Kyle Sandilands has slammed Sunrise host Natalie Barr for claiming his controversial ‘ball drop’ contest was dangerous.
The contest, a promotion for his Kyle and Jackie O radio show dubbed the $100k Ball Drop, saw 200 balls dropped from a helicopter over Elsternwick Park Tennis Centre in Melbourne on Friday morning.
100 hopefuls ran on to the court to grab two balls each that were labelled with a prize valued up to $100,000.
But as the competition was gearing up on Friday morning, Sandilands had some stern words for Barr after she suggested on-air that the stunt was potentially dangerous.
Barr was discussing the stunt with reporter Andrew McCormack who was on the scene when she mentioned it had generated community backlash.
‘Were people worried a ball would hit them or go through the ceiling or something,’ she asked the reporter.
Kyle Sandilands has slammed Sunrise host Natalie Barr for claiming Kyle and Jackie O’s controversial $100k ball drop contest was dangerous.’
‘Literally across the road is a whole lot of apartments,’ he replied. ‘They’ve had to change to foam balls.’
‘Won’t the blades, won’t the wind of the blades just go “whoop”?’ asked Barr, referring to the balls being thrown off trajectory.
‘If nothing else, it’s very interesting to watch,’ co-host Matt Shirvington added.
After Kyle and co-star Jackie O Henderson played the Sunrise exchange on air, Jackie claimed the breakfast show was hoping something would go wrong.
‘We’ve got TV covering this and they’re only covering this because they want a disaster to happen,’ she said.
‘How thorough have we been with this, is my question.’
They also refuted the claim, made by McCormack in the segment about having to switch to foam balls due to safety concerns.
‘They just incorrectly said that we changed to foam balls,’ producer Bruno Boucher interjected. ‘That’s a lie.’
But as the competition was gearing up on Friday morning, Sandilands had some stern words for Barr, who had suggested on air, thats the stunt was potentially dangerous
Won’t the blades, wont the wind of the blades just go ‘whoop,’ referring to the balls being thrown of trajectory. Barr is pictured with Sunrise co-host Matt Shirvington and reporter Andrew McCormack
‘It was always foam balls,’ Kyle added. ‘We’re throwing foam balls out of a helicopter, not grenades.’
There was a slight drama as they prepared to drop the balls however, as Kyle attempted to cross to Cooper Johns who was in the helicopter.
When a connection could not initially be established, Kyle offered a panicked: ‘Sunrise was right! It’s a disaster.’
However, it appeared that the ball drop went off without a hitch.
‘There’s no disaster that I can see, all the balls have dropped on the tennis court,’ said a relieved Jackie.
And Sunrise was on the ground to witness the event, with Andrew McCormack providing a running commentary.
The comments come after it was revealed the show was given an 11th hour green light to stage the stunt.
The Herald Sun reported that the Civil Aviation Safety Authority that the show’s application to stage the promotion had been granted 15 hours before it was scheduled to kick off.
‘We’re throwing foam balls out of a helicopter, not grenades,’ Kyle shot back
However, it appeared that the ball drop went off without a hitch, with Jackie offering: ‘There’s no disaster that i can see, all the balls have dropped on the tennis court.’
‘The application to conduct the event has been approved after the operator demonstrated it could meet the aviation safety requirements,’ a CASA spokesperson told the publication.
The publication also reported the tennis club had received ‘dozens’ of complaints about the stunt from locals who were concerned about potential injury.
‘It’s literally a lawsuit waiting to happen, if a person’s property gets damaged by the careless act from a ball, Elsternwick resident Lucy Ellen said.
‘I am majorly concerned that it might hurt an elderly person.’
