Piers Morgan has given up his seat on the Britain’s Got Talent judging panel in order to fill the nightly interview seat held by Larry King on CNN for 25 years, but will remain on America’s Got Talent as a judge. King’s last show is set to air on December 16th. Speaking to Forbes.com, King said that, although he’s had Morgan on his show a couple of times, he knows virtually nothing about him. While King’s choice for his replacement would have been Ryan Seacrest, King did say about Morgan, “I like him very much. I wish him nothing but the best – he’s going to guest on my show in October. I want him to do well. It’s funny, my wife met him before I did, at a Dodger game.” King’s final guest will be former NY Governor Mario Cuomo, who was King’s first guest when the show began.
Morgan told Entertainment Weekly that he’ll be shooting for the stars where his guests are concerned. “I’m going to go for the biggest targets on the planet,” he says. “I want to get the biggest names, the biggest people, go after the biggest stories. There’s nothing I like more than breaking big stories with big interviews, and creating headlines. It’s what I do best . . Why don’t you come up with a list of the 20 biggest names in the world,” he says, “and I’ll confirm I’m definitely interested in talking to them. I wouldn’t rule anybody in, and anybody out. You can take your pick.”
Known in the U.S. for his work on reality shows like America’s Got Talent and The Celebrity Apprentice, Morgan has a reputation as a hard hitting interviewer in the UK. He told EW, “I just saw a tweet from Sylvester Stallone saying that I’m one of the best interviewers he’s ever had,” he says. “There are some who know about me and know what I’ve done, and others who probably aren’t aware of what I do.” And Morgan’s got a reputation for doing what he does in a straight-from-the-hip, no-holds-barred manner. Will he be bringing that tough interview style with him across the pond? “I don’t think I’m going to be softballing people,” he says, “but at the same time, I don’t think I’m going to be too brutal. I’m not going to basically kill the show by being so unpleasant that you can’t get any guests. I’m going to hopefully be quite charming to guests, and I think civilized.”
Morgan did admit to the Hollywood Reporter that he interviewed, “Simon (Cowell) in Britain for Life Stories and he said it was the best interview he’s ever given. I’ve already reached out to him for the CNN show and I’m getting pretty positive feedback. I think Simon sees it as like the old feudal days, when you’d have two guys on horseback jousting.”
Morgan has reportedly also signed a new two-year deal with ITV. The Sun claims that the contract, said to be worth £2.6m, will cover 12 new episodes of Piers Morgan’s Life Stories. Before breaking into British television, Morgan was the editor of a tabloid, the Daily Mirror. He was fired after the newspaper published fraudulent photos of British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners.
