Kiis admits its Sydney FM breakfast show Kyle and Jackie O pay for celebrity interviews
Kiis FM Sydney has admitted the station does pay to secure exclusive celebrity interviews for its top-rating breakfast program Kyle and Jackie O.
Kyle and Jackie O admit paying for celebrity interviews
The Daily Telegraph today revealed that the Kiis FM program, which trades heavily on its access to A-List celebrities, had been paying stars for some time and most recently is believed to have given Carmen Electra $10,000 to talk about Shane Warne’s crush on her.
Celebrity agent Max Markson told Mumbrella the practice had been occurring for years: “There is no problem with them paying for interviews with stars. It is common practice for the TV networks and magazines, and there is no reason why (KiisFM) shouldn’t.
“They are getting exclusive access to stars who aren’t on a promotional tour and instead are booking talent and paying a promotional fee. This has been going on for a long time where there is something valuable and when the star is not normally on a promotional tour.
“They are getting an exclusive… getting something no-one else is getting. It’s a great thing for them and the ratings obviously prove it.”
A spokeswoman for KissFM sought to play down the Daily Telegraph report but did concede there were times payments were made.
“When celebrities aren’t doing promotional interviews for a particular project but the Kyle & Jackie O show know that their listeners would still like to hear an interview with some of their favourite celebrities, there are times outside of a promo schedule period when certain celebrities may ask for some form of consideration for their time,” said the spokeswoman.
The report has also shone on a light on rival FM networks Southern Cross Austereo and Nova Entertainment who in the wake of the KiisFM admission also reluctantly conceded they pay for exclusive access to A-List talent.
A Nova Entertainment spokeswoman this morning said simply: “It’s not something we like to do.”
While a Southern Cross Austereo spokeswoman said: “It is very rare that we would be required to pay a fee to have guests on our shows. If this was requested, we would contemplate this on a case-by-case basis.”
Markson: “It’s not costing the networks money”
Markson also noted that while Kyle and Jackie O were a Sydney program the interviews with A-list celebrities would also be going out in the station’s highlights.
“It’s not costing Kyle and Jackie O any money,” said Markson. “It’s costing the networks money and they are happy to pay for it because of the benefit (across the network).”
Nic Christensen
The full KiisFM statement:
The Kyle & Jackie O Show is famous for being “The home of the world’s biggest stars”, delivering audiences the most exciting and engaging content across a range of areas, with celebrity guests playing a key part of this promise.
As the #1FM Breakfast Show in Sydney, with over 600,000 weekly listeners, Kyle & Jackie O are the first choice for celebrity guests when they’re deciding which radio show to appear on. Added to this is Kyle and Jackie’s longstanding partnership and years of developing very close friendships and working relationships with these actors, musicians and other entertainment and fashion celebrities.
Some celebrities will have this directed to a charitable organisation or similar passion project. If a request is made, where appropriate and when available, KIIS may agree to this but it’s decided on a case by case basis and depends on scheduling and other factors.
The Kyle & Jackie O Show are always working hard to source the very best celebrity interviews for their listeners and use a variety of contacts to secure these, from film, TV and record company publicists, to celebrity managers, across Australia, the US and UK.
That’s very shonky.
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What?!!! They are not best mates with all the worlds biggest celebrities…?? I’m shocked!
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Hang on! This is news to the Mumbrella audience?! And who cares if they paid or not. I must be missing something? Happy to have someone explain why this article was generated.
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