Abbie Chatfield reveals 'real reason' behind Kyle and Jackie O's ratings drop

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson have been branded a “failure” in Melbourne after the most recent radio ratings revealed they’d lost 71,000 listeners in the last six weeks – but not all may be as it seems.

In a surprising TikTok posted on Monday, Abbie Chatfield - who has previously called out Kyle over “misogynistic” remarks he’s made on-air - came to the defence of the KIIS FM shock jock. The 29-year-old branded the Australian radio ratings system “complete bulls**t”, revealing how the figures are calculated and how the “inaccuracies” around this were one of the reasons she quit her national night show with the Hit Network last year.

“The way that radios have their rating system done is via a survey, and the survey isn’t some sort of like, overarching title of what happens in terms of seeing the actual downloads of the actual numbers of the actual streams or whatever. It’s literally a survey. It’s a paper book,” the FBoy Island host claimed.

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“A paper book that comes around to random houses, and one time I got the survey while I had my radio show. What they ask random people to do is fill out who you’re listening to and when and on what kind of device. So it would be like, ‘At 6:15 to 6:30 I listened to Kyle & Jackie O, then at 6:30 to 6:45 I listened to Fitzy & Wippa, and it was on a radio, it was in my car’, tick tick tick. That is not accurate.”

Abbie argued that “there’s no way” a paper book going around to random houses accurately represents what people are listening to on the radio - if they’re even listening at all. She also pointed out that those who never engage with the medium would likely lie about their listening habits as they “feel too awkward” to send it back blank.

“It is literally like it is from 1910. It is f**king deplorable that people are on millions and millions and millions of dollars a year based on a rating system that is a lie,” she claimed.

Kyle and Jackie O's downfall in Melbourne

The TV personality also shared that she believes The Kyle & Jackie O Show is currently rated as the fourth biggest show in Melbourne because people “don’t recognise their names as well” compared to their rivals who have been broadcasting across Victoria for years.

“Maybe they don’t like them as people as well and people are going, ‘F**k you, I won’t put you down for the ratings’, but I honestly think it’s people in their habits and they know that Fifi, Fev & Nick are on Fox and they go, ‘I’ve seen their posters around’,” she continued.

“I think it all comes down to frequency of billboards, I think it comes down to social media marketing, it comes down to publicity and headlines in that area. It isn’t actually about the f**king show.

In another bold move, Abbie also called out the entire radio industry for going along with what she believes are “seriously inflated numbers” to attract more advertisers – when in reality she believes “no one listens to f**king radio” anymore.

In a statement provided to Yahoo Lifestyle, a Commercial Radio Australia spokesperson said: "GfK has a rigorous ratings system in place which draws on data collected from 50,000 respondents annually across the five capital cities and over 60,000 when including the Main Regional markets. New respondents are included in the surveys every week ensuring a constant refreshing of the data included. The sample used is also controlled both by region, age, and gender, ensuring it represents the population that it is reporting on.

"GfK Radio360 data is collected via multiple data sources, not solely a paper diary. In fact, 80 per cent of diaries are done online using eDiaries while 20 per cent from paper diaries. The new GfK Radio 360 ratings system, introduced in 2023, ensured we collect live radio streaming data directly from the radio stations and established a 2000 panel with the GfK MediaWatch (wearable listening meter) which also supports the industry ratings system.”

Kyle Sandilands finally reveals annual salary

Abbie's post about the radio industry comes just a few weeks after Kyle revealed his eye-watering salary live on air. There’s been plenty of speculation about how much money the 53-year-old earns each year after he and his co-host Jackie announced they’d signed a new 10-year deal with KIIS FM in November.

While it was initially reported that their new contract would see them each make $100 million over the next 10 years - with an annual salary of $10 million - Kyle has now revealed this is untrue. In fact, he said they’ll actually be making substantially more money.

“I can’t live with the lie, it’s underreported. It’s actually about another $50 million each,” Kyle said, which means the pair will take home $15 million a year each.

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As Jackie protested at Kyle revealing their personal negotiations, Kyle continued: “I’m just saying, let’s cut through the bulls**t. And we get that because we’re good [at radio].”

The new contract, which is said to be the biggest deal in Australian media history, will take The Kyle and Jackie O Show hosts to December 2034. The duo also have a clause in their contract that allows them to broadcast the show “anywhere on earth” at the drop of a hat.

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