Opinion by Jen Seyderhelm
Last Friday, July 3, after two weeks of too much Kyle Sandilands and Karl Stefanovic, I started to see footage of Nova Entertainment‘s Nikki Osborne, now perfoming as Bushie, heading into the Lodge for a chat with the PM Anthony Albanese. for her podcast Bush Deep.
I’d written an article the previous week, amid the Karl Stefanovic fall out post interviewing Tommy Robinson, about an awareness of high profile political and / or controversial guests picking and choosing the podcasts they appeared on. My feeling, and Piers Morgan‘s too, was that Tommy chose Karl’s platform because he wouldn’t be taken to task over his beliefs, decisions and actions.
The Prime Minister appeared to have done similar in the lead up to the Federal Election and judiciously selected avenues like It’s a Lot with Abbie Chatfield for the audience it spoke to.
Then when he had a serve at Karl Stefanovic, Karl bit back:
So, you would think that Albo, and this was definitely a chat with Albo the everyman, not The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, would have tread very carefully with what was said during this chat, even with it clearly sitting in the ‘comedy’ genre.
It was a Kylie Minogue sized nope.
And it wasn’t like the PM hadn’t had plenty of time to have Kylie regret either, with Nikki sharing that the ep was upcoming on June 12.
Kudos for Nova and Nikki for getting the chat, but the timing couldn’t have been worse.
Over the weekend it occured to me that when a Prime Minister chats with a comedian on a podcast the expectation isn’t that he will be questioned over the cost of living or political relations with the US. It will be fun, and goodness me we need that.
It’s just that in this month where politicians have popped up in weird places in other media personalities’ products, Albo’s appearance with Bushie smelled funny, rather than was funny.
And why hasn’t anyone mentioned that, in the who dunnit of what happened to Karl Stefanovic’s contract with Nine and ARN, Pauline Hanson and her ‘they’re trying to sack my good friend Karl Stefanovic‘ was in no small part, the party who actually did him in?
I just watched the movie Sheep Detectives.
Hugh Jackman plays shepherd George who reads his sheep murder mysteries at night. Then George himself is murdered. The wise sheep Lily, who usually picks the murderer before anyone else in the books, is reminded that the perpetrator is not always a clear suspect, in plain sight.
Let’s go over a timeline of events as they happened:
On May 19 Karl Stefanovic and Eddie McGuire were announced to be joining ARN for The Long Weekend which would be heard on iHeart and across GOLD Network, 9Now and Stan, launching June 19.
Eddie’s McGuire Media would collaborate also on a sport-focused iHeart original podcast series. Karl’s independent The Karl Stefanovic Show would stay that way with the additional note that Karl’s $2 million contract with the Nine Network and breakfast program Today ran out at the end of 2026.
June 11 – GfK Radio 360 Survey 3 is released which sees a mighty drop of audience for KIIS 1065 in Sydney post the Kyle and Jackie O show.
That same morning SCA announced the commenced a major cost reduction program with 250 and 300 jobs are expected to go.
June 12 – The Long Weekend launches a week early in front of a live audience with the new show promising to deliver ‘an energetic take on stories across news, sport and entertainment, alongside music and no-filter conversations.’
June 16 – SCA instigates a swath of cuts affecting a number of regional breakfast shows.
June 17 – Kyle Sandilands’ settlement with ARN is announced via the ASX.
June 18 – Jacqueline Henderson (Jackie O)‘s case against ARN was briefly mentioned in the Federal Court to continue to proceed. Jackie was not in attendance.
Pauline Hanson speaks at the Canberra National Press Club. Kyle Sandilands is to be a guest on the Game Changers Radio podcast the following morning where an early scoop was that he says:
“I’ve been working on getting their (One Nation‘s) messaging across, which I think has been well received.
She’s (Pauline) one of my favourite people now.”
June 22: Kris Fade states he will not be the new host of KIIS Breakfast. He was asked by turned it down.
Dan and Christie, the regional Victoria and Tasmanian Hit Network duo ousted by SCA in the June 16 cuts start a podcast. Hobart Xtra Insights survey is out Tuesday July 7, which will likely show some of the impact of this decision in the city.
June 24: An episode of The Karl Stefanovic Show podcast, with controversial UK activist Tommy Robinson that was released on Tuesday June 23, but with all teasers and the episode taken down within hours, is reuploaded on Pauline Hanson’s Please Explain YouTube channel with a header of:
“It looks like they’re trying to sack my good friend Karl Stefanovic for this video with Tommy Robinson!
It is still available to watch.
By the end of that day, Karl and Nine are negotiating details of his early exit from the rest of his contract.
June 26: Friday’s Long Weekend episode, which would have been only the third for Karl and Eddie, and which Karl would have had to have recorded somehow from the UK, is a solo affair for Eddie, but with Eddie saying he would have an exclusive chat with Karl the following week.
Karl releases a video, in the UK, stating he is ‘free’.
June 27: Nikki Osborne, Jack Charles and Dr Chris Brown are announced to be taking over Nova National Drive during the survey break holiday period in lieu of Fitzy, Wippa and Kate Ritchie.
They will present Drive this week and it will be interesting to see whether Nikki addresses the PM interview fall out as it will have been released to garner extra publicity this fortnight she is also on air.
June 29: Former ABC News boss Justin Stevens was announced by the AFR to receive a $300,000 payout and six months of gardening leave as part of a taxpayer funded payout deal.
Managing Director Hugh Marks had starting in an interview with ABC Radio National‘s Sally Sara on June 9 that a recruitment process for Justin’s replacement had begun before Justin had actually resigned.
June 30: Duncan Campbell, Chief Content Officer for 15 years and the person responsible for bringing Kyle and Jackie O over to ARN, enters the fray post the end of his own gardening leave. Among his thoughts on the show launching into Melbourne were that he knew it wasn’t going to work within ten minutes, he would never have networked them there in the first place and that he didn’t even speak to Kyle about that disastrous first day and the later ACMA and MFW repercussions for a couple of months.
ARN commences the sale of ‘non core asset’, out-of-home advertising business Cody Outdoor International (Hong Kong) Limited, which is expected to yield around $5.6 million.
On July 1, a new financial year, it was official that ARN had let Karl Stefanovic go too.
What utter chaos and carnage.
Now, true crime enthusiasts, how did One Nation know that Karl’s episode with Tommy Robinson was to be removed? How did they then get access to the video, if it had been taken down? And why hasn’t Karl asked it to be removed when its existence did lead to the loss of both his Nine and ARN contracts?
Why did Karl remain in the UK when he was to have recorded an episode of a fledgling show that he and Eddie McGuire must have really wanted to succeed? And why the Albanese would you record an episode of The Karl Stefanovic Show, with Piers Morgan, from James Packer‘s yacht?
Why on earth did Kyle Sandilands bring Pauline Hanson into his post ARN settlement discussions? ARN still have skin in the game in whatever Kyle’s new project is, from advertising to a net revenue share model. How will that work if the Karl and Kyle show, which Kyle’s manager Bruno Bouchet has set up a website for (see main), commences, if ARN has worked to finally divest themselves of both?
Was the killer Karl, in the UK, on the yacht? Kyle, riding the orange wave with the phantom website? Or Pauline, with the reupload and the mysterious banner wield?
I just don’t know, and now I need a bex and lie down.
GfK Radio 360 Survey 4 is out next Tuesday July 14.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo. Email: [email protected]. You can subscribe to this publication for just $199 per annum (less for community stations, students and pensioners) and support local media. Celebrate Radioinfo in its 30th year.
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