Oprah to be Piers Morgan’s first CNN guest

PASADENA, CA–With Mike Tyson, Ricky Gervais, Gayle King and Oprah Winfrey still to go, today is shaping up to be one of the newsiest days ever on a TCA press tour.
New CNN host Piers Morgan kept Twitter feeders busy with his quotable late morning session. “Cocky little devil aren’t I?” he declared. The blunt Brit bashed and banned Madonna as a guest on his show (saying Lady Gaga was half Madonna’s age and twice as good looking) and dissed his old Apprentice foe Omarosa (dismissing her as “the world’s most ridiculous creature.”). He announced Oprah Winfrey as the first guest on Piers Morgan Tonight, which premieres January 17 at 9 p.m. on CNN. Morgan says he felt an instant connection to Winfrey and says she told him it was one of her best interviews; we’ll ask her if that’s true when she makes the TCA scene to promote her OWN network later this afternoon.
Morgan says he’ll do his show from LA and New York with “a dash of London every now and then.” The former Fleet Street editor says Royal lovebirds Will and Kate will be the biggest stars in the world come April.
He also says he’s sticking with America’s Got Talent. Asked later in the scrum what it means that all three judges on AGT are non-Americans (including Toronto-born Howie Mandel), Morgan said, “you’ve just answered your own question, haven’t you?” He just thinks guys like himself and Simon Cowell and Gordon Ramsay are like the over-the-top villains on the annual pantomimes that are still popular in Britain, the bad guys that audiences love to hiss.
Morgan also had plenty of nice things to say about his CNN predecessor in the after scrum, although the two men have opposite approaches to interviewing. Morgan does tons of preparation; King was famous for doing none.
He also thinks Twitter is a key tool in promoting any TV career; you can follow him there at @PiersMorgan.