Australian Idol axes Sandilands
Updated: TEN dumps controversial judge Kyle Sandilands from its family friendly show. Sandilands says he is "disappointed."
- Published by David Knox
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Kyle Sandilands has been dumped from Australian Idol.
His axing follows a radio controversy last week in which a 14 year old girl admitted she had been raped at the age of 12 during a “lie detector” stunt.
TEN issued a statement saying: “We thank Kyle for his contribution to Australian Idol over the last four years but it has become increasingly clear that as Idol has remained a family focused show, even more so this year with the 6.30pm Sunday time slot, his radio persona has taken on a more controversial position over this period which is not in the interest of the show.
“Australian Idol is firmly a family program and the recent controversy surrounding Kyle’s radio program (The Kyle and Jackie O show) has highlighted more than ever the conflicting attitude of the two careers.
Sandilands, who also told Austereo he was unable to continue his radio show at this time, will be seen in the first three audition/Top 100 episodes of Idol, which were filmed a number of weeks ago.
FremantleMedia Australia is supportive of TEN’s decision.
Discussions regarding a replacement judge will continue over the coming weeks with a new judge to join Marcia Hines and Ian “Dicko” Dickson for the live performance shows, which commence on August 24th.
Updated: In response, King Kyle Management issued a brief comment: “I’m disappointed at Channel 10’s decision to remove me from Australian Idol. I have truly loved being a part of the show and wish everyone involved all of the sucess for this coming season.”
Australian Idol returns for its seventh series this Sunday at 6:30pm on TEN.
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102 Responses
Yes, Tony H, I never miss Media Watch, and they did outline very clearly and completely the heinous behaviour Kyle Sandilands and his associates have displayed, especially recently.
And don’t worry, Franz, I reckon since even Channel 10 were able to find it in themselves to send him packing, the Australian Piano Competition should be safe!
I think there are other people to point the finger at before you start removing people from their jobs. It starts with family, then organisers of the program. Havent we at some stage felt like a deer in head-lights, caught unaware, but luckily werent fired for it.
I think Kyle and Jackie are victims, every-one deserves another chance.
Wow, I will miss that quick humour on Australian Idol, he gave his own piece of personality to the show.
I know they deserved a fairer trial.
@Tony H: Cut Jack some slack. The only word that was noticeably wrong was his spelling of ridiculous. (typical ABC classic FM listener)
@Jack! Learn to spell you twit. Typical 2-DayFM listener.
For those of you who care – watch Monday night’s Media Watch (you can see it on the ABC website) – It shows exactly how this radio show operated and the loose morals and decency they embraced.
It’s got nothing to do with whether people like Kyle or not. It is the moms fault but also Kyle & Jackie O as well as the producers for providing a platform where minors would be quizzed about their sex life.
It’s very easy to say that Kyle is not at fault without an explanation just to defend him. At no time did he or Jackie O think that the interrogation of minors about sex on live radio was inappropriate, they just played along with it.
There is favouritism and unfavouritism towards Kyle but when you analyse the circumstances for what they are, mom, Kyle, Jackie O & the producers were all at fault. Ten wouldn’t make such decisions without careful analysis and in the end I think they made the right decision.
2009; The Year Of The Lynch Mob.
Without getting into the rights or wrongs of the people and incidents involved, this year seems to be setting a precedent for spectacular witch burnings whenever people in the broadcast media slip up.
Political Correctness is supposed to be about tolerance, as well as avoiding causing offence.
Jackie O I can deal with but Kyle Sandilands I can’t stand him.God help us all If the ABC decides to use him for Judging the Yearly Australian Piano Competitions.
This whole thing seems to be coming down to whether people like Kyle or not, rather than whether he has done something wrong in this instance. Because of this incident, votes against Kyle are multiplied by 100, so everyone’s getting their votes in while they can.
Considering there are “producers” nude covered in honey on their website I think it’s fair to say they don’t have a great deal of authority. It’s the program directors you need to look at. Austereo very much have the attitude of “do it and if we get in trouble we’ll deal with it.”
Anyone who thinks the producers or executives run this show are kidding themselves. Vile and Tacky O run the show – they have egos the size of planets and they apparently do not take direction but only give orders. Several ‘former’ producers have reported in today’s papers that Vile and Tacky O vet eveything that goes to air – it’s their show and they run it the way they want it. I guarantee they would have agreed to this segment well before it went to air – so please let’s not feel sorry for them – they are both vile and tacky!!!
Now who will fill in Kyles spot. Molly would have been awesome but is tied to 7. Mark Holden (doubt it). Hey Glenn Wheatley would be interesting………………
Kyle & Jackie-O were the Scapegoats of this whole Saga. the 2DayFM producers are PR should have paid the price for that Stunt which has brought down both Radio Personalities.
Rediculous! What do Radio shows have Producers for??? To stop things like this happening! The mother is the one at fault for asking the question on air, and even for allowing her daughter to be there in the first place … the producer should have cut the answer and gone to an add! Stop making Kyle the scapegoat!
Jack!
@David: Exactly what I was thinking when some people were posting “this affects the site’s reliability as a news source” which made no sense anyway, because the news you were posting was neither made up nor came from a dodgy source.
The issue here is not the mother. The issue is that a radio station would actually think it’s a good idea to hook a minor up to a lie detector and ask them about sex and drugs. Kyle is clearly a major player here, as he has proven by his stubborn refusal to submit to the seven-second delay. He has such an over-inflated opinion of his own importance that he actually believes he is beyond censorship. What a moron!
@TomK. Yes everyone involved is to blame but it is the presenters who are the final decision makers. They agree to go live with an item. The buck stops with them. It’s a pity J.O. isn’t equally blamed.
In terms of the stunt, I agree with TomK. I personally think the mother of the child is to blame. She knew the girl had been raped and still made her go on radio and admit that for concert tickets. She has to be one of the worlds worst mothers. Like TomK said, the station never contacted them they contacted the station. I think where Kyle went wrong was asking the girl if that had been the only time, while trying to continue the segment and the reason Jakie O has come off as the good guy is that she tried to end it. As for him getting axed, i am no fan of Kyle, but think his axing was harsh. However, on a personal note, i thought he was an awful jugde that offered nothing to the show and am glad he is gone. I just wish ten axed him for that reason, not because of this stunt
Never mind Kyle and J.O., what does it say about the people who love listening to this stuff each morning. I’m not on a moral crusade but sometimes people need to think and pull back from situations to imagine the possible outcomes when they try risky stunts. The epsiode with the women who hadn’t seen each other for years because of war in their homeland was equally if not more disturbing. I guess Kyle thinks he’ll go down in history as some great radio innovator. Like Alan Jones, John laws and John Howard he’ll be forgotten in a minute
Congratulations to Channel 10 on making a courageous decision. Idol will be much better off without Kyle.
Love or hate Sandilands, he’s been shafted by the p*ss weak Austereo. They’ve been doing these awful segments for a long time and with Sandilands’ preference of working without the 7-second safety delay it was just a matter of time before something went horribly wrong. Sandilands was surprised and caught out, live to air not knowing what to say and he said the wrong thing. Now Austereo throws up its hands, ‘Oh, shock, horror!’ You’ve got to be kidding. And as for that mother … words fail me. Shame on you, Austereo.
I’m sure if the girl’s mother, Jackie O and the producers of the radio show were all judges on Australian Idol, they would have been sacked as well. Kyle is the only relevant person to Ten, and they took the appropriate action. End of story. The mother is being investigated by the proper authorities and Austereo is dealing with the radio consequences.
If Idol is a family show, why was Sandilands on it in the first place?
Good on him. He knew better. Even Media Watch picked a story whereby he failed at doing something. I think it is his time to look at how seriously he wants to be doing his job. Come on Ten thought hard, realized they don’t want stupidity on their network. Seriously Kyle it’s called, Seriously Ten or 2Day FM! 😉
What about the 2Day FM producer of the show, and the girl’s mother in all this. Surely they are equally to blame?
But how do we expect TEN to respond to those not under its domain? I don’t think anyone assumes Sandilands is alone in the incident. He was actually in NZ at the time.
ps. Last week there were also some who suggested this story was not relevant to this site as it was a radio matter. I said at the time such stories absolutely affected Kyle’s TV brand. TEN clearly agreed.