Piers Morgan is ditching the “unnecessary straitjacket” of traditional broadcasting for YouTube as his show Piers Morgan Uncensored transitions to “digital-first.”
This sudden pivot comes after nearly two years of the show at TalkTV, the opinion-led channel launched by News UK, owned by billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Morgan made the announcement Thursday on his show, explaining his rationale: “It’s clear there’s a huge global demand for the content we’re making, but the commitment to a daily show at a fixed schedule, with all the editing and time sensitivities that involves, has been an increasingly unnecessary straitjacket.”
He continued: “People are watching the content on YouTube rather than conventional television and I have no problem with that. You can’t defy audiences or tell them how they should be consuming… the nightly restriction of having to go into a studio at 8pm when sometimes there is nothing happening and literally fill time? Nobody wants that. The question becomes, why do it?”
Morgan made top 20 in Mediaite’s Most Influential in News Media in 2023 after a stellar year that saw his online presence and following explode, especially following coverage of Hamas’ October 7th attacks and Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. In the past year, Piers Morgan Uncensored’s YouTube channel has grown to a global audience of 2.3 million subscribers. Online, the veteran journalist comfortably outguns mainstream media like the BBC and Guardian.
“I’ve just decided that I no longer want to create my show for linear television — I just want to go full digital globally,” Morgan told Semafor.
He added: “There’s something quite anachronistic about a show like mine still trying to create old fashioned TV for a pre-scheduled time slot each night for a relatively small audience — when we’re getting such gigantic audiences digitally.”
While Morgan speaks most about being creatively bound by the constraints of TV, online is also where advertising revenues are increasingly concentrated.
It’s impossible to look at this recent development without an eye to TalkTV’s future. The venture, designed to capitalise on the same ground that right-leaning Tory-rostered GB News is building its audience on, has faced low ratings, with rumours even circulating last year that Murdoch was rounding to axe the project. News UK, meanwhile, remains co-owner of the Uncensored brand with Morgan.
Morgan’s adaptability and discernment in media consumption is well known. His vision for Uncensored, with the backing of his partners at News UK, is bold. He’s entering a crowded and fragmented space but with his ability to book high-ticket guests and host provocative debate it’s not impossible to see how Morgan’s brand, untethered from half-hour interview slots, might continue to expand and exponentially grow from here.
