Kyle and Jackie O’s Night with the Stars
Making the transition from radio to television is never easy, but Kyle and Jackie O would do well to better understand the core Seven audience.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under Programming, Reviews
Ok until now I’ve been a bit cheeky, with a few broadsides about the impending special by Kyle and Jackie O.
I figure given they dish it out they’re up for a bit of sporting fun. But let me put on my serious hat given I’ve now seen the show.
On a positive note, the radio penetration by Sandilands and O, otherwise known as Jackie Henderson, is outstanding. They have dominated markets, they have scored major interviews and exclusives (as recently as yesterday) and they attract media attention with regularity. Love them or loathe them, they have shown they resonate with radio audiences, built around Sandilands’ gift of the gab.
Television is a different animal. While Sandilands has proven successful on at least three profile shows (Australian Idol, Australia’a Got Talent and The X Factor), Jackie O is yet to forge any success. She is frequently branded the “kiss of death,” including some shows that were poorly produced and beyond her control.
Radio stars crossing to Television is littered with casualties. For some perplexing reason, so many media stars are never satisfied with being at the top of their game in one medium. Must they have it all?
The first sign of trouble on Kyle and Jackie O’s Night with the Stars was the poor audio quality, with a hollow studio vacuum that lacked intimacy.
A huge desk that separating the hosts from the guests exacerbated this intimacy.
A studio audience could be heard applauding, but there were no shots of them. On occasions there was even canned applause. While Sandilands has taken many famous potshots at Rove McManus, he has seemingly learned little from his kind about creating an environment that invites the viewer into the space.
The stars that appeared on the show might suit a Gen Y radio audience but I suspect many of Seven’s broad audience would have been waiting for the stars to arrive. We got Nick Cannon, Janice Dickinson, Kendra Wilkinson and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino. Most have made their names working in Reality TV shows which play in Australia on Pay Television.
Each attempted to be upbeat and laugh along with the hosts, with an occasional anecdote. Cannon’s story about a charity and Wilkinson sharing a story about her father-in-law having cancer were the best of an otherwise dull bunch.
Kyle and Jackie O. talked a lot. A lot. It often felt like everyone was talking “at” each other rather than “with” each other, in an effort to top the preceding remark either in volume or punchlines.
Too much of the programme consisted of three people talking at one time. As a result it lacked direction.
Sandilands also fronted a few pre-recorded clips, the best of which was him getting bored during a Justin Bieber interview. At least it showed a bit of his trademark snark.
Jackie O. spent an inordinate amount of time wading through Top 5 lists of celebrity marriages, separations like they were important until we hit rock bottom with a list of celebrity nude photos, peppered by Janice Dickinson’s escapades with former sexual partners. What had we done to deserve this?
The more base these conversations got the more thrill the subjects seemed to elicit. Are ratings points directly proportionate to the amount of times we can say the words sex, naked or appendages?
At Dickinson’s request, Sandlilands also opted to go the grope with her enhanced boobs. When in LA, I guess…
By this time I was wondering if the show had any understanding of the core audience. Was I really watching the same network with Packed to the Rafters and Downton Abbey?
Thankfully the charming Michael Buble saved the day, via satellite, with an all too brief chat before we got a video clip.
Kyle and Jackie O’s Night with the Stars was a very long affair without enough depth or comedy. As television it made for good radio.
68 Responses
There full of themselves on radio and now on tv just please go away.
There full of themselves on radio and now on tv get just please go away.
It was absolute trash tv made by Janice Dickinson..
but it was fabulous!
It’s Junk.You”ll never beat Rove or Oprah with a show like this so why even bother.
@Buddha I think this was Seven’s attempt to pacify Kyle. He probably wanted his own telly show, so they gave him what he wanted. He may have been threatening to walk, like Daryl Somers did a few years back when Seven wouldn’t revive Hey Hey for him. Since it flopped, he will not keep pestering them about getting his own show and will stay with the network for now.
Jackie O no!
What a mega flop. A radio show on television. No thanks. Where were the stars?
I just can’t get my head around what logic Seven used to agree to green-light this show. Popstars was a hit because it was new and the format worked – not because of Jackie O. Since then everything she’s done for TV hasn’t worked. Kyle’s “popularity” on TV as opposed to Sydney radio can’t be quantified, in my opinion.
People watch AGT in increasing numbers for the variety of unusual acts (and enhanced by classier production values since series 2). He was next to useless as a mentor on the first Seven series of X Factor – this year, with a credible judging panel and vastly enhanced production values, series 2 has fired. The hosting of the last season of Big Brother with K & J O was appaling and most real BB fans reacted to Gretel’s dumping with distain. The pair simply do not work on TV. Add to that history Karl’s sickies and absences from all of the shows he’s appeared on – should make any network management wary of touching them.
Back to last night. David’s critique is spot on. Even if there was a market in younger demo females for this celebrity trash on the the main Seven channel, the guest list and the general production (and technical) quality including segment placements in the running order was all seriously flawed.
I reckon Seven’s inside quality control and creative supervision must have treated their LA trip as a holiday (or way up high really don’t care and were going through the motions in order to keep him signed with AGT) because normaly something this flawed presented to management of Seven for review prior to air would not have made it through without re-cuts, re-shooting or even canning.
As for the ratings – at nearly 600k viewers it wasn’t really successful as people here are suggesting it is. That rating is an average of the 4 quarter hours over the duration of the show, across the metro and regional markets. However, when you look at the OzTam city by city and quarter hour by quarter hour breakdown, it’s a different story. The high-ish fiqure people are quoting is not reflective of the reality because the first quarter hour is highly inflated as it’s actually coming off the back of X Factor. The second quarter hour in each city halves in numbers and the subsequent 2 quarters continue to drop. Brisbane’s figures after the X Factor-led first quarter are actually appaling for the timeslot.
Kyle and Jackie O’s Night with the Tryhard Stars was a resounding flop in the ratings. Deservedly so.
it need some changes, thats for sure.
in my opinion, they need to model it after rove (weather kyle likes it or not) last night was just a mess in some places, and some bits felt really flat, and they need more than just talking to “celebrities”, more of the pre recorded stuff, and live performances at the end would be much better than playing a snippet of a music video.
didnt notice any of the poor sound quality or pictures as mentioned by others, but the canned audience was appalling
i think it has a chance of returning next year an i hope it does, its what FTA has been missing since rove left
theyre not made for tv… stick to radio, guys!
is it just me or were their voices different? they sounded slightly chipmunky. i listen to their show all the time and it sounded nothing like them.
I didn’t even bother tuning in, after Rove on Fox8 nothing really interested me on TV last night.
utter bloody rubbish
I’ve Never listened to these two people on the radio.
I didn’t see the show, thankfully, but you are absolutely right about radio “stars” on the whole being most unsuccessful when swapping to TV – the vault of canned Aussie TV shows is littered with them; Alan Jones, John Laws, Merrick and Rosso, Hamish and Andy, Kyle and Jackie O. The only radio personalities I can think of who has had a successful TV career is Andrew Denton (former breakfast show host on 2MMM).
I like them on the radio. They should stay there.
Move over Ted McGinley, Jackie O = Queen of the shark jump!
Wasn’t really a fan of the show. Like it has been said, it would have been good for radio, but not TV.
I enjoyed the Nick Cannon interview, although I didn’t like how Kyle and Jackie kept interrupting him and talking about themselves.
Honestly, the show wasn’t terrible. It was “meh”. And for a show called “A Night With The Stars” – with commercials running for weeks asking “which big stars will be on the show?” – all they served up was a bunch of e-listers.
The canned applause was really odd. I couldn’t understand why it was placed where it was and it sounded amazingly fake. The whole things was really poorly directed. At one stage they referred to a picture they were looking at, but there wasn’t a camera on the screen displaying it.
The Top 5s all seemed to be topped by the Kardashians, and even their reality show guests seemed to be befuddled as to why Kim Kardashian’s wedding would be a bigger deal than that of Prince William. (Note to Jackie: it wasn’t. Even in “Hollywood”.)
Kyle’s ridiculous pre-taped “search for Bieber” was awful, and obviously faked anyway. Kyle had an interview with Justin at his record company HQ – why did he have to drive around Hollywood asking transexual hookers where Justin was?
Meanwhile, Jackie did do three seasons of Popstars. It was 10 years ago and followed by several flops, but it was a very successful show (for a time), so I think you have to at least give her that.
Early Popstars success is a fair point, although it wasn’t me suggesting the “kiss of death.” Strangely, even Kyle mentioned it last night.
Just saw the numbers – exactly what this turkey deserved. I lasted two minutes.
Very few radio personalities make it on TV – Merrick and Rosso, Hamish and Andy, even Alan Jones failed years ago. I agree with Anastasia – the one interview I saw the picture quality looked cheap – like it was done via skype or something.
I agree with most of your review David, though obviously the sound and desk issues were the fault of the audio department and set designers respectively.
Why would anyone have watched this when ‘The Hour’ was on the ABC?
Just awful.
Why start with Mariah Carey’s husband?
Does he mean anything to Australians, surely Mariah should have been the guest.
Embarrassing, cringeworthy, sleazy and those nude pics, while teenagers were waiting for Justin Bieber?
Goodbye from television Kyle and Jackie 0.
just an attempt to out do rove. they did it badly