Are we surprised that a woman has walked away from one of the most lucrative contracts in Australian media?
Not when the woman in question shares a workspace with Kyle Sandilands, who, for years, has famously shared a brand of crude humour resulting in numerous complaints/
Some would be surprised by how long the tolerance for her co-host lasted.
But now more than two decades after they first started presenting together, the Kyle and Jackie O Show is officially done, following ARN’s announcement on Tuesday that Jackie Henderson has officially walked away following an on-air argument with her co-host back on February 20.
Their $200 million, 10-year deal, which was set to end in 2034, has ended, with ARN Media declaring that “Ms Jacqueline Henderson has given notice that she ‘cannot continue to work with Mr Kyle Sandiland’.'”
“Accordingly, ARN has terminated the services agreement with Henderson Media Pty Ltd, under which Ms Henderson presents the Kyle and Jackie O show. Ms Henderson will cease to present the Kyle and Jackie O show.”
So was it merely about one argument? Was it an on-air bullying incident, as some have claimed? Was it Jackie O not being able to “move on” from Sandilands’ banter, as others have suggested? Was it an escape?
Or was it really a combination of things that led Sandilands to go too far (which is saying a lot, given previous comments) and allegedly attacking Henderson on air, to the point that she’s declared she can “no longer work with him”?
Indeed, behind the big media stories and gossip about whether they could rebuild the relationship lies something else: ratings and revenue pressures.
There has been continued pressure from social media activist group Mad Fucking Witches to keep records of what Sandilands is sharing on air, and to ensure that advertisers are aware of what’s being said during the show, whose ads appear in. The campaign has, over the years, successfully eaten into the advertising revenue of the radio shows that air the program. They’ve documented every advertisers who has walked.
Meanwhile, after expanding into Melbourne, the pair couldn’t meet the ratings targets they were expected to deliver.
So, was it Henderson that finally broke, or was it actually Sandilands — dealing with the current pressures of the job and the realities of a market that has been catching on to a history of crude behaviour — who decided to start questioning his co-host’s work ethic back on February 20?
So much so that Henderson’s manager has reportedly said that their client has felt “unsafe” in her working environment.
Listening to the audio of the argument, Henderson sounds genuinely upset by Sandilands comments.
During that fateful show, Sandilands told Jackie O that her “fixation” on astrology charts “has made you almost unworkable”, just as Jackie O was reading from Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s astrology birth chart.
“You are off with the faires with this shit, it’s mental,” Sandilands said.
He added that her interest in astrology made her sound like a “drug addict”.
Henderson responded that the accusations were “unfair” and that, “I would never say things like that about you.”
“It’s a total attack, it really is. Kyle, to say ‘you don’t know what the F is going on, you’re not doing your job,’ that’s an attack, and I wouldn’t do that.”
Sandilands now has to prove within 14 days that he did not breach his contract over an “act of serious misconduct” on that particular show.
Meanwhile, ARN said it has offered Henderson the “possibility of an alternative show” on the ARN network
On signing the famously lucrative deal in 2023, Sandilands said, “love us or loathe us, Jackie and I will be continuing with our politically incorrect nonsense for a long, long time.”
Three years in, his cohost was done with the nonsense.
And perhaps Sandilands was done with the pressure.