Oprah is first guest as Piers Morgan replaces Larry King
Piers Morgan, who officially replaces Larry King on Jan. 17, will interview Oprah Winfrey as his first guest.
TV reporters covering the news in Pasadena, where the biannual press tour is under way, apparently did a poor job of stifling yawns: The idea that you could say Oprah is not a great get for a first guest on a show like this is ridiculous, Morgan scoffed at one insolent skeptic.
Oprah? Overexposed? The possibility has suddenly presented itself: Besides Morgan, there was her December sit- down with Barbara Walters (plus outtakes that aired on "Nightline"); appearances on the Kennedy Center Honors and a Chris Rock roast; Not to mention a behind-the-scenes-all-O-all-the-time series on her new cable channel OWN. And Friday afternoon, she will be on CBS' "The Talk."
Oprah, of course, is Oprah - one of TV's greatest broadcasters for whom an extended victory lap, or laps, is understandable, and for fans, maybe even necessary. (Her talk show ends later this year.) But by contrast, Johnny Carson almost seemed to have entered the witness protection program in the months leading up to his '92 farewell. You wanted to see Johnny, you pretty much had to watch "The Tonight Show."
"I promise you, you will learn a lot from this interview," Jonathan Wald, executive producer of "Piers Morgan Tonight" said by phone Thursday. (The Winfrey interview was conducted Wednesday.) "Nothing was off limits. We talked about what was important in her life and what was interesting. It felt like she almost had to remind herself to mention OWN a couple times."
Do we know everything there is to know about Oprah? Of course not, but the skillfully crafted illusion is that we do. In 25 years, Oprah has told us more about her life than any human who has stood before a camera ever has - with the possible exception of long-forgotten Arthur Godfrey.
For his first order of business, Morgan will have to squeeze out just a little more. To hear him Thursday, the future depends on it. Viewer-famished CNN needs to "get to the position where the butt-kicking is reversed," Morgan said.
So overexposed or not, it's O to the rescue.
