A senior Paramount executive has identified one telling clue that Lisa Wilkinson won’t be returning to Channel Ten screens.
Channel Ten, which is owned by Paramount, unveiled its 2024 content line-up at its Upfronts event last week and Wilkinson, 63, was not featured.
‘This might signal she’s done,’ a Paramount insider told The Sydney Morning Herald on Friday.
Wilkinson quit The Project last November and despite remaining on the Ten payroll until the end of next year the network does not appear to be utilising her.
However, Network Ten maintains the veteran presenter is in talks to develop ‘other projects’ with them.
A Paramount executive has pointed out a telling clue that Lisa Wilkinson (pictured) won’t be returning to Channel Ten screens ever again
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Wilkinson for comment.
Last month, it was reported Wilkinson is suing Ten over claims it failed to pay her estimated $700,000 bill to cover legal costs in the defamation suit against Bruce Lehrmann.
The former Project host hired top defamation lawyer Sue Chrysanthou SC and Gillis Delaney Lawyers partner Anthony Jefferies earlier this year, rather than using Thomson Geer – the law firm the network has on retainer.
The TV presenter sought her own legal team to defend her after Mr Lehrmann filed a case against her in the Federal Court over the Logie Award-winning interview she did with Brittany Higgins in 2021.
Channel Ten, who is owned by Paramount, unveiled its 2024 content line-up at its Upfront event last week and Wilkinson, 63, was not seen in any of them
During that interview, Ms Higgins alleged she was raped by a former colleague in Parliament House in 2019. Mr Lehrmann wasn’t named, but claims people in political circles were able to identify him as the alleged rapist.
He has always maintained his innocence.
In court documents, Wilkinson’s legal team claim that in March and June this year the network accepted it was liable to indemnify the TV star even if she was ‘independently represented’.
‘This might signal she’s done,’ a Paramount insider told The Sydney Morning Herald on Friday
Earlier this year, an insider at The Project and a veteran TV commentator both said Wilkinson will never return to the screens at Channel Ten and her television career, at least as a major star, is likely over.
Television and radio industry expert Peter Ford said Wilkinson was ‘Australia’s highest paid TV star at $44,000 a week and she’s not actually doing anything on camera’ and would likely never again appear on the Ten Network.
He told Daily Mail Australia the legal fallout from Wilkinson’s interview with Ms Higgins was ‘a very toxic situation’ for the embattled network.
Wilkinson and Ten are being sued for defamation by Mr Lehrmann over her high-profile interview in which Ms Higgins told The Project star she was raped by ‘a male colleague’ in Parliament House in 2019.
Wilkinson quit The Project last November and despite remaining on the Ten payroll until the end of next year they network does not appear to be utilising her
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