SporkGoddess is right. Kyle's death was planned from the start of the season, not a last second thing they did to boost ratings. It was just handled really poorly and Kyle was never sufficiently developed for us to care about his death.
Last night we saw Tom, Julia and Jeremy remembering conversations with Kyle and we are meant to believe he had this big impact on their lives. Maybe if we were given the opportunity to see them bond during the previous episodes we would have felt their loss, but it was very forced when presented this way.
I thought the most offensive and unrealistic thing was Hilty not showing up to Bombshell to attend Hit List. She could be fired for that- especially when Eileen, Julia and Tom were all in the audience!! They talked about running a Tony campaign and their star isn't even showing up!
They kill Kyle to redeem Jimmy and I don't think he redeemed himself at all. In fact I found him just as reprehensible this episode as usual.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!