Lisa flexes some muscle
Show of strength inspiring
With an ace up her sleeve in the form of the most lucrative contract for any personality — man or woman — on Australian TV, former Today show cohost Lisa Wilkinson (above) played her Nine bosses for jokers, after they baulked at matching her pay with that of co-star Karl Stefanovic. The 47year-old emerged with a new salary package estimated at $2.3 million for appearances on The Project, its new Sunday series and other programs still to be announced.
DEPENDING on which meme you read on Google, it was either Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary or Hollywood siren Marilyn Monroe who once said: “Women who seek equality to men lack ambition”.
After the last week in Australian television, the next time you read that quote on an Instagram post or quotebot, it could well be attributed to Lisa Wilkinson.
With an ace up her sleeve in the form of the most lucrative contract for any personality – man or woman – on Australian TV, the former Today show cohost played her Nine bosses for jokers, after they baulked at matching her pay with that of co-star Karl Stefanovic.
In a deal that made headlines around the world, the 47year-old emerged with a new salary package estimated at $2.3 million for appearances on
The Project, its new Sunday series and other programs still to be announced.
As well as contentious third-party deals with digital masthead The Huffington Post and other advertisers likely to follow her “every woman” brand from Nine to Ten.
For Australia’s third-rating network, pushed to the brink of bankruptcy earlier this year, it was a bold move, positioning Ten on the front foot for a shot at a debt-free recovery in 2018.
Studio 10 presenter Ita But- trose, a mentor to Wilkinson and media maven who built her career on playing men at their own game, said: “What the Wilkinson deal says is that Channel 10 is in for the long haul. People who thought perhaps this network was struggling should think again.
“This is a station that’s got plans and they will reveal what those are at the upfronts (each network’s annual program showcase) on November 9 ... but it clearly shows you Ten is alive and well.”
New owners CBS, led by chairman and chief executive Les Moonves, would be delighted with their presenters’ flag-waving ahead of the $70 billion US network’s takeover of Ten next month.
On a feminist note, Buttrose said Wilkinson’s move spoke volumes of broader changes in media, where women were “finding their voice again”.
Using the same technology that has changed the TV landscape, female filmmakers, ac- tivists, actors and anyone with something to say are finding a way to amplify their ambitions to a global audience; once dictated to by largely male studio executives, who controlled the conversation, media corporations and their culture.
For Wilkinson, it was a line in the sand on pay parity.
For other women, it was about taking to social media and joining the “me too” campaign, exposing the Harvey Weinsteins in their world. For the TV industry, it was an unmistakeable memo: underestimate women at your peril.
If newsreader Tracey Spicer has her way, Aussie offenders face being named and shamed after she put out a call for those who had their own Weinsteinstyle allegations to confess all to her.
What followed, she claims was an “absolute tsunami of sexual assault, intimidation and abuse”.
“There are 30 to 40 alleged offenders so far and I would say the vast majority of them would have more than one case against them.” The author of The Good Girl
Stripped Bare, who has worked for Nine, Ten and Sky, has fashioned herself as a champion for women in the local media who have lost out in the gender wars. She has apparently teamed with a female police officer on her investigations, which could prove a powder keg for even more salacious headlines.
WHAT THE WILKINSON DEAL SAYS IS THAT CHANNEL 10 IS IN FOR THE LONG HAUL.
PEOPLE WHO THOUGHT PERHAPS THIS NETWORK WAS STRUGGLING SHOULD THINK AGAIN ITA BUTTROSE