torn up after an on-air spat on February 20. Kyle was famously terminated for \u201cserious misconduct\u201d and Jackie was let go after she allegedly claimed she could no longer work with him. <\/p>\n
\u201cARN have shown they don\u2019t stand by their shows. You don\u2019t have much job safety,\u201d the insider claimed. <\/p>\n
It certainly has not been a clean break. Both Kyle and Jackie have launched separate legal proceedings disputing their terminations.<\/p>\n
In a worst-case scenario, the company could be up for over $160 million if it loses both cases. ARN is currently worth less than $100 million. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARN is on the hunt to replace both Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson \u2013 but the A-list…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[338582,64,63,689,99457,353841,353838,163408,353834,447,194370,16289,134,2456,353842,353833,36272,136381,795,72253,353832,353836,12304,53493,264547,647,673,677,353830,353837,17304,353839,353835,273425,353831,670,353840,660],"class_list":["post-731011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-afternoon-show","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-bianca-dye","tag-breakfast-crisis","tag-breakfast-radio-spot","tag-breakfast-show","tag-brutal-ratings","tag-celebrities","tag-clean-break","tag-eddie-mcguire","tag-entertainment","tag-facebook","tag-fan-groups","tag-fear-replacing","tag-growing-pains","tag-household-name","tag-inc","tag-jackie-o-henderson","tag-jackie-o-kiis-fm","tag-job-safety","tag-karl-stefanovic","tag-kyle-sandilands","tag-mary-madigan","tag-melbourne","tag-new-south-wales","tag-oceania","tag-podcast-duo","tag-prime-breakfast","tag-radio-ratings","tag-ratings-blow","tag-ratings-plummet","tag-sophie-monk","tag-star-talent","tag-sydney","tag-temporary-permanent","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731011","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=731011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}