The presenter declared that he wished to break free from the “straightjacket” of a nightly chat show by becoming “full digital”.
For nearly two years, the Rupert Murdoch-owned channel has aired his show, Piers Morgan Uncensored, at eight o’clock, but the numbers have been dismal.
Nevertheless, the seasoned journalist decided he wanted to go “full digital globally” and break free from the “straightjacket” of a nightly broadcast after seeing his YouTube channel has been receiving significantly more views.
“There’s something quite anachronistic about a show like mine still trying to create old fashioned TV for a pre-scheduled time slot each night for a relatively small audience – when we’re getting such gigantic audiences digitally,” Morgan stated on the website Semafor.
He went on to say that more than 50,000 people watched his latest TalkTV interview with Rishi Sunak, “but by more than five times as many on YouTube.”
“I could happily interview Elon Musk for three or four hours tomorrow and the audience would lap it up,” he subsequently told The Times.
“But the nightly requirement of reporting to a studio at 8 p.m., when there may be nothing going on, and just filling in time? Nobody desires that.
Morgan, 58, followed in the footsteps of other well-known TV anchors who have gone entirely online, like Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, by citing US online news site The Daily Wire, which is led by Ben Shapiro, as an example of the kind of brand he hopes to build with “Uncensored,” which he co-owns with TalkTV.
With 2.35 million subscribers, Morgan’s YouTube channel features videos that have received millions of views after going viral.
