The TV presenter was,of course,referring to her interview with Brittany Higgins,which aired on Ten’sThe Project in February 2021. It won her and the show two Logies the following June,and ultimately became the focus of a protracted and expensive defamation trial brought and lost by Bruce Lehrmann.
Lisa Wilkinson outside the Federal Court after the judgment was delivered on Monday.Wolter Peeters
For a journalist under siege,it was both victory and vindication. Now the trial was out of the way,normal transmission could resume and Wilkinson – one of the highest-profile and best-paid presenters on Australian television – could return to her rightful place on our screens.
But is that really likely?
Sources at Ten,who were not authorised to speak on the record,say there is no chance of Wilkinson returning to the network,despite the fact she has a contract that runs until December 31 that is reportedly worth $1.7 million a year.
That deal – which also included a $100,000-a-year wardrobe allowance – was negotiated in 2017,when she joinedThe Project. After she stepped back from the show (by mutual agreement) in late 2022,the expectation was that she would deliver three interview specials a year (her wardrobe allowance was reduced to $40,000 in light of the reduced appearances;any clothing and accessories bought through it are to remain the property of,and on the premises of,Ten).
Those specials,though,have not eventuated. Nor are they likely to.
Wilkinson and Ten were initially represented by the same legal team at the defamation trial,but differing accounts of who knew what,and when,in relation to her (which was delivered eight days before Lehrmann faced court on rape charges,and) saw Wilkinson seek her own representation. Ten will probably have to shoulder the bulk of her legal bill,which recent reports have suggested (even before the five-week trial began,it had reportedly topped $700,000).
Though ostensibly on the same side during the trial,relations between the parties have deteriorated badly.
,Justice Michael Lee noted “that as the trial went on,the more it became evident as to how Ms Wilkinson seeks to distinguish her role from the role of others within Network Ten as to the investigation and publication ofThe Project program”.
Or,to put it in the more colloquial terms used by a Ten insider:“She threw us under the bus. There’s just no way she can come back after that.”
The Ten insider points to Wilkinson’s differing accounts of her role in the Higgins story,saying during the trial that her role was simply “to read the pre-prepared script”,yet at other times claiming personal responsibility for the story,including when she won the Logie and again outside court this week.
Nine,which owns this masthead,is not really an option either. Wilkinson and the network parted company in 2017 over a bitter and very public pay dispute.
It was reported at the time that Wilkinson had been offered a deal worth $1.8 million a year to stay withToday,but she wanted $2 million,the same as her co-host,Karl Stefanovic. Hugh Marks,who was then chief executive of Nine,later claimed in exchange for giving up a range of commercial deals outside of Nine.
“It’s pretty rare for someone to come back to a commercial network after leaving like that,” says a Nine insider,who was not authorised to speak on the record. “But she is a very good broadcaster,is popular with viewers,and is good at what she does,so I definitely think there’s still a place for her on television.”
Seven,where Wilkinson worked before joining Nine,is a very remote possibility,though unlikely given its role in backing the Lehrmann version of events on itsSpotlight program.
That means the most obvious spot for Wilkinson on free-to-air might be the ABC,says one Nine source,though they added it might not be able to afford her. The ABC declined to comment for this story.
Any role with a public broadcaster would come with a vastly reduced pay package. Indeed,given the changed economics of free-to-air broadcasting generally since Wilkinson moved to Ten in 2017,no commercial broadcaster would stump up that sort of coin either. But cash is not the only motivator for someone as used to the public eye as Wilkinson.
“I don’t think the money will matter to her. It’s more the profile that she wants,” says agent and promoter Max Markson. “She wants to be back in business,so the money’s not going to be an issue.”
Lisa Wilkinson and Brittany Higgins.Supplied
Any reputational damage Wilkinson may have suffered – including from Justice Lee’s remarks that some of her behaviour in reporting the Higgins rape allegations (which he found,on the balance of probability,to be true) “fell short of the standard of reasonableness” – is unlikely to linger,says Markson.
“Time is a great healer,and she’s a great talent,” he says. “This whole saga will fade away in the next six months. She’s really famous and she will be again. It’s a great gift.”
Realistically,if Wilkinson is to have any chance of earning the sort of money she did in the past,it may come from a patchwork of deals – perhaps some work with the ABC,a contract to write a book about the saga (a sequel,of sorts,to her 2021 memoir,which covered the pay dispute with Nine),a column.
But perhaps the most promising line could be afforded by podcasting and digital media.
“In some respects,she has,through this story,positioned herself more as an advocate than as a traditional journalist,” says one broadcast executive,who was not authorised to speak on the record. “There’s quite possibly a lucrative and productive space for her there.”
Wilkinson certainly wouldn’t be the first person to move out from under the umbrella of a traditional media organisation to establish a direct-to-consumer platform. The likes of former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson,one-time tabloid newspaper editor Piers Morgan,and former Australian magazine publisher Mia Freedman have all enjoyed success in doing so.
And with local broadcasters Southern Cross Austereo and ARN busily building podcast networks (LiSTNR and iHeartRadio respectively),not to mention Spotify’s ambitions in the market,the appeal of an experienced media performer who specialises in interviews and has a reputation as an advocate for women is not hard to imagine.
In short,Lisa Wilkinson – who declined to comment for this story – might not be back on a commercial television network any time soon. She may or may not be back on TV at all. But there are other options.
Whatever she chooses,fading to black almost certainly will not be her next move.
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