Lisa Wilkinson’s leap to change the media landscape

Lisa Wilkinson takes a selfie with fans during an outdoor broadcast of The Today Show in Campbelltown earlier this year. Photo: Robert Pozo

Lisa Wilkinson’s split from The Today Show, surely one of the most reputation-enhancing departures in the history of television, came as a shock to just about everyone, apart from the 57-year-old star.

Monday’s unprecedented display of female brinkmanship and comeuppance of Nine’s male executives, which saw her become an instant heroine of the equal pay movement, looked like a display of great confidence, but Wilkinson lived in constant fear of the axe.

She said as much in an interview with News Corp last December, when Today had the ascendance over Seven’s Sunrise in the ratings. “I come in every day thinking, ‘Any day now someone is going to pat me on the shoulder and say, ‘OK, you’ve had enough fun now, time to pass the baton to the next one’,” she said.

‘The truth is, Nine didn’t want Wilkinson to have wage equality with Karl Stefanovic ... it would dearly love to pay its top male star less.’

“Fortunately it hasn’t happened and for as long as (this job) lasts I’m going to make the most of it. There is no better job in television.”

Which seems to suggest that while Wilkinson may well earn more at Ten (and very, very few people will really know the truth of this) leaving the best job in television was not really the outcome she wanted.

It takes strength of character to rebuff $1.8 million on principle, which is what Nine was apparently offering.

But the truth is, Nine didn’t want Wilkinson to have wage equality with Karl Stefanovic ... it would dearly love to pay its top male star less. Stefanovic’s contract was negotiated when he had an offer to jump to Seven, which boosted his value, and his show This Time Next Year was a hit.

But the free-to-air TV advertising market is in decline. So the networks can no longer repeat the tactics of legendary Sam Chisholm, and hire a Mike Munro for 60 Minutes from the Willesee program, doubling his salary in the process, but warning, “If you tell anyone I will find out.”

While some commentators postulate that Wilkinson’s arrival at Ten changes everything in the fight for equal pay, she is in a rare, privileged position. Plus, her new network is in the process of being bought by US giant CBS, which will be looking to make big bold statements of intent. For that amount of coin, CBS must have steered the salary negotiation.

But while Wilkinson was a success on Nine at breakfast for a decade, that is no guarantee she will succeed on The Project on Sunday evenings. And as a fourth host during the week alongside Carrie Bickmore, Waleed Aly and Peter Helliar? Ten is going to need a bigger desk.

Thanks so much to everyone for all your lovely messages. I have some more news. This statement is from @channelten. I'm absolutely thrilled. pic.twitter.com/7bN9s9TUHn

— Lisa Wilkinson (@Lisa_Wilkinson) October 16, 2017

There is an unfathomable alchemy of host, program, network and audience which creates television success, and jumping networks doesn’t always provide it.

Yet Wilkinson has proved she can do it. She jumped from Foxtel’s Beauty and the Beast to Seven’s Weekend Sunrise to Nine’s Today.

But what happened when Jana Wendt left Nine to join Seven in a blaze of publicity? Her program, Witness, didn’t last and she even returned to Nine to host Sunday, but left in unhappy circumstances. And where is she now?

Then there is the Ten factor. The third-placed commercial network has often struggled, and programs it broadcast simply rate less.

One thing is certain, T he Project cannot support a salary of Wilkinson’s magnitude.

Wilkinson will be pressed into service on other parts of the schedule. Precisely what is unknown. Ten has struggled many times to create a viable breakfast program.

And when Seven attempted to lure Stefanovic, it was to launch a nightly current affairs program. Watch this space.