Business of Media
Ten Network CEO’s fears for Lisa Wilkinson’s ‘state of mind’ after damaging leaks
Lisa Wilkinson was so distressed in the wake of damaging leaks over her six-hour interview with Brittany Higgins that Ten Network CEO Beverley McGarvey feared for her “state of mind” and wanted her to have mental health support, reports News Corp’s Samantha Maiden.
The bitter battle behind the scenes over Wilkinson’s secret fears she was “isolated” by her employer, the hiring of security to protect the television host and her decision to hire top defamation silk Sue Chrysanthou SC has been detailed in new emails and texts tendered in the Federal Court.
See Also: “Devastated”: Lisa Wilkinson addresses Logies speech fallout and The Project departure
Lawyer denies ‘inappropriate’ advice to Lisa
A senior Network 10 lawyer has defended the advice she gave to Lisa Wilkinson before her controversial Logies speech, which was slammed by Justice Michael Lee as “inadvisable and inappropriate”, reports News Corp’s Adelaide Lang.
Senior litigation lawyer Tasha Smithies told the Federal Court on Tuesday she didn’t believe her advice to go ahead with the speech had been “incorrect or inappropriate”.
Justice Lee reminded her of the assessment he formed of the legal advice during the defamation hearing brought by Bruce Lerhmann against Wilkinson and Network Ten.
News Brands
ABC Managing Director grilled at Senate estimates
At the beginning of the year a dispute over the employment of presenter Antoinette Lattouf provoked controversy at the ABC and became part of an ongoing debate about race and objectivity at the national broadcaster, reports ABC’s Hagar Cohen and Emily Ackew.
Yesterday Managing Director David Anderson faced questions in Senate Estimates about his handling of these issues.
Paramount Global cuts 800 staff two days after Super Bowl was biggest ever TV show
The owner of CBS is laying off 800 employees, just two days after its broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII became the most-watched TV program in history, reports The Guardian’s Callum Jones.
Paramount Global plans to reduce its global workforce by about 3%, according to sources, and informed staff on Tuesday of the job cuts.
Bob Bakish, the media giant’s chief executive, announced the move hours after CBS revealed that its broadcast of the Kansas City Chiefs’ overtime triumph over the San Francisco 49ers averaged 123.4 million viewers across television and streaming platforms on Sunday.
Television
‘You look so hot in that shirt’: Survivor crosses a line and it’s not okay
“I can’t help it, every time we look at you, all our eyes do is focus on that fluoro pink and it’s not good,” laughs Queensland psychologist Kelli as she ogles her new tribe mate’s bright pink speedos, reports Nine Publishing’s Ariel Fowkes.
A quick, comedic zoom of the camera shows us the young man’s crotch, soundtracked by a “ding” for extra comic effect. Alex, the visibly uncomfortable recipient of Kelli’s quips, stands stiffly and keeps his eyes down.
“Kelli… She’s annoying. She’s really annoying,” we hear him say in a confessional, interspersed with more shots of the woman pointing at his groin and touching his bicep.
Nemesis caps off an extraordinary exercise in documentary journalism
Nine prime ministerships, eight prime ministers, 39 years, hundreds of interviews, 18 hours of television and several thousand unprintable swear words, especially if you include the viewers watching along at home and shouting obscenities at the screen, reports Nine Publishing’s Neil McMahon.
That’s a summary of one of the most extraordinary exercises in documentary journalism in the history of Australian television: four ABC series, spanning the years 1983 to 2022, culminating in the final episode of Nemesis, which wrapped up the Scott Morrison era on Monday night.
The end of Nemesis brings to a pause, but surely not an end, a decades-long examination of modern Australia through the lens of its prime ministers.
First trailer released for Prince Andrew ‘PR disaster’ Newsnight interview drama Scoop
Netflix has released the first trailer for Scoop, its drama about the machinations behind Prince Andrew’s disastrous interview with Emily Maitlis on the BBC’s Newsnight in 2019, reports The Guardian.
Featuring Gillian Anderson as Maitlis and Rufus Sewell as Andrew, the film is based on a book by former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister, and is directed by Philip Martin. McAlister is played in the film by Billie Piper, while Keeley Hawes is Prince Andrew’s private secretary Amanda Thirsk.