Former newspaper editor Piers Morgan has made his debut as presenter of CNN’s US talk show Tonight, with Oprah Winfrey as his first guest.Experienced interviewer Winfrey spoke candidly about her teenage pregnancy and why she has never married.Reviews in the US have been positive, with the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper calling Morgan “enthusiastic and effusive”.In September, it was announced he would be replacing Larry King on the show.CNN said on Tuesday 2.1 million people tuned into to watch the show – a 219% increase on the average audience for King.Matthew Gilbert, of The Boston Globe newspaper, described Morgan as “charming, vain, well informed, and fawning – but mostly just fawning”.Morgan, who had previously admitted to feeling nervous about taking over from long-time presenter King, asked Winfrey how she thought he had performed at the end of the show.
“You have been surprising and that’s a good thing because who doesn’t want to be surprised?” Winfrey said.Morgan came across as “clever, tenacious, vain, a flatterer, and fitfully funny”, according to Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly.However, reviews were mixed with Hank Stuever from The Washington Post claiming the British interviewer’s first show “turned out to be a fawning and completely unnecessary interview”.During the programme, Morgan admitted that he had “always dreamed” of fronting a chat show that rivalled Winfrey’s.Morgan’s show will be broadcast in more than 200 countries.Prior to his move into TV, Morgan was editor at the Daily Mirror newspaper and was sacked in 2004 after the paper published faked photos of British troops abusing Iraqi prisoners.He went on to become a judge on Britain’s Got Talent and hosted Life Stories, where he interviewed celebrities such as Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell – BBC
