Piers Morgan Is The Latest TV Personality To Ditch TV For Social Media
Piers Morgan is becoming a digital creator, a move that other news pundits on both the conservative and liberal ends of the political spectrum have made recently to adapt to the shifting landscape of media. Morgan’s show Piers Morgan Uncensored on the U.K.’s TalkTV will stream exclusively on YouTube starting Feb. 19, he announced on his show yesterday (Feb. 8).
In an interview with Semafor, the British TV personality said most of his audience is watching his show online anyways. The YouTube channel for Uncensored already has 2.3 million subscribers.
“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 told Semafor.
Uncensored itself has only been around since 2022, but Morgan has television career spans two decades. He’s hosted and appeared on a variety of shows, from America’s Got Talent to Good Morning Britain. Morgan is well known for his beef with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as well as getting into heated arguments with his show guests.
Plenty of media figures like Morgan who have built their names on TV are pivoting to social media and streaming platforms. Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon, both who were ousted from their respective linear channels, have announced or launched shows on Elon Musk’s X within the last year.
One thing both Morgan and Lemon seem to value is the creative freedom offered by social media platforms. Lemon, who was criticized a number of times for his controversial comments throughout his 17-year tenure at CNN, said X is “the biggest space for free speech in the world.” Morgan also said on his show yesterday that he at times didn’t like being rushed on his show, which is an hour long, and that he would have wanted to interview guests for two, even four hours.
“Cutting short our interviews and debates to squeeze them into a single hour with commercials no longer makes any real sense,” Morgan said.
Though media figures known for their liberal political views are also moving over to streaming (Trevor Noah launched his own podcast on Spotify last November), it looks like the trend is catching on mainly for conservative figures. Morgan is joining the ranks of Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Ben Shapiro, who have all successfully launched video shows and podcasts on streaming platforms. As of today, Carlson and Shapiro are among the top 20 on Apple Podcasts, and Kelly is at number 26.