After replacing Larry King last January, it took only 11 days for Piers Morgan's vision of his show to collide with reality.
He was on a plane to Los Angeles with producer Jonathan Wald and as soon as they landed, both mobile phones were buzzing with news of political upheaval in Egypt. Wald turned to Morgan and said, "You know, we were wondering when we were first going to go live. Tonight's the night."
So began an eventful year that saw Morgan revise the format of his prime-time show on the fly to emphasise more live interviews, sweat while waiting for Charlie Sheen to arrive for a live show, quit America's Got Talent and see his reputation dragged into a phone hacking scandal by journalists in his native Britain.
Through it all, he survived. Morgan may not have lived up to his initial brash boasts about burying the competition, but he didn't fail, either. Piers Morgan Tonight viewership was up 9 per cent over King's final year, even more among youthful viewers. He marks his first anniversary this week with appearances by Chelsea Handler, Rosie O'Donnell and former US President Jimmy Carter.
Morgan's biggest threat came from his past. Before becoming a US television personality, he edited two British tabloids, including Rupert Murdoch's shuttered News of the World, and was involved in questionable practices such as paying bribes to people at rival newspapers. Morgan insisted he never hacked into celebrity phones, ordered anyone to do so or knowingly ran a story based on hacking. No one proved otherwise in a government inquiry that included tense Morgan testimony by video-link in December.
Ken Jautz, executive vice-president in charge of CNN US, said Morgan and his past were vetted by CNN before he was hired.
CNN believes Morgan has had a strong first year, and that despite his mention in the British tabloid stories his viewership has been growing in the US, Jautz said.
Morgan figured CNN sought him out because of his celebrity interview programme in Britain and planned to model his US show largely on that, with the majority of his show being pre-taped chats with stars. "I always think if you've been recruited based on a particular thing that you're doing, you tinker with that at your own peril," he said. "Anchoring a live news programme wasn't something I'd done before. I wasn't sure I'd be good at it."
The Arab Spring, the devastating tsunami in Japan, deadly tornadoes and Osama Bin Laden's killing all forced him to find out fast. The percentage of live versus taped shows turned out the opposite of what he anticipated, and Morgan believes the show is better for it.
The ability to adjust on the fly is important, Jautz said.
Morgan came into his job full of bluster, promising a "butt-kicking" to his rivals, bragging about making Simon Cowell cry in an interview and trying to start a feud with Madonna. It was, to a large degree, an act. Inside he had his doubts about whether American viewers would embrace his style.
"The enemy to me, I thought, was apathy," he said. "If people were going to be apathetic, I was dead in the water."
A year on the job has honed interviewing skills. "I try to be empathetic but I also try to be very direct," he said.
His most memorable celebrity interview was the live hour with Sheen during the madness that enveloped the actor after he was fired from Two and a Half Men. The interview was booked, even as Morgan questioned Sheen's reliability. Five minutes before airtime, with Morgan in the studio sweating, Sheen arrived with his entourage.
He's learned to be more selective with celebrity interviews, noting the ratings suffer unless they are big stars, legends or the occasional up-and-comer such as Bruno Mars.
Wald, Morgan's producer, said he's hoping the show has fewer wild swings in content from night to night, shorter interviews and a greater chance for Morgan to show his personality.
An especially busy news day was key to Morgan's decision to leave America's Got Talent. (Howard Stern is his replacement.) On that particular day, he spent an afternoon in Los Angeles judging contestants for the talent show competition, went to the roof of a building where CNN had specially set up a location for him to anchor a live show on the tsunami in Japan, and then went downstairs for another three hours of talent judging.
"Fun though that was, I knew this year would be busy," he said. "Do I really want to be in Florida on Super Tuesday judging dancing Christmas trees? That's the question, and the reality is, I don't."
