'You've got a lot to prove': Piers Morgan triples Larry King's ratings... but has yet to make a fan out of rival Howard Stern
- Piers bans 'gold digger' Heather Mills from any future shows
- Debut programme gets 2.1million viewers
He may have tripled Larry King's ratings with his very first show, but Piers Morgan shouldn't think he's conquered America just yet.
The America's Got Talent judge took a battering as he interviewed Howard Stern on his new chatshow last night.
The loud-mouthed radio personality told him: 'My friend, you have a lot to prove here. What's going to happen three
months from now when you're interviewing Scott Bate?' - a derogatory comment referring to a relatively unknown US actor.
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Tuning in: Piers Morgan Tonight attracted solid ratings for its debut CNN show, with 2.1million viewers
Confrontational: Loud-mouthed radio personality Howard Stern told Piers Morgan he thought the new host had a lot to prove
And to drive the point home he added: 'Piers was in England. To be successful in England is very easy, but England is about the size of Philadelphia. To conquer England takes about two days. America is something else.'
The two self-proclaimed 'kings of all media' got into a verbal tussle even before the hour-long interview got underway on Tuesday night when Stern questioned Morgan's credentials.
Ahead of the interview, just his second hosting his new talk show, Morgan had told viewers: 'Howard Stern may think he's the king of all media, but I'm the British king of all media and tonight I'm the one asking the questions.'
Difficult: Stern gave Morgan a tough time, but eventually opened up, and confessed: 'The hair is real, and I don't colour it.'
But he was clearly taken aback when the controversial radio legend, who branded Morgan's predecessor Larry King a 'nut job', was candid and confrontational.
The 'shock jock', 57, told him: 'I want to congratulate you on unseating a 95-year-old man.
'I like you, I like you on America's Got Talent. I think you're a terrific judge and I think you're a nice man.
Disaster: Paul McCartney with Heather Mills in 2004
'But who the hell knows what you're gonna do on here? They tell me you're a journalist.'
Morgan interjected: 'I was a journalist for 25 years.'
'Ok, but the people of America don't know that,' said Stern. 'What is your background? Tell the world.'
But the British broadcaster refused to play his game, protesting: 'This is my show, I'm doing the interview.'
Stern eventually opened up to Morgan about getting older, and about his famous thick
black hair.
He said: 'The hair is real, and I don't colour it.
'I'm a guy that gets up at four in the morning, I'm exhausted right now,' he added.
'Anybody who does morning radio will tell you, you never get used to it.'
The radio legend also talked about politics, comedy, his family, and his new nine-figure contract.
The previous evening, 2.1million viewers watched Piers reduce Oprah Winfrey to tears on the debut of his new CNN talk show.
This tripled the average for Larry King Live, which it replaced, and ranked second among news networks in the slot to Fox News' Hannity (2.4 million).
There is no shortage of guests queuing up for the show.
The rest of the week's guests are Condoleezza Rice, Ricky Gervais, and actor George Clooney.
But one person who will never get the chance to open her heart to Piers Morgan is Paul McCartney's ex-wife Heather Mills.
Morgan,
who played cupid with the Beatles star and the former model, has put a
'lifetime ban' on Mills in an effort to make up for his ill-fated
match-making.
'I introduced her to Paul McCartney,' Morgan told Entertainment Weekly. 'Fact. At the 1999 Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards, I brought them both to the event.
'Paul sat next to me, asked me all
about her. I said: "I think you'd get on brilliantly; she's a
vegetarian, she's very attractive, intelligent."
'Next thing, Paul takes her out on a date, next thing they get engaged, next thing they get married, it's all very happy and hunky-dory and then she takes him to the cleaners.
'And I realised I'd pushed one of the
world's great gold diggers in the direction of one of my heroes. And as
Paul puts it to his close friends: "Thanks, Piers, you cost me 50
million dollars."
'So, for those reasons and by way of any tiny reparation I can make to Macca, she has a lifetime ban.'
McCartney and Mills were married in 2002. They separated in 2006 and divorced in 2008. Their daughter Beatrice was born in 2003.
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