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At the very end of the premiere episode of his new CNN show, Piers Morgan Tonight, Morgan turned to his first interviewee, Oprah Winfrey, and asked “How have I done?” 
“You have been surprising,” was her carefully chosen answer. “Surprisingly bad?” Morgan asked with a nervous chuckle. “No just surprising,” Winfrey reiterated. Actually, there was little surprising about Morgan debut interview as CNN’s successor to Larry King. After months of hyping his provocative style, Morgan came across as a capable interviewer but spent the hour worshiping at the church of Oprah, calling her queen/American royalty, the most powerful woman in America, world’s most famous interviewer, etc and throwing mostly softball questions at her.
Morgan was hurt by the long time gap between the taping of the interview at the very beginning of the year and its air date. Winfrey had since appeared publicly at other places, including before the TV critics as part of her new cable network OWN’s portion of the winter TV Critics Assn.’s press tour. In fact, whole segments from Morgan’s interview, including the first 10 minutes, were exact replicas of Winfrey’s TCA session, with Winfrey repeating some of her answers almost verbatim. The early taping also didn’t allow Morgan to address the ratings declines for OWN after its solid premiere.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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Piers Morgan is an ass but he shouldn’t be judged on his first show. It’s possible that, despite him being an ass, this could be a good show. He had some good instincts in this interview which were neutered by his deference and/or the producers.
Oprah is a big room. I thought he did OK.
Piers, you are a jerk! You interview one of the most popular women in America who has done more good with her fortune than anyone in history and you baited her throughout to “dish dirt”. She is a real lady and you have no idea what it is like to have a child out of wedlock in those days and then have to pick up your life again and go on. And, coming from England you should know what those kind of things did in your own country’s history. Then you go on Showbiz Tonight and denigrate her like the gossip monger you are. You don’t deserve to try and fill the shoes of Larry King. I want an American in your spot. You owe Oprah an apology. A GOOD interviewer does not dish dirt about the people they interview. I hope you fall on your stuck up English face.
When G.W. Bush fell off his segway scooter, this turd said, “You’d have to be an idiot to fall off, wouldn’t you Mr. President” and “If anyone can make a pig’s ear of riding a sophisticated, self-balancing machine like this, Dubya can.”
Then mr. “talent judge” fell off of a segway himself and broke three ribs.
Remember that every time you see his smug, arrogant face and hear his girly voice.
He’s a far better interviewer than most American reporters, but that isn’t saying much these days.
I would have not even hired this man, watch and learn as the tv ratings go down south
I’d rather watch paint dry! Or maybe Larry Kings reruns!? CNN has been a biased snoozefest since it’s inception! ZZZZ…..
I totally agree with you. He’s so full of himself. He’s a jerk!
Honestly, do you think anyone who wanted to watch this program read or cared about the stupid journo tweets at TCA? And do you think the ratings of OWN are that meaningful after a few weeks when she is hardly on it?
He was a bit nervous and not as fluid as you might expect, but he is smart – and that made for an interesting interview, and a compelling change from Larry.
Piers Morgan still remains to be considered below par as the choice for CNN in the first place.
What CNN producers have yet to understand, is that media viewers want personalities as intelligent as Fareed Zakaria instead of some lame Piers Morgan.
The Fareed Zakaria’s style of reporting and interviewing guests is slim to none at CNN.
When CNN discovers its fault,they will be lucky to have any reporters left.
CNN, what the h— were you thinking of when you hired Piers Morgan? He is a total ass and doesn’t even come close to the class of Larry King. Why didn’t you pick an American instead of a has-been newspaper Editor. He’s a gossip monger and nothing else!
This show is going to bomb. Morgan is a pathetic interviewer, and a pathetic human being.
Boring, it was like she gave him the questions to ask. Nothing very compelling at all.
Ew Nellie. How rude. Personally, I enjoyed his interview with Oprah, his style and I wasn’t even planning on watching his show. Now I plan on returning and watching Howard Stern tomorrow night just because I enjoyed tonight so much. It was refreshing watching an intelligent, informed interview after years of that curmudgeon Larry King getting names and facts wrong.
He’s perfect! Does anyone for a moment believe these people actually are willing to be interviewed by someone with a brain? If so you live in the wrong country. He’s perfect for an electorate that has put G.W. Bush & Barack Obama in office.
I missed the show…actually meant to watch it, but now I think I did not miss much. Over the years I have heard so much from and about OPRAh that I really am not interested in anything she does or has to say…”powerful, queenly” or not. I want to hear from controversial, FRESH, interesting, people AND some of the folks I consider truly GREAT. I will give our British Boy another chance, but I hope there is no more cowtowing !
I enjoyed the interview but he looked nervous and that’s not good. And those chairs seemed uncomfortable and didn’t help.
Piers Morgan did an excellent job with Oprah.
Larry “old goat” King should have left years ago. I rarely watched him unless it was sweeps. Looking forward to a host in my demo. Welcome Piers.
What planet are you from? He’s rude! He baited her throughout the interview to “dish dirt” on former people in her life and then asking her what she is worth? Suffice it to say she has used her money to help people all over the world and done a lot of good. What can you offer? It’s none of our business what she is worth! Go wash out your mind and get real. Piers acted like a jerk and then had the nerve to ask her how he’d done? Oh, please!! And then to go on TV and sih dirt with a gossip guy about her having a baby out of wedlock. Well, smart guy, tell me how much good has been done about present day women having babies with multiple fathers? It’s like they have no respect for anything.
After all the press about “easy Larry,” this guy made Larry King sound like Dick Cavett. His conversation with Oprah was one of the biggest suck-up interviews of all time. Is this a joke? He NEVER should hate started out with someone so protected and so unwilling to answer tough questions. Love it when she kept saying, “you’re not going to ask me that,” and he’d say, “yes, Oprah.” Tough interview? Not exactly.
I thought it was a really interesting interview… sure he praised her a lot but it was often to get to a specific question. He had a good chemistry with Oprah and asked her questions I haven’t heard Oprah asked before…
The fact that Oprah spouted off almost the same exact answers for the first few minutes shows that Piers isnt all that different from any other interviewer that got a hold of oprah in the lat month or so. If his interviewing technique is so tragically different than why one else, he should have ben aking entirely different questions and been able to steer her in the direction that he wanted the show to go in. I’ve seen him on other shows where he is ruthless and rude, and always seems to get his way, but when he was face to face with Oprah, it was like he was interviewing the queen of England!
Piers problem in the Oprah interview was that he came off very obsequious with his obvious pleasure when Oprah would say “Good question” or his pleading “How did I do?” at the end. I am sure you have to kiss Oprah’s ass to get an interview but once she is in the chair you need to show a little backbone.
Piers is a pompous ass so let him be that. He should be the Ricky Gervais of interviewers. We don’t need another ass kisser People should want to see if they can hold their own with him, not think they can flatter him into some softball interview.
Try sabotaging CNN with this; he’s not interesting to watch
AND
boring flat vocals;
and
nothing original smart or innovative;
why watch???????
You will never get anything worthwhile out of a continuous time TV interview with people who are entertainers and who can read the floor director’s signals as well as the host can. The form itself is the problem.
Piers Morgan was fawning all over Oprah. He laughed waaaay too long and waaaay too much at everything she said. When they were talking about seeing a therapist and he said he would choose her if he was going to see one, I gagged. Oh, please. Oprah had control of the interview the whole time. She knew exactly what she was and wasn’t going to say. He didn’t cover any new ground. He was dull, and the interview was dull. It didn’t flow. It would just kind of stop. Boring, boring, boring. Give it up Piers, you’re not cut out for this kind of job. He was afraid of Oprah not liking him; desperate for her approval. Puleeze!
Piers Morgan does not seem that comfortable in front of a camera. I believe he was a better journalist. He is more adept at writing words rather than speaking them. His swift British accent rebounds at times displaying a hint of a stuttering hindrance from his past. He would be much more effective behind the story instead of leading it.
Morgan should work for “People Magazine” rather than try and water down even further Prime Time TV. He’s a major lightweight.