Piers Morgan

Fleet Street's Ambition

Piers Morgan never needed to be liked to have a microphone switched on for him. In 1994, at just 28 years old, he took the helm of the News of the World, and from that office he understood that British journalism was a contact sport. Rupert Murdoch chose him for his fearlessness in the face of conflict and his innate ability to sniff out other people's scandals.

During his time at the Daily Mirror between 1995 and 2004, he pushed tabloid editing to a dangerous limit. But the publication of fake photos showing British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners brought his career in print journalism to an end. That abrupt firing was not the end of anything.

It was the first of many big stumbles.

Morgan burst onto television with the same aggression he brought to his front pages. He served as a judge on America's Got Talent in 2006 and on the British version a year later. He quickly realized that audiences weren't looking for experts but for celebrities who would say what nobody dared to say out loud.

The Failed Assault on the United States

In 2011, he landed at CNN to fill the shoes of a legend like Larry King. The bet was risky, since the British style of direct confrontation doesn't always fit the measured pace of late-night interviews in the United States. The show Piers Morgan Live became fixated on gun control, which earned him the enmity of a significant part of the country.

Ratings didn't match his rhetoric, and the network canceled the show in 2014. But Morgan already had one foot back in London. He knew his persona worked better at breakfast than at dinner.

Noise was always his best investment.

In 2015, he joined Good Morning Britain and made the show relevant through daily controversy. His interviews with politicians were like police interrogations. As a result, ITV began closing the gap with its direct competition for the first time in a decade.

The Cancel Culture Business

Everything blew up in 2021 after Oprah Winfrey's interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Morgan questioned the accuracy of Meghan Markle's account, and that led to thousands of complaints to the British media regulator. In March 2021, he walked off a live set after a co-star criticized his fixation on the Duchess.

He resigned that same afternoon because he refused to apologize for his words. And the move paid off.

In 2022, he signed a multimillion-dollar contract with News Corp to launch his own global show. The program Piers Morgan Uncensored was designed to air simultaneously on television channels across three continents. But audience habits had changed, and linear TV ratings in the UK were mediocre.

In 2024, he decided to move the format exclusively to YouTube to avoid fixed schedules and state regulations. His channel passed 2.3 million subscribers in less than two years, and his income now depends on global views rather than local British advertisers.