CNN’s very own Piers Morgan sat down with legendary broadcaster Howard Stern today. The interview took an odd turn when Morgan seemingly blamed his low ratings on there being a lack of news to cover. Despite his claims, Fox News’ Megyn Kelly doesn’t seem to be struggling.
Howard and Piers have been friends for quite some time now, but Stern didn’t hold back from reminding the Brit of some advice he once offered. The shock jock told the journalist that hosting a prime time news program wasn’t going to be as easy as he thought.
After Piers agreed, Stern began to question the broadcaster about his low ratings. At times, it seemed as though Howard was criticizing the format of Morgan’s show:
“You’re up against these other news channels. They are not celebrity driven. They’re debating the issues--they get on there and fight. They scream and yell at each other. They’re not doing celebrities...It’s so hard in an hour format to keep that going.”
Piers’ response came across as...well...just plain odd. The host of Piers Morgan Live told Stern:
“Here’s the secret, there was a moment after three weeks of really great guests--and the buzz was pretty good about it--but you knew and I knew that it wasn’t going to last. You’re gonna reach C-list booking hell. And then we got hit by an extraordinary news cycle--the arab springs, the tsunami, even Charlie Sheen was self destructing--but when big news stories stop, the collective ratings of CNN goes down...It’s not easy.”
Of course, it would be difficult to tell this to Fox News’ Megyn Kelly. Her new show has consistently (and quite handedly) beaten Piers every night.
In fact, the debut of The Kelly File beat both MSNBC and CNN, combined.
Ratings aside, Piers also opened up about what it was like to book guests for his first week. Specifically, he described what it took to land an interview with Oprah:
“The pressure was really mounting. I remember we got to about December 20. We were on air January 17. Obviously, everyone was shut down for two weeks over the holidays and we had nobody. And I was thinking, ‘this is an absolute disaster.’ I thought, ‘I have to get Obama.’ Obama said no. I said, ‘We have to get Oprah.’ She’s just a global figure, the show airs globally. By a pure bit of luck, the general manager of [the hotel Piers was living in] bumped into me. He asked me if I had any guests and suggested Oprah. I said, ‘I don’t know Oprah.’ And he said, ‘I’m friends with Gayle King. They’re in town. Drop them a line.’ So I dropped Gayle a line. And Gayle and I became best friends for the past several years.”
Gayle arranged the interview for Piers. Of course, Morgan took time to praise his second guest, too:
“To be fair though, I had an even bigger star the next night. I had Howard Stern, King of All Media.”
What do you think about the latest comments? Is a news shortage the reason for Piers’ low ratings?
Tell us what you think in the comment field below.
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