CNN officially announced Piers Morgan as the heir apparent for Larry King on September 8th, 2010, hoping to end what was dubbed a ‘ratings depression’ in the 9pm time slot. Morgan himself said before his program debuted that the ‘only benchmark’ of his success would be whether or not he could lift CNN’s ratings from ‘cellar-dwelling’ status. About three and half years later, the ratings boost never happened – and CNN has finally decided to pull the plug on Piers Morgan Live.
“So we're going to do that after we mourn the loss of Piers Morgan… Okay, we're done with that,” Glenn joked on radio this morning. “So you know… I asked Joel Cheatwood who is our chief content officer… ‘Can you tell me why TheBlaze is reporting that Piers Morgan was fired and other sources are saying that he quit?’ Joel's response was, ‘Because we tell the truth.’”
Last summer, TheBlaze’s Dan Andros put together an in-depth report of the history of Morgan’s ratings for the Wonderful World of Stu, and the numbers were downright appalling.
Check out the report HERE.
“I was really laughing at the he quit stuff,” Stu added. “This guy, who considers himself the most important man who has ever done anything, is going to walk away from a venue like that? No. He's getting fired because of his horrible ratings.”
According to the New York Times’ David Carr, the cancellation will most likely take effect in March. Carr actually received a phone call from Morgan yesterday to further discuss the situation.
There have been times when the CNN host Piers Morgan didn’t seem to like America very much — and American audiences have been more than willing to return the favor. Three years after taking over for Larry King, Mr. Morgan has seen the ratings for “Piers Morgan Live” hit some new lows, drawing a fraction of viewers compared with competitors at Fox News and MSNBC.
[…]
“It’s been a painful period and lately we have taken a bath in the ratings,” he said, adding that although there had been times when the show connected in terms of audience, slow news days were problematic.
“Look, I am a British guy debating American cultural issues, including guns, which has been very polarizing, and there is no doubt that there are many in the audience who are tired of me banging on about it,” [Morgan] said. “That’s run its course and Jeff and I have been talking for some time about different ways of using me.”
Only time will tell, but Glenn believes Morgan will ultimately blame his ouster on all those evil pro-Second Amendment gun supporters, who just could not accept his opposing point of view.
“The question is: Why did you bang on about it,” Glenn asked. “You watch. He will eventually say he was kicked out. He was ended by the gun nuts – and those are the people that really control the media in America.”
