Fifteen years ago, Kyle Sandilands was the Australian Idol judge every contestant on the show dreaded.
Brutally honest at the best of times and downright mean at the worst, he tore into any act he felt hadn’t measured up, criticising their lack of talent, dress sense and even shape to let them know in no uncertain terms why they – and the music world – would be better off if they gave up immediately.
There were tears and tantrums, but now back in the judge’s chair, Kyle says he’s changed. Yep, you read right. Possibly that’s because the KIIS FM radio presenter has become a dad in the intervening years.
The man Idol contestants once feared says he’s more likely to have an encouraging chat with singers these days. Well, most of the time.
Kyle says ”he’s changed.”
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”I’m now a little bit more empathetic with people,” Kyle, 51, tells TV WEEK.
”If they [contestants] made a mistake, I used to just destroy them. But now I can see a little bit more, and I think that just comes with experience and maturity.
”I’ll see they might just need a pep talk prior to performing because they’re nervous, rather than seeing they’re nervous and hoping I can destroy them on TV. Now, I actually want them to succeed.”
Kyle promises he’ll still be ”a little prickly” when mistakes are made, but ”instead of verbally tearing somebody to shreds, now I might laugh”, he says.
He concedes a lot of that is probably because he and partner Tegan Kynaston had their first child, son Otto, in 2022. Being a father is something Kyle has found he loves even more than he expected.
”I didn’t really know what I’d think of being a dad,” he says.
”But I just sit there playing with him for hours and hours and then suddenly go, ‘S**t, it’s seven o’clock! He should have been in bed an hour ago!’ It’s just really nice.”
Each judge brings something different to the table.
(Image: Seven)During the recording of Idol auditions, he was no longer happy to sit around in a hotel waiting for the next flight to the next outback location – which happens a lot with the new Idol format, where the judges head out into Australia to track down talented singers who might not have had the courage to show up at the official auditions.
Instead of waiting, Kyle would fly home – even if it was just for 12 hours – to spend time with Tegan and Otto.
Fellow Idol judge Marcia Hines (who returns this season as a mentor) points out he’s turning into a bit of a softy.
”She said, ‘You’ve always been a Caramello Koala, but now you’re one that’s been left on the dashboard in the sun,'” Kyle says with a laugh. “That’s how she was explaining me to Harry”.
With his fellow judges Meghan, Amy and Harry.
(IMAGE: Seven)Harry is of course American singer Harry Connick Jr, Kyle’s fellow judge along with Australian indie-pop star Amy Shark and US chart-topper Meghan Trainor.
”What’s great about Idol is that we had the ability to put together a judging panel that has every different aspect covered,” Kyle explains of the mix.
”Amy sort of bubbled up through that alternative pub scene like the old-school rockers used to – she did the hard yards and knows what it takes. Then we’ve got Meghan, who’s a songwriter, a Grammy winner who blasted onto the scene with the big-girl song All About That Bass. Now, she’s got something like 12 million followers on TikTok, so she must be doing all right!
”And Harry…” Kyle sighs.
“He’s been touring for years and has sold millions of albums, is a Grammy winner and an actor – he was dating Olivia Benson [the detective character that actress Mariska Hargitay plays on Law And Order: SVU], for goodness sake. How could he not be a legend? He’s just a full muso legend.”
Kyle was a sharp tongued judge on Idol 15 years ago with (above from left) Mark Holden, Ian ”Dicko” Dickson and Marcia Hines
(Image: Ten)As for Kyle, he promises he’ll “cut through the jargon and lingo” and tell it like he sees it from the perspective of someone who knows what works.
”Every judge brings a different thing to every act that stands in front of us,” he says.
Throw in hosts Ricki-Lee Coulter and Scott Tweedie, plus Marcia mentoring, and it’s a perfect mix for the talent the Idol team found, Kyle declares.
”We’ve got the 16-year-old girls who sing in their bedrooms who aren’t proper musos, but are just naturally amazing; we have the outback cowboy-hat-wearing guy who’s been singing with his mates at a camp fire or whatever; the proper musos; and everything in between,” he says.
”I was thrilled to see the calibre of talent… it felt like no other TV show had actually been auditioning – even though X Factor and The Voice had been doing the rounds for a decade. It felt like these [contestants] were all fresh and new and had never auditioned before. I’m excited.”
These days, Kyle is a happy family man.
(Image: Instagram)Kyle has famously turned down dozens of offers to front television projects in the years since he left Idol in 2009 after a controversial segment on his radio show.
He’s reappeared only briefly with short-lived judging roles on Australia’s Got Talent and The X-Factor and an even shorter-lived (just four episodes) Judge Judy- style series Trial By Kyle in 2019.
Throughout that, however, Idol was always the one show Kyle said he’s come back for and, with a fresh attitude, he says he’s glad he did.
”I didn’t want to leave Idol [in 2009] and when I sat down at the desk and looked at the new set, it was like, ‘Here we go – I’m back!'” he says. “I’m looking forward to people seeing this. It felt good making it, and when it feels good making it, you think, ‘Well, how can it not be good?”’
