Effort to revive fortunes of Piers Morgan-fronted rightwing channel include appointing new boss and expected relaunch
Rupert Murdoch’s talkTV has been struggling to attract an audience for its culture-war output. But staff at the channel are now worried that they have recently gained one particular viewer: Murdoch himself, who has arrived in London and is taking an active interest in his station’s fate.
The company has plastered presenter Piers Morgan’s face on billboards across the country, but his monologues and rants about woke culture – including an attempt to skewer rail union boss Mick Lynch for'Marxist or the Hood?': RMT's Mick Lynch asked bizarre questions amid rail strikes – videoUncensored attracted just 64,000 viewers.
More embarrassingly, Morgan is being consistently thrashed in the ratings by ex-Ukip leader Nigel Farage on. The rival rightwing channels are fighting over the same relatively small pool of viewers, but so far it looks as though GB News – despite its own disastrous launch – is consistently coming out on top by appealing to a small core British audience rather than aiming for wider appeal.
This has led to speculation that Murdoch could choose to cut his losses, buy GB News, and unite the channel with talkTV. He has form for such ruthlessness. In the early 1990s, soon after it launched, he took his heavily loss-making Sky satellite broadcasting service andA News UK spokesperson played down the prospect of such an outcome and said they were happy with the current outlook for talkTV, while GB News said it was not aware of any talks.
Despite the availability of hard cash for people who are willing to be a punchbag for Morgan’s rants, there have been few of the breakout viral moments that characterised his earlier stint on Good Morning Britain. Staff at talkTV reported enormous delight when a trans activist swore at Morgan on air and walked off the set because clips of the incident lit up Twitter.
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