Rat Joins Sinking Ship

The original US cable TV channel – the name says it all – is CNN, the Cable News Network. And back in the early 90s, it was the cable channel. Not any more: CNN languishes in third place, behind Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse) and MSNBC, which recently overtook CNN for second spot.

Back in the good old days of CNN, the undisputed star of the evening line up was Larry King. At 2100 hours EST, those trademark braces meant Larry King Live, the original cable chat show. King is still at CNN, and still doing his show, but time and tide wait for no man, and Larry is set to bow out.

So CNN needed a replacement. What to do? Well, things must be bad at the channel, because, in an act of apparent desperation, King’s time slot is to be handed to none other than Piers “Morgan” Moron, famous for being himself, turning the Daily Mirror into a laughing stock, and being decked by Jeremy Clarkson.

What might The Percy Moron Show look like? Oh, I dunno, how about running a few of those Euro NCAP videos, just to get an idea? Seriously, the impression is given that someone at CNN really doesn’t know what a grade one meathead this bloke is. The competition will not be quaking in their boots.

So what is the competition? Well, on cable, over at Fox the 2100 time slot means Sean Hannity, whose politics I dislike intensely, but whose ability to pull in the audience is proven. And MSNBC field Rachel Maddow at that time: she’s rapidly gaining popularity with younger and more liberal minded folks.

It may be worth catching The Percy Moron Show just the once, though, so you can say you saw car crash TV put paid to CNN. They could even get Clarkson to guest – just to put the whole thing out of its misery.