The first episode of Kyle and Jackie O’s new television show A Night With the Stars, has rated poorly and has received widespread criticism on Twitter. In the aftermath of the show, two companies have pulled their advertising from 2Day FM’s Kyle and Jackie breakfast show.
The 90-minute special, filmed last week in Los Angeles, made its debut on Channel Seven last night. It was essentially a television version of the pair’s radio show, featuring celebrity interviews, footage from their 2Day FM radio show, and according to the show’s advertisement was supposed to be “controversial.”
“I gave it five minutes,” tweeted Kate Fox. “That’s all the time I can afford to spare on #KyleAndJackieO before my brain implodes.”
Diba Nikanpour agreed: “After watching 3 seconds of the disaster that is the #kyleandjackieO show. I have come to my senses and regained focus.” While Abby Tonkin wrote, “This #kyleandjackieo special is seriously awkward viewing. Like watching a car crash.”
The show had a lead-in audience of 1.43 million, but only 254,920 watched until the end of the episode. A Channel Seven spokesman described this as a “very, very disappointing” debut and “not the result we wanted.” These rating can be contrasted to Seven’s drama Wild Boys, which drew 860,000 viewers last Sunday, and was axed due to low viewer numbers.
Guests included Mariah Carey’s husband and America’s Got Talent host Nick Cannon, reality show stars Kendra Wilkinson and Mike Sorrentino, former supermodel Janice Dickinson, and singers Michael Buble and Justin Bieber.
Given the pair’s radio format, their on-screen escapades were likely to be perceived as unsurprising. For example, while interviewing Bieber, Kyle Sandilands supposedly showed the teenager naked pictures of other celebrities.
Later, Sandilands drove through the streets of Los Angeles in a Rolls Royce to converse with prostitutes, and in another segment he groped the breasts of Janice Dickinson. The show also featured uncensored photos of celebrity ‘nude scandals’, with pictures of Scarlett Johannson, Rihanna and Kanye West included in this section.
Channel Seven has confirmed that Kyle will be back on air next year with Australia’s Got Talent, but if Night With The Stars returns the format will definitely be revised.
In video footage recorded after the event, Sandilands made his co-host laugh whilst summarising the show by saying, “next time we do this, if there is a next time…” to which Sandilands responded, “have you already heard [that] there’s no next time?” The camera stopped rolling seconds later.
Channel 9’s Celebrity Apprentice finale won top spot for the night, with 1.617 million viewers. The Big Bang Theory also delivered strong numbers for Nine, with 1.369 million viewers.
In a perceptive review, Fairfax Media’s entertainment editor Giles Hardie, an experienced tv producer trained at AFTRS, analysed the technical aspects of the show saying, “it was a radio show on television… they sat behind a desk the size of the ocean…” See his review below.
