Lisa Wilkinson laughs after Joel Creasey makes a pointed joke about her experience on the Today show

Joel Creasey couldn’t resist making a joke about Lisa Wilkinson’s pay dispute with the Today show during Wednesday’s episode of The Project.

The 30-year-old comedian was talking about Western Australia finally reopening their borders amid the coronavirus pandemic, when he mentioned the exorbitant cost of flights.

It then cut to a report by Today, where the reporter mistakenly said a one-way flight from Sydney to Perth would cost $12,000 instead of $1,200.

‘The Today show have never been very good with money. Anyone care to comment?’ quipped Joel, before swivelling his chair around to look at Lisa, 60, who was on a screen behind him.

Lisa smiled awkwardly down the barrel of the camera, as her co-hosts, Waleed Aly and Rachel Corbett, both burst out laughing.

‘Don’t get me into more trouble!’ she finally said, which prompted more laughter from her colleagues.

After an extended silence, Rachel, 39, jokingly suggested that they should ‘all sit here quietly’.

Lisa hosted the Today show alongside Karl Stefanovic for 10 years, before leaving the show in 2017 over a pay dispute.

According to a report by The Guardian in October 2017, Lisa was asking for $500,000 more than the $1.8million she was offered to renew her contract.

She was refused the $2.3million package demanded by her agent, resulting in the termination of her contract with Channel Nine.  

‘I went to an incredible amount of trouble to build that [$1.8million] package for her,’ Channel Nine’s chief executive Hugh Marks said at the time.

‘She wanted $2.3million. It wasn’t a $200,000 shortfall to [Stefanovic’s] $2million magic number. It was $500,000.’