Piers Morgan: Boobs! Sex tapes! No viewers!

I've been fighting off the temptation to mention the nosediving ratings of Piers Morgan's new show on CNN. But I surrendered this afternoon when the Nielsen folks revealed that Morgan dropped below half a million viewers Thursday night even with a bunch of crazed half-naked Kardashians sitting at the desk with him. Really. You can't break the half-million mark with Hollywood's most beloved trollops bragging about their boobs? (The scoop from Kim: "They're 100 percent real!" Kourtney, not so much.) And their sex tapes? (Poor Kim says she's embarrassed by hers, though not embarrassed enough to stop talking about it on national televison, though I guess you could argue that 498,000 viewers qualifies as a "national audience" only in someplace like the Togolese Republic, which may be where Piers Morgan is doing his next show.)

Talking about ratings in the first couple of weeks of a talk show is usually unfair; it takes a new one time to build an audience. But in Morgan's case, he's losing an audience. His show debuted on January 17 with 2.1 million viewers tuning in to see him chat up Oprah Winfrey. They were so impressed that almost half of them didn't return for day two.

Since then, Morgan's ratings fell every day except for a small upward blip last Tuesday when Rudy Giuliani was the guest. By the time the Kardashians had finished hyperventilating Thursday night, Morgan had lost more than three-quarters of the viewers he started with last week.

(Hey, you wanna know who's really enjoying reading this? Larry King. In its final six months, his show was averaging 613,000 viewers, was low enough to get him kicked off the air after 50 years in broadcasting. But it's about 20 percent bigger than Morgan's audience Thursday night.)

CNN, by the way, announced Friday that it has a new "managing editor," former Newsweek editor and NBC Washington bureau chief Mark Whitaker. His assignment, the network said, is "to create a more powerful and distinctive dialogue about the top news stories of the day." At the rate CNN is shedding viewers, though, the dialogue's going to have to be between cameramen and stagehands.

Comments

[Shane Douglas]

The Kardashians are no talent white trash.

[Simon]

Piers,

One question similar to the one you have asked 100's of contestants on your summer fill in show,

Do you think your act is worth a million viewers ?

X X X

I don't think you will moving on to the semi finals.

[Gene]

If you think Piers is bad get a load of NBC Chris Matthews on Hardball and the Ed Show. They are both blabber mouths that do not let guests speak. Why does NBC keep these clowns. I watched their shows twice and they are the house clowns. To think they get paid for that crap.

[MICHAELP]

What good news do the liberals have. all they do is call names, with NO proof !

[tom jefferson]

Couldn't CNN find an American broadcaster to host its show? It might be that American viewers would perfer an American host interviewing other Americans -- not a Brit.

[jerry dale]

He is very boring. Larry King was interesting even with People no one ever heard of.ALTOONA your on the air

[DrMorbius]

Any guy who says the Kardashian women (especially Kim) are fat, ugly, etc, is either lying or is gay...

[Anon]

Ugh. Kim Cowdashian is repulsive.

[David]

Isn't Piers Morgan a wine, or a whine? If not it should be. Why do not one of the Networks give Mark Steyn a chance/ He is fabulous, just fabulous.

[Harrietcraig1]

Here's one thing for dang sure: Those Kartrashians should not be wearing two piece swim suits. Better yet, they need caftans.

[Disappointed]

CNN doesn't realize that regardless who the interviewer is, that the majority of the "audience in waiting" do not want to see celebrities. We are already up to our necks with celebrity saturation. What the audience wants are the politicians, scientists letting us know what is happening in an entertaining and encouraging way, and other people we are not exposed to unless we go to specific shows that are boringly produced.

[Willy Brown]

If CNN would stop trying to beat out MSNBC then they may get some more viewers besides their mothers. As for Piers he'll be interviewing himslef in 6 months. He's a nobody on this side of the pond.

[Chris]

Whoever hired this no-talent bore should be fired immediately. He is the worst interviewer I Have ever seen. Awful.

[The Defenestrator]

I am so out of the loop. I've never even heard of this Piers person before. I've heard about the Kardashians, but I couldn't pick them out of a lineup.

[Craigster]

I tried watching Piers but found him to be insufferable and boring. As to the Kardashians ... I don't get the appeal at all. There are a lot of hotter women running around my neighborhood and the mall than those two wenches.

[allen Smith]

CNN is a pitiful excuse for television....poor quality in every regard.

[JoeD]

I conclude that CNN wants the show to fail. You don't hire someone from a failed partisan POS rag like Newsweek to save a show. He'll just make the show (and network) more stupidly liberal, and it will sink like a stone. (The one uptick: Giuliani is the guest. Get a clue, CNNtards.)

[mary jane parker]

Maybe the people complaining, are not into TV INTERVIEW type programs. I am enjoying Piers very much.

[BlakeDdavis]

If those at CNN had half a brain they would go after the conservative viewers Fox has all to itself. But, instead they get a NEWSWEEK editor!? Great a failure with a magazine is supposed to make a success of a failing cable channel? Why do these people always go to the left - when to make money they should go to the right? These are public companies and should be going after shareholder value - but ideology is more important? Explain this to me!

[Deb]

What demographic is he trying to reach? I don't see any consistency at all in who is on that show. But I can tell you, the LAST, VERY LAST, show I would watch is an interview with the trashiest, money hungry family on earth. Yuck!

[Black Eagle]

They will try, do, say anything EXCEPT to return to mainstream American values, supporting American exceptionalism against the mob of leftists and Muslim radicals. THAT they will NEVER do, even though it would cause their ratings to soar. Better to bankrupt CNN than to change their hate-America (and Americans) politics.

[JWL]

All the big time cable TV interview hosts these days--O'Reilly, Piers and particularly Matthews-- constantly interrupt or "talk over" every one of their guests. It is so annoying, I no longer watch any of them. I am amazed that so many accomplished guests willingly--and repeatedly--submit themselves to such public incivility.

To many, like me, these interviews sound like fingernails scratching a chalkboard. Enough!

[lpg]

piers is boring and arrogant and talks more about himself than the person he is interviewing....he won't last just like CNN won't last.....liberal BS propaganda and now they finally have competition - FOX News, which is not slanted socialistic, liberal, progressive noise run by the so called "elites" sucking up to the socialist leadership in DC

[Repub4life34]

Remember everyone, this is CNN. They let Glenn Beck walk out the door without a second thought, they could've had Beck on at this hour and his ratings would be even bigger than what they are now. Democraps will never change, even though they know the answer to their problems. They can't bring themselves to do it, cannot have Republicans at the helm in any way, and I for one applaud it. It just means they'll be out of business sooner... thank God. (The real God, not Allah.)

[Mick Russom]

Pierce is a god damned piece of trash. He is an America hating freedom hating constitution hating liberty hating traitor rat vermin I hate Piers Morgan, he is a twisted creep, and his show sucks, he sucks, and CNN is a traitor to America along with Piers. I hope he gets cancer and get the substandard obamacare he love so much.

[Ned in Vegas]

once upon a time, CNN covered the news, and provided a true benefit to society. They set the standard for news coverage and largely eschewed political bias in reporting.

But MSNBC came along and after stumbling a bit, decided to provide news and commentary to the left of CNN, and Fox came along and provided news that was not only to the right of CNN but made a decent stab at providing balanced coverage (their commentary talk programs are more to the right, but the news itself is by far the most balanced of the three cable channels).

CNN did itself even a worse service when it started turning CNN Headline News into a real cable news channel (like the others) and not a 30-minute news-cycle reporting station (akin to the Weather Channel, constantly repeating basic and useful news).

This meant that:

a. CNN didn't provide the best balanced news coverage (Fox, followed by Headline News, now owns that market niche); and

b. CNN didn't provide the "best" left-leaning commentary

In short, their market niche was eroded from the Left, from the Right, and from the balanced-news Center, giving people very little reason to watch other than because they liked the anchor. Clearly, Piers doesn't have even the cadaverous Larry King's "audience appeal," and this lack-of-appeal also seems to apply to Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer and the rest of the CNN hosts/anchors.

Hiring a guy from Newsweek (clearly the most biased and Left-leaning of the weekly news mags, and clearly the least successful) with no apparent TV experience to "shake things up" doesn't bode well for transforming the pioneer news network.

They should have hired a successful news director from Fox and make a stab at really competing with the leader - instead, it looks like they're gearing up for a "smack-down" with equally-failing MSNBC for the "honor" of being the most far-left cable news channel.

That's hardly a crown worth fighting for ... or so it seems to me.

Full disclosure - I have a degree in Journalism and once worked in TV news (but not in cable news), as well as radio, magazine and newspaper print news - and I once taught in a Journalism school at the University level - but that was a while ago.

[J.V. - Newport Beach, CA]

The British has taken a beating like this since Yorktown.

[andrew]

Moran had Dumb Dumer and Dumest

What a joke

[MarkinIdaho]

If I passed those two girls walking down the street, I would probably smile for a brief second if I made eye contact, but then would not even give them a second look. They are not ugly, they are not gross (and those that say they are, are just being rude), they are just not particularly attractive or provocative. They just look like girls walking down a street in swim suits. I like girls, but it is rude and creepy to get all excited about girls in a bathing suit just because you see them walking.

[mo]

Just think of the Famunda cheese those Kardashian sisters are working up in those fat thights. YUM!

[1 network]

CNN and MSNBC should simply merge and consider doing real news for a change. The company could be called CNNBC, and CNN could continue its international reporting. MSNBC could do the more racy stories that no one cares about on HLN and garnish similar raitings. They would be reduced to say three channels but maintain their currrent combined viewers and add some moderates watching Fox. Just get rid of Matthews, Maddow and Morgan PERIOD! Just get rid of all the "M's." Oberman can be the sole liberal outlet, and with that being so, he would garnish enough votes to compete with Hannity, and they could replay him at 10 and 2.

[Jules]

I think the editing makes it look like he is interupting his guests. I also think the show would do better if it were live. I think he would handle a live interview well. he can research them just the same as he does now. Also I never see a commercial for this show. advertise on some other channels and remind people about it. I think Piers is great just needs a little tweeking!

[Dee]

I wouldn't look out the window to see the K sisters do or say anything. If Piers wants to be taken seriously, he will only have serious guests, not those seeking the spotlight, any way they can get it.

I watched the Condi Rice interview with Piers, and thought it was a good one, although Piers, like most of the anchors on CNN, simply cannot hide his own liberal bias. His voice tone, his questions, his expressions ... it all gives him away.

[Stechatte]

This isn't hard to understand. News junkies don't watch CNN and its ilk anymore because such media are shamelessly bent on a political schema with which most news junkies don't agree, and they're arrogant about it, to boot. News junkies watch FOX News, which, even though it is usually conservative, doesn't resort to condescending, ad hominem, know-it-all rhetoric. It actually stomps on guests who do take that tone...which amps up ratings like crazy! FOX simply editorializes in a much more take-it-or-leave-it tone, and people appreciate that. It's not lib vs neo-con. It's that the Old Media has been in power too long and it treats its audience like unwanted children. Only the lazy minds continue to tune in, and let's face it, those minds are really being competed for by pro-wrestling and MTV, not FOX News.

[Noah Fing-Whey]

They aren't too saggy and baggy for a couple of forty year olds!

[Big Bear]

Who the hell are the Kardashians anyway? I gather a bunch of makeup-plastered plastic surgery disasters who huff coke and provide sexual favors to media executives, in exchange for airtime? Of course, that pretty much sums up everyone who Medialand shoves in our faces these days. No wonder no one watches. The media moguls have used the same boring schtick for years and will NEVER come to the conclusion that most people aren't trash-obsessed deviants like they are.

[Jake Bello]

CNN has always beek sold to the American public, by the rest of the "corrupt/fringe media", as being so much more than it has ever been. The proof of that does lie with it's almost non-existent viewership. Their news division has always had a hard left leaning bias and attempted to effect public opinion rather than inform with verifyable information without any bias. It's not that an audience doesn't exist, it just mostly watches the dreaded and hated FOX. The only news network that has genuine liberals and conservatives on air everyday and the viewers seem to love it.

[Peg C.]

Skanks and hos.

I try very hard never to be trapped anywhere where CNN is on the TV (with the TSA's antics, airports are already on my boycott list). If I want to watch a Brit, I prefer Stuart Varney (whip-smart and not arrogant).

If Piers wants ratings he'll have to get someone like Sarah Palin, but then the PDS crowd that watches will scream for his execution.

[Babyshaker001]

Anderson cooper is sooo gay. Watch his hands, he waves them around like a little girl describing her 5th birthday.

[John]

CNN has to learn, we want 24hour a day news, not a talk show themed show and reruns. More 24hr a day Live content. I for one working evening shift want to come home after midnight and turn on what is happening around the world live (since it is the next day most places) Not watch the dead recorded shows from the past day. Piers was not fun to watch when he was on idol, slightly amusing thinking he was joking around being an arse, but now we see its not acting its his boring self. And for the British invasion CNN is talking about, I think it's now DOA.

[Colin]

I agree with one of the previous posts. Piers interrupts his guests at a very annoying rate. I was really surprised Howard Stern didn't go off on him during his interview. Piers asks a question, then as soon as the answer starts coming he's cutting him off. Why is Piers thought of as a great interviewer? I think he's average at best.

[Cousin Eddie]

Plumperzz!!

[Partytime]

There is nothing hot or classy about the big ass k clan.

[g1rag]

having the kardasians on was the only reason I didn't watch the show the other nite. But all the other guests, and the interviews, have been superb. OK, he interupts...but the show is not live like it used to be and is taped...maybe editing is squeezing in as much as they can on these interviews too? I think he asks great questions of the guests, and, is a sharp guy. I have been enjoying the new show with him as host.

[Ira]

Frankly, I think the U.S. public viewing audience is getting tired of hear another British-accented host. No offense, but I tire of hearing the Queen's English, day in and day out. Although if she's a beautiful, well-endowed female host anchor, I'd enjoy it much more.Pip pip cheerio(s)

[writewing]

A bad interviewer interviewing other interviewers (Winfrey, etc.) is not only not news but not entertaining. Adding the K girls (who are pretend celebrities)to the list is killing this show. Guiliani and Condi Rice were valiant attempts at something semi-intelligent, but Morgan's obvious liberal slant ruined that (i'm waiting for a conservative to lay into one of the lamestream losers when they try to nail them with their biased questioning.

[Poonky]

Morgan is actually very good. He keeps the interview moving. But, I do agree with those who say he needs to push the envelope. He should have asked Oprah the question we all had oln our minds. How, with all that money to hire personal chefs and trainers--- how could you have gotten so f-ing fat!

[Woody Wessel]

The Good Friar took the words out of by mouth.

[John Gleason]

lst, the Kardashians are on their way out. I turn the channel when I hear their name.

2nd) I am 78 yrs old. Used to listen to Larry King yrs ago on the radio. He was disgusting and treated his guests terribly. I had no idea why anyone would call in to his station. He hated to show that side on TV.

3rd. I prefer Fox News. They give both sides more than any TV network. MSNBC yell and talk loud if the guests doesn't agree with them.

The major networks are too liberal.

[Mike Yeksavicdh]

Who cares? It's CNN! A propoganda machine and not a real news organization.