Piers Morgan has quit CNN after four years, despite being offered a chance to extend his tenure there.
Piers Morgan, 49, said on Twitter that he has decided to “try pastures new” after the station’s boss asked him to remain for another two years.
The deal would have seen him host a series of 40 interview specials.
Piers Morgan took over from veteran talk show host Larry King, but his show was axed in March due to falling ratings.
The primetime program launched in January 2011 to audiences of around two million, but they dwindled to some 270,000.
Piers Morgan has quit CNN after four years, despite being offered a chance to extend his tenure there
He said: “I had a fantastic time in my four years at CNN and have huge respect for Jeff [Zuckerberg, CNN boss] and all the people who work there.”
In December 2012, thousands of Americans lobbied for his deportation from the country after he advocated gun controls in the wake of the Connecticut school shootings.
Piers Morgan continued to be an ardent opponent of the gun lobby while on air and said as he left CNN: “I haven’t finished with you lot yet.”
Shortly after Piers Morgan made his debut on CNN, his predecessor Larry King said that he had been “oversold” to US TV audiences.
“He’s certainly not bad. He’s certainly an acceptable host. He asks good questions, maybe he interrupts a little too much at times. I think he may have been oversold,” said the veteran broadcaster.
He has yet to give any indication of his next career move, also writing on his Twitter feed: “Ironically, my transfer window just opened.”
Piers Morgan also confirmed his contract had come to an end on September 2 but added: “@piersmorgan left @CNN a long time ago.”
[youtube CtCvf6Otp-A 650]
Katie Couric has admitted to dating talk show legend Larry King during Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
Katie Couric and Larry King went for dinner at an Italian restaurant in Washington, D.C. about 25 years ago and afterwards King drove them back to his apartment where he tried to put the moves on her.
“So we sat there and what can I say, he lunged,” Katie Couric said, as Jimmy Kimmel cracked up and interjected: “Incredible.”
Katie Couric, now 56, said their one and only date took place when she was about 30-years-old and during a time when she decided to be more adventurous in her love life.
“I was going through this period of my life that I was going, <<I’m going to go out with anyone who asks me because you learn something every time>>.”
After Larry King, who has famously been married eight times, met her at a restaurant and later called her to ask her out.
“And I thought well that would be really interesting,” Katie Couric said of her reason for saying yes.
She said Larry King, now 79-years-old, came to her apartment to pick her up driving a Lincoln Town Car and then they went to dinner.
“They put us right next to each other like they do with all the men and their <<nieces>>.”
“He had ordered the veal poached in chicken stock because he had just had quadruple bypass, which was hot,” Katie Couric joked.
The rest of the meal went “nice enough” Katie Couric said, but she was soon thrown for a shock when she realized he wasn’t taking her back to her apartment.
“I go, <<Larry, where are we going>> and he goes, <<My place>>.
“I was like, <<Oh mother of god>>. I was like <<Dear, Cosmo what do i do?>> I was only 30, I could not figure out how to extricate myself from it.”
“So we go to his apartment in Roslyn [Virginia] and we walk in and its covered in proclamations for <<Larry King Day>> and keys to every city in the country. That was sexy!”
Katie Couric has admitted to dating talk show legend Larry King during Jimmy Kimmel Live
Soon after they got there, Larry King made his advance towards her, which she quickly rebuffed, she said.
“I started laughing a little because the whole situation was like out of a bad Lifetime movie.
“So I said <<Larry, you’re such an interesting, nice man but I would like to meet someone a little closer to my age>>.
“He said, <<That’s okay cause when I like, I really like>>.”
Larry King, who has been married to Shawn Southwick since 1997, has a totally different recollection of getting shot down.
“We went out to dinner, a nice Italian restaurant, we drove home, thought we were kind of romantic, we get to her door, in the apartment house and she said, <<Oh, I have a roommate>>,” he said in 2009.
“Then I kissed her goodnight and that was that. And we became friends ever since,” Larry King said.
Katie Couric also revealed last night how Michael Jackson once bizarrely asked her on a date after he rejected her request for an interview.
“Can you imagine going home to my daughters who were then about 8 and 4, saying, <<Honey, Girls. I’m going out on a date with Michael Jackson>>,” she said.
“I just thought it would be too weird. The tabloids would go crazy and I didn’t need that.”
[youtube z5Da0blssyk]
[youtube 0aZCF35nqG0]
[youtube kL-8jpSEnfI]
