Piers Morgan’s ratings fail on Sky News Australia

Piers Morgan‘s Twitter handle could well sum up the British journalist’s view on life: ‘One day you’re the cock of the walk, the next you’re a feather duster’.

This quote is also an apt metaphor for a career that’s seen the 57-year-old rise to the position of editor of News of the World at just 29, be sacked from rival tabloid the Daily Mirror for publishing fake photographs of British soldiers in Iraq – before securing a job on CNN in the U.S. – only to be axed three years into the deal in 2014 due to poor ratings.

He was then hired as Mail Online’s editor-at-large, where Morgan maintained his well-read column while stepping back onto television with a fulltime hosting role on Good Morning Britain.

In 2021, Morgan stormed off the set and out of the job after he was confronted on air about comments he made regarding Meghan Markle following her controversial  Oprah interview with Prince Harry.

But just one year later, Morgan finds himself under a new kind of pressure just six months after signing a monster $100million (AUD) deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

The word from Sky News’ Sydney headquarters is ‘Piers Morgan: Uncensored’ – only  launched in April – may ultimately be dumped from Australian screens due to poor ratings.

The show, which premiered in the U.S. on Fox, on the new British channel TVTalk, and on Sky News in Australia, initially attracted solid numbers on the back of a multi-million dollar advertising campaign and an interview with Donald Trump.

In Australia, 90,000 viewers tuned in to the first hour-long program, which airs from Sunday to Thursday at 9pm.

However, within just a few weeks those numbers had dropped significantly.

Shortly before Morgan’s four-week long summer hiatus, which he announced to his Twitter followers in late July, Uncensored was drawing an average of just 18,000 viewers in Australia.

It’s a slide mirrored in the UK viewing figures which have dropped by about 80% since its debut – from 317,000 to just 60,000.

Morgan’s figures in Australia are dwarfed by his Sky News colleagues. Paul Murray’s  ‘Paul Murray Live’ regularly averages over 40,000 viewers per night.

Credlin, helmed by Tony Abbott’s former chief of staff Peta Credlin, also easily out-performed Uncensored with a 35,000 nightly average.

For context, Sky News’ free-to-air prime-time rivals Seven News and Nine News average about 900,000 viewers per night combined.

Now on a month-long break in the US where it’s understood he is filming another season of his series Serial Killers, ‘Piers Morgan’s Uncensored’ is not being shown on Sky News’ Australian schedule despite remaining on air in the UK under fill-in host Jeremy Kyle.

Most promotional images of Morgan have been quietly removed from the Sky News’ website.

Morgan’s relative failure comes with a degree of irony given he was supposed to be the big-name replacement for Alan Jones, who was dumped by Sky News in November 2021 despite pulling an audience of 63,000.

Lauded as Sky News’ antidote to ‘cancel culture’, Morgan kicked off his series with a sit-down with Donald Trump.

‘I’m going to cancel the cancel culture,’ he told Peta Credlin on Sky. ‘I’m going to take those ultra woke lunatics head on.’

Morgan boasted he would be; ‘calling out extremists from all sides, not just in Australia but anywhere – and especially those who think cancel culture’s a great idea and want to compel us all to lead their own dreary joyless lifestyles’.

Morgan began what was a lavish promotional push in February when he arrived in Australia via Lachlan Murdoch’s private jet to attend the 25th anniversary party of Sky News at the Sydney Opera House.

Discussing the upcoming election, Morgan said he predicted Australians would ‘elect the leader who they believe will move most swiftly to restore all freedom rights lost during the crisis, and who will be strong on national security,’.

He later partied the night away with his new News Corp colleagues and followed it up with an appearance on Today opposite Karl Stefanovic (brother of Sky News breakfast anchor Peter Stefanovic) and Allison Langdon.

‘Great to be back on breakfast TV again.. even if I did have to fly 10,000 miles to find a morning show that would let me express my opinions!’ he later tweeted.

But despite the international promotional push, sources close to contract negotiations have told Daily Mail Australia that there were a number of ‘performance-based’ clauses built into Morgan’s contract.

‘Basically if the show doesn’t rate, it allows (News Corp) to exercise one or more of those clauses and end the contract without having to pay the full terms,’ said an insider.

‘And it clearly isn’t rating. So perhaps that’s what Murdoch will now do.’

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Sky News Australia chief executive Paul Whittaker for comment.