Piers Morgan responds to chat-show criticisms

Piers Morgan has responded to criticisms made by Larry King, his predecessor, at CNN.

Last week Larry King made several criticisms of Piers Morgan claiming the new CNN chat-show host had been “oversold” to American audiences and would have benefited from a “quieter launch”. King also said that Morgan was not “dangerous” enough. Piers Morgan’s CNN chat-show Piers Morgan Tonight launched in January with 2 million viewers by the end of its first two weeks on air had lost 75% of its debut audience.

Responding to the criticisms made by King, Morgan told The Times he would be “edgy and dangerous, but at the right moment and with the right guests”.  Morgan also responded to the criticism about being “oversold” stating; “We couldn’t come in and undersell… I’m following a legend.  I can’t come in after Sinatra in Vegas and say, ‘By the way, this is not going to be very good’. There was a certain irony [in] being lectured about being ‘dangerous’ by an interviewer widely acknowledged to be the least risky in the business.”

Morgan quit his role on Britain’s Got Talent to take on the CNN chat-show and has been replaced on the talent contest by David Hasselhoff.