'Piers Morgan Uncensored' loses 100,000 viewers on second night
Piers Morgan's new show lost 100,000 viewers on its second night on air.
The TV host returned to screens on Monday with the first episode of his new talk show Piers Morgan Uncensored, with his first guest – former US president Donald Trump.
The show, which aired on the new Rupert Murdoch-owned network TalkTV, reportedly brought in an average audience of 317,000 and peaked at around 400,000, beating the numbers of rivals BBC News and Sky News.
However, according to Deadline, the second episode was viewed by an average of 216,000 people. This was still more than the viewing figures for BBC News and Sky News, but substantially less than Monday’s premiere, which averaged 317,000 viewers.
For proper context, you should also show the ratings for long-established BBC News & Sky News.
(spoiler alert: I hammered all of them.. 🔨) https://t.co/3qLjb67zfD— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 27, 2022
Despite the significant drop, the former Good Morning Britain host posted a boastful and celebratory tweet in which he claimed his figures still 'hammered' those of his rivals'.
He wrote: "For proper context, you should also show the ratings for long-established BBC News & Sky News.
"Spoiler alert, I hammered all of them."
In Tuesday's episode which aired the second part of the Trump chat, Morgan touched on several topics, such as trans rights and the 2020 US election, which he still unfoundedly asserts was stolen and rigged in Joe Biden’s favour.
Read more: Gary Lineker mocks Piers Morgan over viewing figures for TalkTV launch show
The episode also saw Trump storming off set, something which had been made public by both parties before the episode aired
During the chat, Trump agreed with his assertion that the inclusion of transgender athletes is "grotesquely unfair", with the ex-president sharing his definition of what he believes a woman is.
aidThe 75-year-old s: "A woman is somebody that swims at a certain time and doesn't get beaten by 38 seconds by somebody that wasn't even a good swimmer as a male," he said.
In the more than 70-minute chat, Morgan also asked Trump if he would be running for president in 2024, to which he replied: "For reasons of campaign finance and everything I'm not allowed to say but let me just say this, I think a lot of people are going to be very happy."
In the interview, Trump also told the TV host that he believes he is "much more honest" than him.
Morgan quipped: "Why am I not real?" to which Trump replied: "We're not gonna get into that, let's finish up the interview."
The interview appeared to have had an acrimonious ending as Trump appeared to storm off and subsequently released a statement claiming Morgan "attempted to unlawfully and deceptively edit his long and tedious interview with me".
Morgan then joked that Trump should pick up the phone and have a "virtual cup of tea" with him.
Wednesday night's episode of Morgan's show will feature fellow TalkTV host Sharon Osbourne in the hot seat.
Watch: Trump tells Piers Morgan that he 'overreacted' walking off ITV set