Astrology blew up Kyle’s last show. It’s no accident his new show started with a psychic

It’s nearly forgotten now, amid the multimillion-dollar settlements and grandiose legal threats, but the implosion of The Kyle & Jackie O Show all began with an exchange about astrology.

In February, Jackie “O” Henderson tried to read Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s Pisces chart on-air. Kyle Sandilands responded with an angry tirade accusing his co-host of being “fixated” on the subject.

“You’re off with the fairies, you are unfocused, you don’t give a shit,” he roared.

What a surprise then that Sandilands’ eponymous new subscription-based show, which launched on Monday, began with a dose of the paranormal, or what the shock-jock termed “the woo-woo shit”.

Sandilands’ first guest was American psychic John Edward, who handled questions about whether he had seen “anyone giving themselves a fiddle” in the afterlife.

“I’m not even that against woo-woo,” Sandilands said of the first segment.

“It’s just woo-woo 24/7, which was driving everyone up the wall.”

Despite cultivating a chaotic, unhinged on-air persona, everything Sandilands does is deliberate. You do not dominate the airwaves for more than 20 years without a fair dose of Machiavellian cunning.

Apart from the obvious push to get back behind the golden mic, every move Sandilands has made since The Kyle & Jackie O Show was taken off-air six months ago has been motivated by a desire to “win” the break-up with Henderson, and to thumb his nose at his former employers.

So you can bet there was nothing purely incidental about the decision to kick-off Monday’s show by interviewing a medium. Similarly, there was nothing incidental about Sandilands’ decision to show up to preliminary court hearings in a Rolls-Royce. And there was also the curious case of the affidavits that detailed his strained relationship with Henderson being filed hours before reaching a $12 million settlement with KIIS FM owner ARN. His former employers can now use that evidence to defend Henderson’s ongoing legal claim against the network.

Sandilands’ case against the network is resolved, but he still made a point of poaching a conga-line of production and on-air talent from KIIS FM, with newsreader Brooklyn Ross the latest to jump ship days before going to air.

“It was like the Temu version of The Kyle & Jackie O Show that’s going to air there,” Sandilands said of KIIS’ new morning product.

If anything, Kyle Sandilands Live sounded like a Temu version of an established radio show, its clunky first episode riddled with technical snafus. The sound was a total mess, producers’ background conversations were often audible.

“We’re off to a clunky start,” Sandilands admitted.

The host tried to bat away the teething troubles with jokes about how his manager Bruno Bouchet “didn’t have enough crushed-up Ritalin to get the phone system on”, but the amateurish quality was obvious.

Not that ARN executives will be cheering on Sandilands’ downfall too aggressively – under the terms of their settlement, the network retains a 19.9 per cent stake of the revenue from his new show.

Sandilands won’t mind either. He’s gotten exactly what he wanted with a quick return to the airwaves. And this whole episode has affirmed his tremendous survival instinct.

Despite The Kyle & Jackie O Show collapsing amid allegations of bullying, Sandilands remains heavily courted by politicians obsessed with winning over Toyota HiLux Australia.

NSW Premier Chris Minns, a Labor man who loves AC/DC and UFC, cut the ribbon. Sandilands got away with telling him he looked like a “meth head” during a recent encounter in the Blue Mountains. Minns said he had been worried about Sandilands after the show went off-air.

“I was concerned for you, but I’m glad this is up and running. This is fantastic,” Minns said.

“No, I like Kyle, and they’re [Kyle Sandilands Live] a big employer in NSW,” Minns told reporters, when asked about the appearance by journalists on Monday morning.

Sandilands said he liked Minns because “you don’t seem very Labor”.

Up next was resurgent One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who Sandilands has taken to calling “Aunty Pauline” and who he insisted was “not a racist”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who controversially attended Sandilands’ 2023 wedding, was slated to phone in but pulled out late. Sandilands boasted that all three politicians had reached out to him after The Kyle & Jackie O Show collapsed.

That three of the most powerful people in the country want a piece of Kyle’s return is no accident either. It doesn’t really matter that his $100 million contract with ARN is now a cautionary tale, or that the mics don’t work on his new show.

Sandilands still knows what he wants, and is still very good at making sure he gets it.

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