Piers: I won’t go back – I’ve got new job
PIERS Morgan has said he will not go back to Good Morning Britain and has signed up for a ‘big global project’.
The presenter quit the ITV breakfast show in March after criticising the Duchess of Sussex over her Oprah interview on air.
After watchdog Ofcom made a landmark ruling that cleared him this week, some ITV staff expected that Morgan would be invited to return.
Since his departure, ratings have plummeted, with viewers missing the chemistry between him and his co-presenter Susanna Reid.
But ITV sources have said there are ‘no current plans’ to bring him back. And even though Morgan, 56, tweeted: ‘Do I get my job back?’ after Ofcom’s verdict, he has now said he will not return.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘I put that post on social media asking if I’d get my job back to prove a point.
‘I wouldn’t go back, not without a public apology and I’m not going to get one.’
Morgan added: ‘I’ve got much bigger things coming up. The future is exciting. The next project is global, it’s big. I can’t say what but people are going to hear about it within the next few weeks.’
Many industry insiders believed Ofcom’s ruling meant it would be a straightforward decision to engineer Morgan’s return.
Ratings data, provided by Overnights.tv, shows that in March the programme was averaging nearly 860,000 viewers. By last month, it was down to 558,000 following consecutive months of decline.
Presenting Good Morning Britain yesterday, Miss Reid admitted the Ofcom ruling was ‘awkward’ for her.
She said: ‘On the one hand I’ve got my friend Piers Morgan, on the other hand I’ve got my bosses, ITV’.
Morgan’s wife, journalist Celia Walden, who was on the programme to promote a book, said he had ‘some irons in the fire’, adding: ‘I don’t think he’ll be kicking around the house for much longer.’ She said her husband was ‘very jubilant’ after the ruling.
In Morgan’s controversial broadcast, he questioned the Duchess of Sussex’s claims about racism in the Royal Family and appeared to cast doubt on her assertion that she had suffered from suicidal thoughts.
This was followed by an on-air clash with a colleague who challenged him