Channel 10 presenter Lisa Wilkinson’s future a ‘mystery’

The Channel 10 presenter is still contracted to the network, but it’s unclear whether she will return to the TV screens.

Lisa Wilkinson with her legal team on Monday. Picture: Jane Dempster

The future of TV presenter Lisa Wilkinson remains a “mystery” and it is up to Network Ten boss Beverley McGarvey, one of the journalist’s closest friends claims.

Veteran news and current affairs boss Peter Meakin told The Australian shortly after Wilkinson and Ten’s victory in the defamation trial against former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann that the veteran broadcaster “has a future” in the media.

“I'm not the one to decide whether she goes back on air at Channel 10, so you should be asking Beverley McGarvey,” he told The Australian.

“I don’t know what’s happening there, Beverly doesn’t confide in me and what the network thinks … is a mystery. Whether she has a future is in the lap of the gods … and Beverley McGarvey.”

Ms McGarvey, who is Paramount+ executive vice-president and chief content officer, was asked questions about Wilkinson’s future, including whether she had spoken to her and whether she would return to the TV screens.

A spokeswoman responded but did not answer the questions. “Lisa Wilkinson is still an employee of Network 10,” she said.

Wilkinson was last on air on The Project in November 2022 when she quit, telling viewers she had been subject to “targeted toxicity” from sections of the media.

Her multimillion-dollar contract with Ten ends on December 31.

She was contacted by The Australian on Thursday on her future but did not respond.

Outside court, Wilkinson thanked her “independent legal team” including Sue Chrysanthou SC, her friends, family and members of the public but made no mention of her employer, Network Ten.

In Monday’s judgment, judge Michael Lee was critical of Wilkinson’s involvement in giving her Logies speech in June 2022 that derailed the criminal trial involving Bruce Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins.

In his judgment, he said she had a “lack of candour in the witness box”. He said with her 40 years’ experience in the media and despite being given legal advice by Ten that she could give the speech, “if she had thought matters through as an experienced journalist, and less as a champion for Ms ­Higgins”, “she ought to have known the speech was fraught with danger”.

One senior television executive said Wilkinson’s future remained in limbo, doubting that she would be welcomed back to her former employers Seven or Nine if she were to leave Ten at the end of the year. “You would hope that Ten is getting some money’s worth because it's a big salary to take and be sitting on the bench,” the executive said.

“The question is: does she still have an audience that trust her?”

Denis Muller, a senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Advancing Journalism and a media ethics expert, said most of the comments by Justice Lee were focused on the lawyers advising Wilkinson and not the presenter herself.

“Most of the criticism from the bench was directed at Ms (Tasha) Smithies, the counsel (for Ten), and not so much at Lisa Wilkinson,” he said.

Dr Muller said he couldn’t see any reason why Wilkinson wouldn’t remain working in the media.

“She’s very experienced and I can’t for the life of me think why she wouldn’t have a professional future,” he said.

“Channel 10 and Lisa Wilkinson have been vindicated.”