Kyle Sandilands' manager Bruno Bouchet slept at the studio following technical disasters on the broadcaster's new subscription app, alarming viewers during Monday's show.
Bouchet, the 40-year-old Managing Director of King Kyle Group, appeared visibly drained during the live morning broadcast of Kyle Sandilands Live after working through the weekend to address ongoing technical issues. Viewers observed that the executive struggled to keep his eyes open throughout the show and at times appeared to slur his speech, prompting worried fans to beg producers to send him home.
Roughly half an hour into the broadcast, executive producer Jaimee 'Mayo' Blazquez admitted on air that she was actively trying to find someone familiar with the system so Bouchet could finally get some sleep. Sandilands, 55, joked during the show that Bouchet was "here till he's dead!" to which Bouchet replied, "I'm a bit tired."
Listeners wasted no time flooding the app's comments section with messages of concern for the media boss. "Can someone check on Bruno pls??" one listener asked, while another urged producers: "Send him home like proper home not just here in the studio." A third fan agreed with the calls for intervention, writing, "Yeah send Bruno home guys. Find someone to learn his job."
Concern over his physical state continued to mount across the live chat feed. "Poor Bruno needs a good few days rest," another viewer commented. Other listeners offered more blunt assessments of his appearance, with one asking, "Is Bruno close to death?" while another wrote, "Bruno is out of it."
Audience members expressed growing discomfort at watching the exhausted executive remain on camera. "Little uncomfortable to watch Bruno in this state, you guys need to prioritise his health first before the show," a third listener added. Another worried viewer insisted, "Bruno needs to be put into an uber and sent home," adding that "It's concerning watching him."
Manager Admits Working Without Sleep During Rollout Chaos
The worrying scenes come just days after Bouchet made a startling admission about the lengths he had gone to behind the scenes to get the ambitious new platform off the ground. Speaking last week as the show's rollout descended into chaos, Bouchet confessed that he had gone completely without sleep while working to develop and launch the service.
Bouchet candidly revealed the physical toll of the launch effort, stating, "If everything went smoothly it would have been worth not sleeping and snorting Ritalin and everything like that, but it all went to s**t."
Sandilands quickly pushed back on his manager's criticism during the broadcast. "It didn't go to s**t, I just can't hear, I can't hear any audio," Sandilands said. "The man speaking behind the microphone should be the main one that hears what's going on."
The latest drama follows a disastrous end to the platform's first week after technical failures forced producers to abandon Friday's broadcast altogether. The highly anticipated subscription venture, Kyle Sandilands Live, was pulled off air before it could properly begin, leaving paying subscribers in the dark as producers scrambled.
Producers initially attempted to keep fans informed as the technical issues unfolded earlier in Friday's show. "Hi KSL team, apologies for the technical issues today. We are working to fix it ASAP!" Blazquez wrote in an update shared through the app.
When the platform suffered a major technical meltdown, Blazquez and newsreader Brooklyn Ross posted an apology video message to the broadcaster's app. "We were scared this day might come," Ross admitted, revealing Sandilands was "very stressed right now" as the problems unfolded behind the scenes.
Blazquez said the production team was devastated by the system failure. "We're so sorry that the tech has failed us today because the show that we had planned would have been incredible," she said. The pair explained that after multiple failed attempts to get the show running, they ultimately made the call to cancel the broadcast rather than continue frustrating listeners. "We've tried a few times, and I think we're just going to upset you more if we keep coming back and then disappearing again. So we've decided today to not take the show to air," Blazquez said.
Subscribers Promised Hardware Upgrades After Rocky Start
Subscribers who paid $99 a year for access to the platform were assured the team would spend the weekend fixing the issues before returning the following week. "Monday we'll be back with new equipment, because we've ordered everything, and hopefully we don't have these issues again," Blazquez said. Sandilands himself was notably absent from the apology video.
The latest setback caps a chaotic opening week for Sandilands' much-hyped independent venture, which launched after subscribers paid upfront for annual access. The debut episode on August 10 was plagued by glitches almost from the outset, with technical difficulties disrupting the broadcast and forcing an emergency shutdown shortly after 7am while the team attempted a hard reset.
Rather than hide from the drama, Sandilands and his crew openly acknowledged the rocky start on air. The team even cheekily named Tuesday's second episode "Hopefully today's better..." as they worked through ongoing glitches.
Kyle Sandilands Live marks the radio veteran's return to the microphone following the sensational collapse of KIIS FM's Kyle & Jackie O Show and his subsequent settlement with former employer ARN. Television presenter Dr Chris Brown is set to replace Sandilands on KIIS FM, a transition Sandilands recently publicly addressed.
The King Kyle Group management team continues working to resolve the application's underlying technical infrastructure. Executives hope that the new equipment installed over the weekend will stabilize the stream for paying subscribers following the turbulent opening week.
