Remember when Larry King retired and Piers Morgan took his place? Well, since Piers performs in ratings as well as a drunk saying the alphabet backwards (or forwards), CNN has decided to give him the boot. I mean, they agreed his show should end. Yeah-huh. Via NY Times:
CNN’s president, Jeffrey Zucker, has other problems, but none bigger than Mr. Morgan and his plum 9 p.m. time slot. Mr. Morgan said last week that he and Mr. Zucker had been talking about the show’s failure to connect and had decided to pull the plug, probably in March.
Crossing an ocean for a replacement for Larry King, who had ratings problems of his own near the end, was probably not a great idea to begin with. For a cable news station like CNN, major stories are like oxygen. When something important or scary happens in America, many of us have an immediate reflex to turn on CNN. When I find Mr. Morgan telling me what it all means, I have a similar reflex to dismiss what he is saying. It is difficult for him to speak credibly on significant American events because, after all, he just got here.
“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.
I never really understood why they would replace Larry King with Piers Morgan. He went from trashy British tabloids to America’s Got Talent and Britain’s Got Talent to winning Celebrity Apprentice. All of these things are not the requirements for taking over Larry King in CNN’s prime-time spot. I’d say it’s more the requirements to pitching terrible one-liners on TMZ.
“I think I can credibly do news and the ratings reflect that, but it is not really the show that I set out to do,” he told me. “There are all kinds of people who can do news here. I’d like to do work — interviews with big celebrities and powerful people — that is better suited to what I do well and fit with what Jeff is trying to do with the network.”
I can talk to famous people, but I probably couldn’t do it as well as Larry King. He could ask them anything because he’s Larry King. Piers Morgan interviewed guests like he had no idea who he was talking to. Being able to actually talk to a human being instead of reading talking point questions is a skill you need to talk to people of note. Or else you get interviews like this:
So much yelling! But, honestly, that interview was amazing. Not because it has any educational or important value, but it’s because that complete backfiring of inviting Alex Jones onto a mainstream talk show went about as well as anyone could have predicted.
That’s more or less how the mutual agreement to end the show went down. I base that opinion on absolutely nothing beyond me daydreaming.
Via NY Times
