Lisa Wilkinson, an Australian television presenter and journalist, has come under fire during these last few weeks due to her speech at the 62nd Annual Logie Awards.
Until recently, Wilkinson was the host of the Network 10 news-current affairs and talk show The Project. She had joined the project in 2018 and had been hosting the show until mid-June, when she promptly disappeared from the front and now Australia.
Wilkinson has a long history in television and began in the late 1990s when she started her career as a regular panelist on Network Ten and Foxtel’s Beauty and the Beast. Her prominence rose when she co-hosted The Morning Shift on the Seven Network with Duncan Armstrong during the 2000 Summer Olympics.
She spent the 2000s co-hosting a variety of talk shows, with Today on the Nine Network being the most prominent. She stayed on the show for ten years, from 2007 to 2017.
What Did Lisa Wilkinson Say In Her Logie’s Speech?
On June 19, 2022, the 62nd Annual TV Week Logie Awards was held at The Star Gold Coast in Queensland.
The Logie awards is an annual celebration of Australian television that has been held since 1959 and presents awards in 20 categories which present awards voted both publicly and from within the industry.
Wilkinson was set to get the most outstanding news coverage award for an interview she did with Brittany Higgins in January 2021.
However, while accepting her speech, she made an impromptu speech where she openly referred to and praised the complainant in the sexual assault case of Bruce Lehrmann, who was accused of raping Ms. Higgins.
In a turn of events that is undoubtedly different than what Wilkinson might have wanted, the comments she made caused the trial of Bruce Lehrmann to be delayed after what many think was her overstepping the mark in her speech.
According to ACT Supreme Court Justice Lucy MacCallum, the speech completely obliterated the line between allegation and guilt of the alleged sexual assault. Due to Wilkinson’s address, Mr. Lehrmann’s trial, set to start on June 27, will begin on October 4 later in the year.
Many more people, both in the realm of law and television, have been lambasting Wilkinson for celebrating the truthfulness of a story before the law has found any guilt.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has recently reported that the prosecution in the case has been considering applying for restraint on commentary by Lisa Wilkinson.
Where Is Lisa Wilkinson Going Now?
Following her disastrous speech on the Logies, Lisa Wilkinson was absent from her show, The Project.
Though the official statement was that Wilkinson would not return to the show till late July, she has now been spotted in Los Angeles. It has been stated by various news outlets that Wilkinson will be conducting interviews with different musicians and movie stars from Hollywood and New York.
Her responsibilities will also include filing stories for the current affairs program. Although it is stated that these projects were all booked before her Logies speech, the public is having a hard time believing it.
All these interviews will still be for Network 10, and Wilkinson is set to return in late August. Many in the media are questioning this news because the press recently revealed that Wilkinson had leased out her apartment in Sydney’s harbourside suburb of Cremorne Point.
In Lisa Wilkinson’s absence, Studio 10’s Sarah Harris, Flash presenter Georgie Tunny, and Sydney radio presenter Rachel Corbett will take turns hosting her talk show.
Further Commentary on Lisa Wilkinson’s Logie Speech
Lisa Wilkinson’s Logie speech earned the ire of quite a few people, and the internet was primarily in an uproar.
Her most prominent criticism came from Ex-Weatherman Tim Bailey, who had once worked with Wilkinson. His comments were particularly scathing as he accused Wilkinson of having a big head.
In quite crude terms, he advised her to accept her trophy and move on. This advice might seem full of ill will but based on all the legal skirmishes that happened in the fallout of Wilkinson’s speech; perhaps it was a piece of advice she should have followed.
The rest of the internet, too, tore her apart, especially following the news of her departure from Australia. What the future holds for Wilkinson is anybody’s guess.