How happy he was to be in front of the cameras again! For the launch of TalkTV, Monday April 25 in the United Kingdom, the controversial but popular British presenter Piers Morgan did not hide his delight to return to the front of the stage. His show, at 8 p.m. every evening, is called “Uncensored” (“uncensored”) and he promises, stars in his eyes, to “celebrating true freedom of expression”and not “the kind of freedom of expression” that ” woke snowflakes defend » [des jeunes politiquement corrects]. “You’re not going to like this program, he warns. In fact, he’ll definitely piss you off. »
TalkTV aims to be a right-wing, direct and limitless talk show television channel. Who better to embody it than the presenter with a puffy ego and adamant opinions, who has managed to become one of the most recognizable faces in the UK? And what better start than with an exclusive interview with Donald Trump, the former American president?
thick address book
TalkTV marks the return of 91-year-old Rupert Murdoch’s band to British television. The Australian-American tycoon, creator of Fox News, owner of the Sun and Times, gave up launching a continuous news channel. He was burning for it, however, after selling Sky News, the channel he had created in 1989, to Comcast, in 2018.
He ended up giving up, because such an undertaking would be too expensive. Instead, he created TalkTV, which surfs on TalkRadio, which he owns for a long time. This radio works on a simple model: a presenter or a notorious presenter, who does not have his tongue in his pocket, and calls from listeners. Twenty-one hours a day, TalkTV is content to set up a camera in the TalkRadio studios and rebroadcast. Added to this are now three hours of prime time production, culminating in Piers Morgan’s programme.
The presenter has a thick address book and he has known Donald Trump for a long time. He took part (and won) in his show “The Apprentice” in 2008. The interview, broadcast on Monday April 25 and Tuesday April 26, is well conducted, and the small sentences of the former American president brought significant publicity to the new channel. Mr Trump refuses to say whether he will run in 2024, but “many people will be happy” when he announces his decision, he says. According to him, he would have offered Angela Merkel a white flag when he was at the White House, to show her the danger of her energy policy towards Russia.
According to Enders Analysis, a media research firm, it is “unlikely that TalkTV will be profitable in the medium term”. But the goal may be elsewhere. The Murdoch Group needs this kind of video interviews in its multimedia offer. The first evening obtained an honorable rating, at 2%, with nearly 400,000 viewers. More than the Sky News and BBC News streaming news channels at the same time.
