Piers Morgan’s Twitter handle could sum up the British journalist’s outlook on life: ‘One day you’re the rooster of the walk, the next you’re a feather duster’.
This quote is also an apt metaphor for a career in which the 57-year-old rose to the position of editor of News of the World at the age of 29, was fired from rival tabloid the Daily Mirror for publishing fake photos of British soldiers in Iraq. — before getting a job at CNN in the US — but in 2014, the deal was halted for three years due to poor reviews.
He was subsequently hired as the editor-in-chief of Mail Online, where Morgan maintained his well-read column while returning to television with a full-time hosting role on Good Morning Britain.
In 2021, Morgan stormed off the set and off the runway after being confronted on air by comments he made about Meghan Markle following her controversial Oprah interview with Prince Harry.
But just a year later, Morgan is under a new kind of pressure, just six months after signing a monstrous $100 million (AUD) deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
Word from Sky News’ Sydney headquarters is ‘Piers Morgan: Uncensored’ – only launched in April – may eventually be dumped from Australian screens due to poor reviews.
The show, which premiered in the US on Fox, on the new British channel TVTalk and on Sky News in Australia, initially drew solid numbers thanks to a multi-million dollar advertising campaign and an interview with Donald Trump.
Piers Morgan’s show is struggling in the ratings. He is pictured here with a cocktail in front of Murdoch’s private jet
Piers Morgan: Uncensored has sunk to under 100,000 viewership in the UK and 18,000 in Australia
In Australia, 90,000 viewers tuned in to the first one-hour program, which airs at 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday.
Within a few weeks, however, those numbers had dropped significantly.
Shortly before Morgan’s four-week summer break, which he announced to his Twitter followers in late July, Uncensored averaged just 18,000 viewers in Australia.
It’s a slide that is reflected in UK viewing figures, which have fallen by about 80% since its debut – from 317,000 to just 60,000.
Morgan has featured some high profile names on his show, including Cristiano Ronaldo
Piers was pictured exiting Lachlan Murdoch’s private jet after arriving in Sydney for the February 25th anniversary dinner (above)
Piers flew to Australia with Lachlan Murdoch (above, the Gulfstream G650 from AU$90million)
Morgan’s figures in Australia are dwarfed by his Sky News colleagues. Paul Murray’s ‘Paul Murray Live’ regularly averages over 40,000 viewers per night.
Credlin, headed by Tony Abbott’s former chief of staff Peta Credlin, also easily outperformed Uncensored averaging 35,000 a night.
For context, Sky News’ free-to-air prime-time rivals Seven News and Nine News average about 900,000 viewers per night combined.
Now that he is on vacation for a month in the US, where it is clear that he is filming a new season of his series Serial Killers, ‘Piers Morgan’s Uncensored’ will not be shown on Sky News’ Australian schedule, despite being in the UK remains on the air under fill-in host Jeremy Kyle.
Most of Morgan’s promotional images have been quietly removed from the Sky News website.
Morgan’s relative failure comes with a degree of irony, as he was supposed to replace the big name for Alan Jones, who was dumped by Sky News in November 2021 despite an audience of 63,000.
Hailed as Sky News’ antidote to “cancelling culture,” Morgan kicked off his series with a sit-down with Donald Trump.
“I’m going to cancel the cancellation culture,” he told Peta Credlin on Sky. “I’m going to hit those ultra-awake lunatics hard.”
News Corp paid a lot of money to promote the show (above is the ad at Sydney’s Anzac Bridge)
Peta Credlin easily outperformed Uncensored at an average of 35,000 per night.
Paul Murray remains the most popular figure on Sky News Australia, despite earning a fraction of what Morgan is paid
Morgan boasted he would be; “Calling out extremists from all sides, not just in Australia but everywhere – and especially those who think cancel culture is a great idea and want to force us all to live our own bleak, joyless lifestyle.”
Morgan kicked off a lavish promotion in February when he arrived in Australia via Lachlan Murdoch’s private jet to attend Sky News’ 25th anniversary party at the Sydney Opera House.
Speaking about the upcoming election, Morgan said he predicted Australians would “choose the leader they believe will act fastest to restore all freedom rights lost during the crisis, and who will be strong on national security.” ‘.
Morgan’s TV deal has some ‘performance-based clauses’ that could allow News Corp to let him go, sources say
Alan Jones made way for Morgan after being dumped in November 2021
He later partied through the night with his new News Corp colleagues and followed it up with an appearance on Today opposite Karl Stefanovic (brother of Sky News breakfast tanker Peter Stefanovic) and Allison Langdon.
“Great to be back on breakfast TV…although I had to fly 10,000 miles to find a morning show where I could speak my mind!” he tweeted later.
But despite the international promotion, sources close to contract negotiations have told Daily Mail Australia that there were a number of ‘performance-based’ clauses built into Morgan’s contract.
“If the show doesn’t score, News Corp can enforce one or more of those clauses and terminate the contract without having to pay the full terms,” an insider said.
And it’s clearly not a rating. So maybe that’s what Murdoch’s going to do now.”
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Sky News Australia chief executive Paul Whittaker for comment.