Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson have been reunited on air, back together for the first time since mid-November after Jackie O temporarily left the show on sick leave.
Back behind the KIIS 1065 mic on Monday morning, Sandilands began the show with “look what the cat dragged in,” before Henderson laughed “yeah, backwards.”
“I’m so happy to be back, so happy. I feel like I’ve been gone for a year,” Henderson said of her time away, with Sandilands telling her that “we’ve been hanging for you” to return.
Speaking about what she’d been up to in the time off, she revealed she’d been out of the country.
“I went to Fiji for a couple of weeks, I was there for Christmas. Oh my God, Brooklyn [Ross], I thought of you – there were the hottest guys working there. Albert, Alfred, and Patrick – their names don’t match them, they’re Fijian guys.”
On November 14th last year, Jackie O began the show from her Sydney home, but didn’t stay on-air for too long. After being unable to shake a cough she’d picked up as a result of Covid, Henderson told listeners that she had been to the doctor for medical advice.
The advice she received was that the punishing breakfast radio hours were doing her no favours, and that she needed to take a break from the early mornings in order to rest and kick the cough for good.
See Also: Sydney’s #1 breakfast co-host takes sick leave: Is the radio year over for Jackie O?
During Henderson’s absence, Sandilands was joined on air by Life Uncut’s Brittany Hockley.
At the time, ARN released a statement reading that: Regular listeners of the Kyle & Jackie O show will know that Jackie has been struggling with fatigue and illness since having Covid, so on her doctor’s advice she is taking a couple of weeks off to rest and properly recover. Jackie will be back on board as soon as she’s feeling better.
Speaking to Mediaweek about the pair at the conclusion of the 2022 radio ratings year, ARN’s chief content officer Duncan Campbell said that the Kyle & Jackie O Show was wrapping up its “best year ever.”
See Also: Radio Ratings: Duncan Campbell on ARN’s “best year ever”
“Kyle and Jackie O have been inducted in the Hall of Fame, they’ve almost had their highest ever cume this survey of 817,000, and it’s the most listened to breakfast show in the country,” Campbell said. “They’ve probably had their best year ever, and it’s great that their best year ever was at ARN rather than their former network. They continue to go from strength to strength.”