Lisa Wilkinson unlikely to return to Channel Ten screen: TV insiders
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A Project source and a veteran TV commentator said Lisa Wilkinson will never return to the screen at Channel Ten and that her TV career, at least as a major star, is probably over.
TV and radio industry expert Peter Ford said Wilkinson was “Australia’s highest paid TV star at $44,000 a week and she’s not really doing anything on camera” and probably never again. will appear on Ten Network.
He told Daily Mail Australia that the legal fallout from Wilkinson’s Brittany Higgins interview, now involving a number of Ten’s colleagues, was “a very toxic situation” for the embattled network.
Wilkinson and Ten (along with news.com) are being sued for defamation by Bruce Lehrmann over his high-profile interview in which Ms Higgins told The Project star she was raped by ‘a male colleague’ at the Parliament House in 2019.
Lehrmann was not named during the television show or publicly identified as Higgins’ alleged rapist until August 2021, when he was indicted for sexual assault.
Lisa Wilkinson on the night she left The Project last November citing ‘toxic’ attention. Two television insiders affirm that she will never return to the screen on Channel Ten
Experts say Wilkinson is the highest-paid star on Australian television at $44,000 a week, but it’s unlikely he’ll ever earn that kind of money again in the industry.
He pleaded not guilty and continues to maintain his innocence.
The Project insider, who asked to remain anonymous, said Wilkinson was probably “over for good” at Ten and as for her prospects with other networks: “I don’t think anyone else will accept her.”
The source said Wilkinson’s huge salary was an issue amid the messy consequences of the Higgins interview.
In Federal Court this week, Wilkinson named eight of his Ten colleagues involved in checking the validity of Ms Higgins’ allegations.
Among those named was Peter Meakin, one of the most powerful figures in Australian television news and current affairs.
Wilkinson has appointed his own lawyer, Sue Chrysanthou SC, who presented the star’s defense in response to the defamation suit against him brought by former adviser to the Liberal Party, Lehrmann.
Higgins’ interview earned Wilkinson a Logie Award, however, in her defense in Federal Court this week, the television veteran argued that Meakin and seven others of her 10 colleagues worked to verify the allegations before publication.
Peter Ford told Daily Mail Australia that he believed this was a “fight for survival” for Wilkinson.
As for getting another job at any network, Ford said “well, never say never” but that the days of massive salaries were ending in the industry.
Television and radio industry expert Peter Ford (above) said Wilkinson, “Australia’s highest paid TV star at $44,000 a week and not really doing anything on camera.”
“I can’t imagine her face on TV (at 10) again,” he said. It is a very, very expensive commodity. It is a very unusual situation.
The Project member said Friday that Ten could use Wilkinson’s “voice for one-off cases,” but he doubted she was in front of an on-air camera.
Another veteran television industry executive, Rob McKnight, said that by bringing in his own lawyer, Wilkinson could stay on the matter if Ten decided to settle.
“Backing down would damage your reputation, so you might want to fight to the end,” he said.
“My sources tell me that Channel 10 will present its defense next week, so it will be interesting to watch.”
Of Lisa’s future, McKnight said, “The Project has probably hurt her reputation a bit, but she’s very talented and she’ll be back.”
Lisa Wilkinson resigned from the air in November 20 of last year, effective immediately, after five years on the show citing “targeted toxicity” by the media, saying “I’m not above criticism.” I’m human and I don’t always get it right’ and that ‘the last six months have not been easy’.
According to Lehrmann’s claim brief filed in Federal Court last month, he was maligned because Wilkinson and news.com’s Samantha Maiden were “recklessly indifferent to truth or falsehood.”
In Wilkinson’s 24-page defense, she says Meakin’s input and extensive experience in news and current affairs were particularly crucial to the preparation and publication of the issues.
Mr Meakin was a senior news and current affairs executive at Network Ten when former Liberal Party employee Brittany Higgins sat down with Ms Wilkinson at The Project in February 2021.
On Friday, Meakin jumped to the defense of Lisa Wilkinson, calling her court document “factual.”
In defense of a libel action brought against her, Lisa Wilkinson (above) listed ten colleagues who were involved in fact-checking the story before it aired.
Peter Meakin, Australia’s most powerful news and current affairs figure (above)
Lisa Wilkinson accepted a Logie Award for her interview with Brittany Higgins
He told Daily Mail Australia that Wilkinson’s defense document accurately portrays his strong involvement in the Higgins story and that he shouldn’t say more otherwise.
Meakin, who remains a consultant to Ten and The Project, said he doesn’t think Wilkinson apportioned the blame when she said in her statement that he fact-checked and strongly believed Higgins was credible.
I don’t interpret it that way. I was very involved in the story before it aired,” he said.
‘What she is saying is a fact. Lisa is still a good friend and she always will be.
I am keeping my own advice. It’s all going to go to court… maybe it won’t go to court. I don’t think I should make (my views) public.’
Meakin, 80, said he was still “sort of an advisory voice” for The Project, but when asked about the show’s current problems, he said: “I’ll leave it to others.”
During her teary-eyed sendoff from the show in November last year, Ms Wilkinson personally thanked Mr Meakin and said she would remain with the network.
But his future at the station remains in the shadows after he left his lawyers at the network last month and hired his own new legal team to fight the defamation case.
Ms Lisa Wilkinson (pictured) says her colleagues verified Brittany Higgins’ rape claims before her award-winning interview aired.
The trial against Bruce Lehrmann (pictured) was derailed by juror misconduct
His defense was presented by his lawyer Sue Chrysanthou SC on Wednesday, stressing that it will be based on a defense of the truth.
That means his legal team must show that Lehrmann was more likely to have raped Higgins.
Ms Higgins has indicated that she would be willing to testify at the trial, if it takes place.
Ms Wilkinson says that, to the best of her knowledge, the experienced team of news and current affairs professionals reached a consensus that Ms Higgins was a credible witness.
Furthermore, Ms Wilkinson noted that Samantha Maiden’s story on news.com.au was published 12 hours before her TV interview aired on 15 February 2021.
Thus, he believed that Ms. Maiden and News Corp had conducted their own fact-checking and legalization before the article was posted online, and were not aware of any complaints about the article online when The Project’s interview came out. in the air.
The TV presenter also says she ‘closely observed’ Ms Higgins’ behavior whenever she saw her and ‘carefully reviewed the recordings of the interviews before broadcast’, and generally believed the allegations.
Other sections of the archive describe Ms Wilkinson’s extensive journalism career, spanning from 1978 when she started as an editorial assistant at Dolly magazine to 2017 when she became a presenter on The Project.
He says he has interviewed more than ten prime ministers and world leaders and reported from disaster areas, along with his awards and accolades, including the 2022 Logie he won for his interview with Higgins.
Despite her long career in journalism, the document notes that Ms Wilkinson “is not familiar with the details of defamation law.”
A spokesperson for the network told Daily Mail Australia that Ms Wilkinson “remains an employee of Channel 10”.