Kyle Sandilands reveals Australian Idol salary on KIIS FM

June 2024 · 2 minute read

KIIS FM star Kyle Sandilands accidentally revealed his megabucks Australian Idol salary live on air.

The presenter shared the amount he was paid during an episode of The Kyle and Jackie O Show this week.

In an interview with pop singer Dean Lewis, Sandilands was complaining about how much time working in television takes up when Lewis asked how much he got paid.

Lewis had cheekily questioned the radio presenter on why he had bothered to take the gig in the first place.

When pushed for an answer, Sandilands said: “Listen, it’s clearly over a million dollars for three months work, you’d be a fool not to do it.”

Sandilands then confessed he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to discuss his salary publicly.

“I don’t know how much they’re paying the others so maybe I shouldn’t have said it,” admitted the radio host.

Lewis replied: “That is a lot of money, that’s actually epic.”

Kyle’s remarks come following news of a shuffle on the Australian Idol judging panel.

For the series reboot last year, which aired on Channel 7, international musicians Meghan Trainor and Harry Connick Jr. were part of the fresh-look panel, but have not returned for the 2024 season.

Instead, veteran judge Marcia Hines is back in the hot seat, 20 years after she formed part of the original line-up when the show debuted in 2003, joining Kyle Sandilands and Amy Shark.

During its first reboot run, Idol failed to achieve ratings it managed to score during its golden years.

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After its premiere in January, Idol would consistently run third behind timeslot rivals Married At First Sight and Australian Survivor.

Toward the back-end of the series, Idol attracted an average of around 409,000 viewers across the five-city metro, against MAFS’ 835,000 and Survivor’s 536,000.

To make matters worse, the winning singer also failed to make a dent on the pop charts.

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