Piers Morgan jabs 'Good Morning Britain' as its ratings hit bottom: 'Should I set my alarm for 4:45 again?'
GMB notched nearly 2 million viewers on one of Morgan's last days on the program
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Journalist Piers Morgan expressed incredulity at his former program's steep decline in ratings since he split with "Good Morning Britain" following a fiery discussion about the honesty and overall behavior of Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, back in March.
On Tuesday, the ITV morning news broadcast garnered a record low of 450,000 viewers, which paled in comparison to a 1.9 million-viewer high just before Morgan parted with the show.
"Jeez. Should I set my alarm for 4.45am again?" Morgan, 56, asked in a retweet of a report on "Good Morning Britain's" plummeting ratings.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In the past, Morgan has expressed pride in the fact during his tenure, the program has rivaled the BBC's morning newscast, "BBC Breakfast"; which has been highly-rated for some time.
According to the Daily Mail – where Morgan is an editor-at-large and frequent columnist – that 1.9-million figure came the day Morgan and his then-co-anchor Susanna Reid discussed Markle's interview with Oprah Winfrey, during which she made several bombshell claims – including describing painful palace discussions about the color of her son’s skin, losing royal protection and the intense pressures that led the her to contemplate suicide.
On March 9, the day after that discussion, Morgan stormed off the set after meteorologist Alex Beresford, who is Black, engaged him in a terse back-and-forth over his claims about Markle's racism allegations. That day's program garnered nearly 1.3 million viewers.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The following day, Reid notably gave her reaction to Morgan's departure, alongside stand-in host Ranvir Singh. That show's viewership declined further to a total of 1.24 million.
By the next week, according to the Mail, average viewership dropped to an 850,000 average. Stock share prices of the broadcaster, ITV, dropped by 3.8% as well following Morgan's exit, according to the New York Post.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Morgan later sat down with Fox News host Tucker Carlson on his Fox Nation program "Tucker Carlson Today" for a lengthy discussion on his departure, in which he also stood by his opinion of Markle that ultimately led to the split, as well as the duchess' reported complaint lodged with the United Kingdom's broadcast regulator agency against ITV.
"Seventeen different claims have now been proven to be either completely untrue or massively exaggerated or unprovable... I don’t believe Meghan Markle; [a] huge furor erupted through that day, I was an outrage," he told Carlson on April 5.
"I wasn’t allowed to have an opinion that I didn’t believe what she was saying, even though it was clear in real-time as I watching the interview where there were a number of things that couldn’t be true."
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However, amid the ratings turmoil, Morgan reportedly told The Sun that his former bosses have contacted him in recent weeks.
"They reached out — there have been approaches. Never say never," he said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I have no doubt I could take the ratings back to where I left them — but the doubt is, would anyone be allowed to do it that way again?