Sandilands's radio employer, Austereo, was this morning refusing to comment. Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O. Credit:Sahlan Hayes The attack came just days after Sandilands's tirade against pop star Ricki Lee Coulter, in which he called her a "bitch". The furore comes after the TV show Kyle and Jacki O's Night With The Stars made its debut on Monday night - to an almost instant mass raspberry from viewers. News Ltd Sydney journalist Alison Stephenson was among the first to report unfavourable audience reaction to the show on social media.

Ratings figures released yesterday revealed the show's audience dropped from more than 1.4 million to just 200,000. The News Limited article that set Sandilands off on his latest rant. Sandilands used his 2Day FM radio show yesterday to threaten Stephenson and attack her weight, hairstyle and breast size. "Some fat slag on news.com.au has already branded it a disaster. You can tell by reading the article that she just hates us and has always hated us," he told listeners. The massive drop-off in ratings for Kyle and Jackie O's Night With The Stars as viewers switched off in droves.

"What a fat bitter thing you are. You're deputy editor of an online thing. You've got a nothing job anyway. You're a piece of shit. "This low thing, Alison Stephenson, deputy editor of news.com.au online. You're supposed to be impartial, you little troll. Kyle Sandilands ... his rant may cost his station sponsorship dollars. Credit:Getty Images What a fat bitter thing you are. You're deputy editor of an online thing. You've got a nothing job anyway. You're a piece of shit. "You're a bullshit artist, girl. You should be fired from your job. Your hair's very '90s. And your blouse. You haven't got that much titty to be having that low cut a blouse. Watch your mouth or I'll hunt you down."

Channel Seven's Sydney publicity manager, Mark McGowan, said Kyle and Jacki O's Night With The Stars was "a special, one-off show." He declined to comment on the ratings or Sandilands's comments on 2Day FM. Twitter users are outraged, calling for formal complaints to media watchdog ACMA to force an inquiry into Sandilands's on-air behaviour, and directing readers to his employer Austereo's complaints site. ACMA this morning confirmed it had received ''several'' complaints about Sandilands's comments yesterday, but an investigation was not under way because complainants first had to contact the broadcaster directly, spokeswoman Emma Rossi said. Austereo has 60 days to respond to any complaints and, if a complainant does not receive a response, or is not satisfied with it, he or she can then make a complaint to the watchdog.

Women deserve respect: minister The Federal Minister for the Status of Women, Kate Ellis, said Sandilands's latest outburst was part of a "sustained pattern" of attacks on women. "All Australians, including women, are entitled to be treated with respect at home, in the workplace and in the community," she said. "This latest personal attack on a journalist who was simply doing her job is another example in what is a sustained pattern of disrespectful and offensive attacks on women. "While some may hold out hope that Kyle Sandilands will one day reform his rude and entirely inappropriate approach, to my mind a much easier solution is for Australians to just turn off."

We wouldn't invite him back: Sunday Telegraph Neil Breen, editor of News Ltd's Sunday Telegraph, said that Sandilands recently ended a two-week unpaid stint as a guest columnist for the Sydney newspaper while its gossip columnist Ros Reines was away on holiday. Breen said the deal had been struck after a truce between Sandilands and Reines, who had both previously exchanged harsh words about each other's weight on air and in print, respectively. "His columns were fairly straightforward but of course we would never have let him publish things that he said on radio," Breen said. He said the newspaper was unlikely to invite Sandilands back to write a column, calling his comments about Stephenson "over the top".

"It'd probably be difficult because it involves a News Ltd journo. We've got to stick together," he said. Breen said he was unaware of any plans by News Ltd to take action against Sandilands. Coulter blasted Last week, Sandilands blasted Coulter for speaking out in support of his sacking as a judge on Channel Ten's Australian Idol in 2009 after he lured a teen into an on-air radio lie-detecting stunt in which she said she had been raped. "When I got fired from Idol over that scandal, Ricki Lee dared open her back-then fat mouth and say, 'I agree with Channel Ten's decision,'" Sandilands told radio listeners. "Well good; my middle finger went up to Ricki Lee."

Sandilands said he would no longer play her songs or interview her. Loading "I think she was wrong and she flapped them gums around about something she knew nothing about. So she's banned. I don't want to have anything to do with the bitch, ever."