Piers Morgan says he’s ‘going home’ as he rejoins Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp

TV presenter will write two weekly columns and launch a new UK-based show

Roisin O'Connor
Thursday 16 September 2021 14:52 BST
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Piers Morgan walks out of GMB after criticism from Alex Beresford

Piers Morgan has issued a breaking news alert about his own career, following the announcement that he is rejoining Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp after almost three decades.

The ex-Good Morning Britain presenter has signed a global deal that includes two weekly columns for the New York Post and The Sun, along with helping to launch a new channel, named talkTV.

The station will offer a mix of “hourly news bulletins, sports and entertainment shows as well as current affairs, debate, opinion and documentaries”, the group said in a statement.

The channel will launch in early 2022, with Piers Morgan’s new weeknight show being its main draw.

“BREAKING: I’ve gone home,” Morgan tweeted shortly after the announcement was made. “Great to be rejoining Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation after 28 years. The place I started my media career, with the boss who gave me my first big break. We’re going to have a lot of fun….”

In a separate statement, he said: “Rupert Murdoch has been a constant and fearless champion of free speech and we are going to be building something new and very exciting together.”

He added: “I want my global show to be a fearless forum for lively debate and agenda-setting interviews, and a place that celebrates the right of everyone to have an opinion, and for those opinions to be vigorously examined and challenged.”

The TV presenter left ITV earlier this year over a row about comments he made about the Duchess of Sussex and her experiences of racism and mental health struggles.

He was cleared by TV watchdog Ofcom at the beginning of the month, following a record 50,000 complaints over his remarks.

A statement from Ofcom said: “While we acknowledged that Mr Morgan’s questions about the nature of racism had the potential to be highly offensive to some viewers, the conversations about race and racism in the programme provided open debate on the issues raised by the interview.”

It added that the programme “allowed for an important discussion to be had on the nature and impact of racism”.

Ofcom argued that ITV had “clearly anticipated that racial issues would be discussed at length as part of the coverage of the interview and had taken steps to ensure context could be provided during the discussions”.

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