Piers Morgan to replace Larry King on CNN
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British journalist Piers Morgan will take over much coveted prime-time slot vacated by Larry King in about four months' time, Cable News Network (CNN) announced on Wednesday (September 8).
Morgan's show will air live on CNN-US at 9 p.m. ET and will also air worldwide on CNN-International in more than 200 countries, the network said. However, the show has not been named in the CNN news release.
"I have watched 'Larry King Live' for much of the last 25 years, and dreamed of one day filling the legendary suspenders of the man I consider to be the greatest TV interviewer of them all," Morgan said.
CNN chose Morgan because he is able to "look at all aspects of the news with style and humor with an occasional good laugh in the process," CNN-US President Jon Klein said.
Morgan, 45, has worked as reporter and editor for "The Wimbledon News" in England before he was editor-in-chief on "Daily Mirror". He left the newspaper in 2004 and became a television personality, hosting interviews on the BBC and ITV. He also judges on the well-received "Britain's Got Talent".
Morgan, who is best known to American viewers as a judge on NBC's "America's Got Talent", has most recently hosted "Piers Morgan's Life Stories" on television in Britain.
King announced this summer that he was stepping aside from CNN's "Larry King Live", a show he began hosting in 1985.
The 76-year-old, whose nightly CNN talk show was long a required stomping ground for striving politicians and contrite celebrities, will not be leaving CNN altogether: He signed a new contract to host quarterly specials on the cable news channel.
In a nod to how much the medium has changed since King began broadcasting in 1957, he broke the news himself on Twitter, writing: "Announcing tonight: I'm ending my nightly show this fall but continuing at CNN." He said he had asked his network to let him "hang up his suspenders."
Aside from Morgan, CBS anchor Katie Couric's name has been frequently floated as a possible successor, and King himself has volunteered that he thinks "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest would be a worthy contender.
The "Larry King Live" talk show, which has been on air on CNN for 25 years, has seen a sharp fall-off in audience this year.
According to Nielsen, an average of 677,000 viewers tuned in during the second quarter of 2010, down 37 percent from the same period last year.
