Is the ABC Lisa Wilkinson’s last chance saloon?

The 64-year-old broadcaster has been missing from our TV screens for 424 days but her absence could soon be over with one veteran media player saying her career is far from finished.

Lisa Wilkinson has been missing from Australia’s TV screens for 424 days but her absence could soon be over.

The 64-year-old broadcaster has worked at every commercial broadcaster in the country – networks Seven, Nine and Ten – so it’s no denying the options left for her to return to the small screen are limited.

Veteran news and current affairs boss Peter Meakin, a consultant to The Project and long-time friend of Wilkinson who has worked with her at all three commercial free-to-air networks, says her career is far from finished.

He believes the ABC could be in her sights. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the ABC could use her talents,” Meakin told The Australian. “I think there’s still a future for her but it might be something different, still involved with interviewing but something different.

“I worked with her at Seven and Nine as well as Ten – she was a delight, she was very capable on air, she was a breeze to deal with, in my experience.”

When Wilkinson gave her teary farewell speech on Ten’s The Project in November 2022, her followers – and Wilkinson herself – were under the illusion she would be back on TV soon.

That never eventuated.

Lisa Wilkinson announces her departure from The Project in 2022.

Instead, the behind the scenes rift between Wilkinson and Ten executives including Paramount boss Beverley McGarvey deepened, as was revealed in the Federal Court hearing last week as part of former Liberal staff Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation action against the veteran broadcaster and Network Ten.

Meakin said he was shocked at how badly things turned between Ten executives and ­Wilkinson, with her mental health becoming a concern for management.

“I can’t believe the relationship with Ten so clearly went off the rails,” he said.

“Whether she (Lisa) gets on air on Channel 10 before the end of her contract is in the lap of the gods.

“If Ten doesn’t have something for her, I’m confident that someone else will.”

Wilkinson’s contract with Ten expires in October, with multiple figures within the network telling The Australian that it was unlikely she would stay with Ten for that long.

No decision will be made until the outcome of the Lehrmann defamation trial is known, with the judge in the case expected to hand down his judgment in April.

Wilkinson will make one of her first official public appearances in months when she attends the Cairns Tropical Writers Festival in March to promote her book It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This, which was published in 2021.

Wilkinson was contacted for comment but did not respond.

Paramount ANZ executive vice president, chief content officer and head of Paramount+ Beverley McGarvey and former Paramount ANZ executive vice president, chief operating & commercial officer and regional lead Jarrod Villani.

It’s been a rocky start to the year for Ten.

Not only has the network been under unwanted scrutiny during the latest chapter of the long-running Wilkinson saga but US entertainment giant Paramount – which owns Ten – executed a round of about 20 redundancies last week, including that of local chief operating officer Jarrod Villani.

McGarvey as chief content officer is now the most senior person at Ten.

The network’s ratings have been consistently poor over the past five years, with its audience share slipping well behind its traditional rivals Seven and Nine, and into fourth place behind the ABC.

However, multiple sources have told The Australian that the network’s poor ratings and its sluggish advertising revenue – a factor that is currently hurting the bottom line of all media organisations – weren’t the reason for last week’s lay-offs.

“Paramount in the US is looking to centralise its operations, and while the Australian market is a relatively small part of the business, what happens in the US has flow-on effects here,” one source said.

Another source said that despite the woes generally associated with a round of redundancies, Ten remains in relatively good ­financial shape.

“Ten has a global parent, and access to a global library. That adds up to a fairly stable position but like everyone in the media, no one’s immune to the cycles in the market and some job cuts are happening in the industry all across the world,” the source said.

“You only have to look at Seven’s results this week (its half-year profit was down 53 per cent). Don’t dismiss the fact that Ten does have a fairy godmother.”

Another Ten source said the network needs to make sure “it remains nimble in the local market”.

“Australia is a highly competitive market. You need to take some punts and you need to move fast. It’s a case of ‘evolve, or die’.”

Wilkinson, McGarvey and Villani declined to comment when approached by The Australian.