Piers Morgan cancelled - admits people were sick of his inane gun control shtick

You may recall that, last year, I wrote a few articles about the fact that CNN's dwindling audience was fed up with Piers Morgan's ill-informed, illogical, gun control rants. At the time, Morgan was on an anti-gun roll. He'd been embarrassing himself - repeatedly - by booking a series of pro-2nd Amendment guests who were easily capable of holding their own against his half-baked theories.

Let's just say that Piers was "displeased" that we had the audacity to point this out. Perhaps trying to get potential viewers to notice him, he spent a few days screaming at Herman Cain via twitter. Predictably, the flailing did nothing to help his ratings. Now, the New York Times reports that his show is in its final days.

CNN’s president, Jeffrey Zucker, has other problems, but none bigger than Mr. Morgan and his plum 9 p.m. time slot. Mr. Morgan said last week that he and Mr. Zucker had been talking about the show’s failure to connect and had decided to pull the plug, probably in March.

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In case you're unfamiliar with industry-speak "decided to pull the plug" is a charitable way of making the word "cancelled" sound a little less harsh. As the Times points out, this isn't Seinfeld. We're not talking about a someone "deciding" to end a ratings powerhouse so it can go out on top. Piers is going away because no one is watching.

Three years after taking over for Larry King, Mr. Morgan has seen the ratings for “Piers Morgan Live” hit some new lows, drawing a fraction of viewers compared with competitors at Fox News and MSNBC.

Frankly, this is probably much more about MSNBC than Fox. Certainly CNN would like Piers to beat his timeslot competition, but no one really expects him to top Megyn Kelly's ratings. Losing to MSNBC, though? ...That's unacceptable. So, what caused Piers Morgan's ratings nightmare? The host has some thoughts.

“Look, I am a British guy debating American cultural issues, including guns, which has been very polarizing, and there is no doubt that there are many in the audience who are tired of me banging on about it,” he said. “That’s run its course and Jeff and I have been talking for some time about different ways of using me.”

Frankly, Piers has it wrong - again. The fact that Morgan's a Brit doesn't really matter. People might like to mention it as a snarky little jab, but it's not really the problem. The real issue is that the American people don't like being lectured about how they should give up their Constitutional rights in a gun control effort that even many advocates admit won't solve the problem. President Obama took a beating on the gun-control issue last year. People heard the arguments and rejected most of them. End of story. If gun control played a part in ending Piers' show, it's because he kept harping on something with which a significant portion his viewership disagreed. So, what's next for Morgan?

“I think I can credibly do news and the ratings reflect that, but it is not really the show that I set out to do. There are all kinds of people who can do news here. I’d like to do work — interviews with big celebrities and powerful people — that is better suited to what I do well and fit with what Jeff is trying to do with the network.”

Sorry Piers, we've already got a Martin Bashir.