Former GB News chairman Andrew Neil has issued a warning to Piers Morgan following his latest career move.
It was recently announced that the former Good Morning Britain presenter is a big name signing for Fox News Media’s upcoming talkTV station.
However, Andrew, who had an ill-fated involvement with recent start-up channel GB News has said Piers could do well to learn from his mistakes.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Andrew sent a message to his fellow broadcaster, saying: “Study my career over the past eight months, and then drive in the opposite direction.
“Take the fastest car you can get. Don’t even look in the rear-view mirror, just go!”
Andrew helped launch GB News in June, hosting his own nightly show on the channel, but disappeared from screens just two weeks into the venture.
Then last month, the former BBC broadcaster announced he was stepping down as chairman of GB News and quitting the troubled station altogether.
In a subsequent interview with the Daily Mail, Andrew claimed that working there brought him “close to a breakdown” and made a number of damning remarks about the station’s production values and editorial direction.
In leaving GB News, the Mail reported that Andrew “walked away from a £4 million contract”, though he insisted: “It was a big decision but I frankly couldn’t care if it was £40 million. This would have killed me if I’d carried on.”
A GB News representative claimed Andrew had “ignored” the “terms of his departure”, which were “properly negotiated and documented”, and had made his exit from the channel “unnecessarily contentious and public”
They added it was a decision “he will have to live with”.
Meanwhile, Piers’ new show is due to start on talkTV when the station launches in 2022.
As part of his deal with News Corp and Fox News Media, Piers will also join The Sun and the New York Post as a columnist.
He said at the time of the announcement: “I want my global show to be a fearless forum for lively debate and agenda-setting interviews, and a place that celebrates the right of everyone to have an opinion, and for those opinions to be vigorously examined and challenged.”
Piers left his last presenting role on ITV’s Good Morning Britain back in March, when he cast doubt on a series of claims made by Meghan Markle during her TV interview with Oprah Winfrey, including those about her mental health.
The moment became the most complained about moment in Ofcom history, but the TV watchdog later ruled that ITV was not in breach of their guidelines by broadcasting Piers’ comments, pointing out that he was challenged by others on the show that day, including co-host Susanna Reid.