from the Guardian.......
CNN calls Piers Morgan 'sad', defends Anderson Cooper in harsh statement
Network hits back at the former Piers Morgan Tonight host for his comments blaming Cooper for his own show’s poor ratings
Email
Piers Morgan has spent a bitter week hitting out at his former CNN colleague Anderson Cooper, blaming the dismal ratings for Piers Morgan Tonight on Cooper’s poor lead-in.
On Thursday, CNN hit back, calling his behaviour “sad” and accusing Morgan of denigrating Cooper in an attempt to get a new TV job.
The flame war started with an interview Morgan gave to Politico, published on 2 October. “Could I have done with a better lead-in?” he said. “Yes. Anderson is a great field reporter, but does he drive big ratings at CNN, outside of a big news cycle? I don’t see any evidence of it.”
It continued with a column Morgan wrote for the Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, where he described Cooper as “stiff in a studio”, and that his show gets “annihilated in the ratings” by Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly. He said he blamed Cooper for not bringing in a strong enough audience for his AC360 show, who would then go on to watch Piers Morgan Tonight.
He expanded on his relationship with Cooper in an interview with Access Hollywood. “I don’t get on that well with Anderson, never had that much to do with Anderson,” Morgan said, continuing: “It’s not to denigrate Anderson who is a very, very good field reporter. But to me as a studio star, he’s not really what CNN needs.” He also suggested CNN should have hired Megyn Kelly, the Fox News anchor whose show airs at 9pm, the slot formerly occupied by Morgan on CNN.
On Thursday CNN spokeswoman Megan Rivers retaliated, in a statementfirst obtained by Politico which said: “For the two-and-a-half years that AC 360 served as the lead-in to Piers Morgan’s program on CNN, it always delivered a higher rating than Piers’ program. And for the seven months that Piers Morgan’s program led into AC 360, 360 always delivered a higher rating than Piers’ program.”
“It is sad that Piers is trying to find a new job by misrepresenting how he performed in his old one.”
Chloe Louise
Oh, excuse me.....let's just wait one tiny little minute. As a CNN viewer forever....I get to talk.
Here is exactly where CNN messed up.....
They did have some good shows on hand which they F***ed up big time.
they had George Strombo, who is an excellent interviewer....seriously, the guests end up telling him useful and interesting information.
He beats Anderson and Piers, who are both skilled, hands down on technique and having what it takes to make a good show.
But, no....instead of showing George which they advertised all week.....they had to run repeats of PM and AC 360 over and over again while cutting George.
Get a clue, CNN--enough is enough of PM and AC--one show of them each is plenty in one evening--but endless reruns of the same thing over and over again--give me a break.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what is wrong with the scenario........I said use George Strombo--you are wasting your talent on hand--bring back Larry, what about Geraldo Rivera, why did they let Greta go?
The Larry King show was a perfect format for a dinner show on a regular basis--interesting and easy to take,
At the end of the day it seemed like AC and PM were in a fight to takeover control of the network.
They are both fine in small doses--let them get their evening interview show organized with a few interesting hosts and some good current news-topic guests.
Take a lesson from Larry King--add a few other good hosts and guests and you've got yourself ratings.
I shouldn't have to say all of this--I bet CNN pays a bunch of real smart people a whole lot of money to know these things.
from the pages of the ronnie republic:
http://theronnierepublic.blogspot.com/2014/02/geraldo-rivera-to-replace-piers-morgan.html
http://theronnierepublic.blogspot.com/2014/02/geraldo-rivera-to-replace-piers-morgan.html
