Piers Morgan "Officially" Gone From CNN

Former CNN anchor Piers Morgan yesterday, 2nd September, announced that he had officially left CNN, DStv 401, yesterday, a few months after his self titled show, Piers Morgan Live was cancelled earlier this year.

He made the announcement via his Twitter account, saying that he declined CNN's offer for him to do about 40 'special' interviews per year. Analysts were never quite convinced that those interviews would ever take place considering Piers' predecessor, Larry King was also to do special interviews for the network after his show was cancelled, but the only special from him we ever saw was one with the cast of Harry Potter.

Piers made it seem as if he declined the network's offer, which is unlikely, as it was probably the network that opted to cancel the agreement. CNN has been making cuts to its headcount as part of a program initiated by its parent company to "future proof" the organisation. CNN boss Jeff Zucker went further to state that any anchor with mediocre ratings would also be cut to reduce costs. As Piers' popularity had declined tremendously in the US over the last year or so, coupled with the fact that CNN has quite a few anchors in the US that have a greater news background than Piers but do not have a show of their own yet (these include the likes of former ABC News guy Bill Weir) waiting to get on the air.

It is currently unknown what is next for Piers, but he said he would be weighing his options. One could speculate that he might return to America's Got Talent (who itself has had a low rated season this year) or its British counterpart.

How CNNUS's Documentaries now affect CNNI

(c) CNNI

Earlier today CNNUS had their annual up fronts where they 'sell' existing and new shows to potential advertisers. At it, they announced that their 9pm Hour (Piers Morgan's old slot) will be filled with documentaries and announced the return of CNN Tonight, one of their older news bulletins, at 10pm.

Both of these directly affect the schedule of CNNI.

Firstly, the 9pm show has traditionally been simulcast on CNNI since the days of Larry King following a live edition of Anderson Cooper 360. As some of these shows will not convey well with CNNI's schedule or audience. Yes it may be 9pm in the US and 3am here in South Africa, but it will be the middle of the morning in Asia, where it obviously wouldn't be a good idea to show those shows (which you can read about in the post below this). The international audience also might not resonate well with some shows like Chicagoland and thus I doubt any of these shows will be shown onCNNI.

Another addition to their schedule is the return of one of the brands from their hey day, news bulletin CNN Tonight, which is said to be hosted by a rotating cast of anchors. This will be aired at 10pm US time, the first time in a long time they have had a fixed live broadcast at that hour. I predict it will be simulcast on CNNI in the 4am CAT slot currently occupied by a repeat of Quest Means Business. Here, again, the name of the show doesn't exactly consider an international audience that might be watching in the middle of the morning.

Another sad thing about them announcing these shows is that it ends the hopes of the likes of anchors Jake Tapper, Smerconish, Don Lemon and Bill Weir (who was brought in to CNN to host a show which forever remains in 'development'). All of the aforementioned anchors were to 'audition' for the 9pm slot since Piers Morgan left, but at the time of the announcement of what will be taking the slots, only the first two actually got to carry out their 'audition.'

The overall new US schedule leaves three hours open on the CNNI schedule, all of Piers' old slots: 1am CAT, which was a repeat slot here on the EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa feed). Currently it is filled with the first hour of CNN NewsRoom Live from Hong Kong, CNN's Asian breakfast show.
3amCAT (which will now have to be programmed by them)
1pmCAT(Which this week has been filled with the US breakfast show New Day, even though it is prime time in Asian markets.