Oprah Winfrey Will Be First Guest On Piers Morgan Tonight

(HMG Celebrity News) – Out with the old, in with the new,  and with a bang!    Oprah Winfrey will be the first guest when CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight premieres on January 17th. Morgan said in revealing part of his formula for better ratings:

“With Oprah, you’re going to get a lot of promos over the next seven days, revealing some of the best moments of that interview, to whet the appetite and titillate viewers,” he said. “I genuinely believe that is the way you’re get bigger ratings.

Morgan interviewed Winfrey for two hours (it will be edited down) with many topics including the end of her own chat show and the launch of her new cable TV network OWN. Winfrey tells CNN, “That’s one of the toughest interviews I’ve had in 20 years!”

Morgan, who is replacing Larry King, also told reporters at a press conference Thursday that he was confident his show would help turn around CNN’s gloomy ratings picture at its flagship U.S. network.

“There’s no doubt that in the last two or three years, CNN has had their butts kicked by Fox news and MSNBC,” he said. “I’d like to get to the position where the butt-kicking is reversed a bit.”