Piers Morgan has said that tabloid editors are forced to take on a “panto villain persona” whether they like it or not.
The former News of the World and Daily Mirror editor told the Radio Times his penchant for stirring up controversy was a “protective persona” which attracted “a lot of heat”.
He added: “It can get ugly, and I think you’ve got to have a thick skin to do it.”
Morgan was dropped as a guest host of ITV show Good Morning Britain in July, but was offered a permanent three-day a week role on the show last month. A promotional video for his return played up Morgan’s abrasive approach under the tag line “back by unpopular demand”.
Morgan said UK breakfast TV has suffered from an “explosion of news channels” and Good Morning Britain had “had a very tempestuous period … Over the last few years it’s become very disjointed, lost its identity”.
Good Morning Britain has struggled against BBC’s rival Breakfast show despite hiring Susanna Reid, a £1.5m makeover and Morgan’s guest appearances. Friday’s show attracted an average audience of around 600,000 compared to the 1.6 million who tuned into the BBC.
The move to Good Morning Britain follows Morgan’s disappointing run as a replacement for Larry King on the Late Show on US network CNN which ended in February 2014 after ratings slumped to as low as 270,000 viewers.
However, Morgan has appeared unfazed by having his time at CNN cut short, and in the interview claims that he “doesn’t really get the point” of self doubt, which he says is a “massively tiresome virtue”.
