It’s a Machiavellian plot twist as Kyle’s revenge against his former co-host is served up in court.
In this edition of Media McKnight:
- Kyle’s Revenge against Jackie O in court
- News24’s election night disaster
- 9News claims ratings win but 7NEWS has reason to smile
You can watch the video version of Media McKnight in the YouTube player below:
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KYLE’S COURT TWIST AGAINST JACKIE O
Has Kyle Sandilands thrown Jackie O under the bus in her court case with ARN?
And did he do it on purpose?
I think the answer to both questions is a resounding YES.
Let me explain:
The judge in Jackie’s case has ruled the affidavits filed by Kyle and his manager – Bruno Buchet – can be used by ARN in Jackie’s case.
But Justice Stewart seemed confused in his ruling about why Kyle and Bruno actually filed affidavits just before settling their case with ARN.
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His judgement seemed to indicate they did not need to provide them at all.
The affidavits from Sandilands and Bouchet were filed with the court on the same day a deed of release was executed (i.e. the date of the settlement with ARN).
“There is no explanation as to why the affidavits were nevertheless filed” Justice Stewart wrote in his findings.
“Conjecture as to that reason will serve no purpose. The relevant point is that the information in the affidavits was not disclosed under any form of compulsion”.
The upshot is that Sandilands and Bouchet did not need to file an affidavit when a settlement had been reached.
And their lawyers knew that, but they filed the affidavits anyway.
The only conclusion I can come up with is Kyle wanted to throw a grenade at Jackie’s case against ARN, which is still progressing through the courts.
As Employment Lawyer Michael Byrnes from SWAAB told me in the video edition of Media McKnight:
“If Kyle wanted to throw a hand grenade to Jackie, one way of doing it would be to file the affidavits”
“It’s one of the great mysteries of the world as to why those affidavits were filed”.
For the record, Kyle and Bruno’s lawyers did object to the use of the affidavits by ARN, but their objections were never going to hold up in court.
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That’s because the affidavits were not supplied under compulsion because there was no requirement to file them.
It’s the perfect game to play if you want to appear as though you still support the person who destroyed your career but you also want revenge: supply affidavits when not compelled to, offer a lame defence to try and stop them being used, but knowing the contents could be harmful to Jackie O’s claims against ARN.
It’s worth noting the affidavits submitted by Kyle and Bruno have not been made public at this point, so there is some conjecture here.
But, if the affidavits challenge Jackie’s claims and paint her in a bad light, then it would be the perfect revenge.
And Kyle could spin it so that he is an innocent player in the case against Jackie. His lawyers are too clever to make a mistake by submitting affidavits that are not needed.
It’s Machiavellian it’s so devious.
But Kyle isn’t done yet.
You might have noticed he’s been making a lot of noise lately about how he and Jackie have still been communicating by text.
That’s not a good look for someone who she has accused of systemic bullying and harassment and there’s no doubt ARN will be subpoenaing those messages. Jackie’s only defence will be if her responses are short and cordial, rather than engaging in long streams of conversation.
At the end of the day, does Kyle really want Jackie walking away with a bigger payout than him?
He’d feel like a loser if that happened.
Kyle couldn’t have disrupted Jackie’s case against ARN more if he tried.
A BAD DAY FOR BREAKING NEWS
Covering news certainly comes with its challenges and newsrooms were put to the test today covering the Victorian leadership spill.
Sky News, now rebranded as News24, usually covers breaking news like this very well, but today things just didn’t go according to plan.
News24 missed the announcement that Ben Carroll had been victorious in claiming the Labor leadership from Jacinta Allan.
They were playing an advertorial at the time and, despite bailing out of the commercial break, missed the results.
While the results of the Victorian Labor leadership spill were being announced, NEWS24 (formerly SKY NEWS) was in a commercial break
Meanwhile, the ABC aired the whole thing. Their reporter had earlier explained to viewers the meeting had to be concluded by midday due to Parliament sitting.
Someone forgot to tell News24.
They made the bizarre decision to take a break at 11.54am.
Just six minutes before midday (and if you’ve ever watched Sky News/News24 you’d know their commercial breaks go for about five minutes).
This is why the line producer role in the control room is vital during breaking news.
Everyone on the team should be feeding into that person so they can make informed decisions about where to go next.
Did anyone think to tell the line producer to expect an announcement before midday?
But it wasn’t just the announcement that went wrong for the rebranded Sky News.
Earlier, a major audio malfunction made it hard to hear what hosts were saying.
The crystal clear studio audio was replaced with a very soft feed that seemed to be coming from a low-level mix-minus feed. You can hear what happened in the video player above.
While the studio audio was barely audible, the audio from the live cross in Melbourne was perfect.
That can happen during a live broadcast, but what makes this unforgivable is the issue continued for 6 minutes and 48 seconds.
Was anybody watching?
Was anybody listening?
There are so many solutions to fix an issue like this.
- Tell the guest in Melbourne to keep talking, and explain that viewers can’t hear the audio of the studio.
- Inform the hosts in the studio to keep quiet and not try to talk to the Melbourne guest due to the audio issue.
- Get the Melbourne reporter onsite to front the camera and tell them to keep speaking until otherwise instructed.
- Once they are lined up, have the Melbourne guest throw to them.
It’s pretty easy and gives you a short-term solution while the issue is fixed.
To have a mistake like this airing for almost 7 minutes is unforgivable.
Amateur hour.
VICTORY IS OURS!
9NEWS Melbourne has claimed the ratings crown for 2026, following recent wins for Nine in Sydney and Brisbane, based on the traditional 40 week survey.
The Melbourne news team just clocked up win 21, meaning they can’t be beaten under that metric.
I’ve always lived by the weekly win scenario, but that’s becoming problematic with ratings available all year round now.
But, Nine has also revealed average audiences from the year… and on that metric they’re also coming out in front in those markets.
In the 2026 Survey Year to date, 9 is winning in Sydney 248,000 to 209,100.
In Melbourne it’s 278,000 to 7’s 255,400.
And in Brisbane it’s 224,000 to 158,300.
Nine also put out the 5 city metro figures but they’re meaningless now.
News services are local, so it makes sense to judge each network city by city, but if you want an overall figure you have to go national. That’s the metric now – as determined by the networks themselves.
If you want to talk national figures, you can’t just focus on the old 5 Cap City. Nationally, 7NEWS holds a commanding lead thanks to Adelaide and big wins in Perth. In fact, in the survey year to date 7NEWS has 1.395 million (up 3.2% YoY) compared to 9NEWS on 1.270 million (down -1.6% YoY).
Nine has reason to be happy winning Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, but Seven gets to take bragging rights nationally.
Judge Rob has ruled.
Media McKnight is published on YouTube every Tuesday at 8pm AEST at YouTube.com/@McKnightTonight.
The article goes live on the TV Blackbox website every Wednesday morning.
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