NEW YORK -- Piers Morgan has announced that his nightly CNN show, Piers Morgan Live, is to be cancelled, with the former tabloid editor citing a declining viewership for the end of his three-year run in the cable channel’s coveted 9pm slot.
Speaking to David Carr of the New York Times, Morgan said: "It’s been a painful period and lately we have taken a bath in the ratings."
Morgan took over CNN’s flagship show from the ageing yet iconic Larry King in 2011, offering a nightly mix of celebrity, politics and hard news.
Yet it was for his embrace of the gun control debate, perhaps the most divisive issue in contemporary America, for which Morgan became both famous and despised, delivering an almost nightly reproach to his adopted country over their fetish with the right to bear arms.
Morgan said: “Look, I am a British guy debating American cultural issues, including guns, which has been very polarising, and there is no doubt that there are many in the audience who are tired of me banging on about it."
He added: "That’s run its course and Jeff [CNN President Jeffrey Zucker] and I have been talking for some time about different ways of using me.”
There is no word yet on whether he will be given another role on the channel.
Here's are some of Morgan's biggest clashes over America's Second Amendment: