Piers Morgan has ruled out a return to Good Morning Britain after petitions to get him back on the show have gathered close to 200,000 signatures in just a few days.
After he stormed off the set earlier on in the day following a spat with colleague with Alex Beresford and sparked 41,000 Ofcom complaints, on Tuesday evening it was announced that Piers had quit GMB, with ITV releasing a brief statement to confirm his departure.
Hours later, Piers broke his silence on the matter with a post in tribute to his late manager and a message to 'trust your gut.'
Since then, both Susanna Reid and Kate Garraway have addressed his departure live on air and on Thursday afternoon, Alex took to Twitter to post a statement, which read: "Piers' departure sincerely wasn't the conclusion I was hoping for. Over the last few years, Piers and I have had a lively, cheeky on air relationship.
"We both wanted to be on the show Tuesday morning and from our very public conversations on Twitter, we both knew how strongly our opinions differed on the treatment of Harry and Meghan pre and post the Oprah interview that has split the world."
"I hoped we could reach a place of understanding. It's sad that we weren't able to get there but challenging his opinion was not an outrage."
A series of petitions to support were swiftly launched by fans online in support of Piers after his exit was confirmed and, at the time of writing, one alone had 125,000, with the signatures on the other two bringing the total to close to 200,000.
One on Change.org, called BRING BACK Piers Morgan reads: "How ITV have treated Piers Morgan after he saved one of their failing shows is appalling. They have thrown him under the bus and allowed him to be bullied by an colleague on air.
"Piers has turned the show into the most talked about show on ITV. He was the only person who spoke on behalf of viewers during the pandemic and now he’s been bullied by the snowflakes all for speaking the truth. BRING PIERS BACK ITV."
But Piers dashed any hopes of seeing him back behind the GMB desk as, quoting an article about the petitions to bring him back, he wrote: "I won’t be going back, but thanks to everyone who has signed these petitions.
"Normally, people start petitions to have me fired or deported, so this is a pleasant surprise."
While he is no longer part of the GMB team, Piers celebrated a huge first for the show this week, after it beat rival BBC Breakfast for the ratings in the first time.
And it happened on his last day!
Tweeting a picture of him and his former colleagues, Piers wrote: "I had one goal when I joined @GMB beat @BBCBreakfast in the ratings. On my last day, we did it.
That was down to the hard work & dedication of the whole team. They don't all agree with me, some don't even like me, but we were a team..and we won. Thanks guys. I'll miss you."
