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AMERICA'S Got Talent judge Piers Morgan appears to be the front-runner to claim a CNN talk show long hosted by Larry King.
Morgan has won permission from NBC, which airs the hit talent contest, to pursue the CNN job.
Appearing on Wednesday on MSNBC's Morning Joe, NBC Universal chief executive Jeff Zucker noted that Morgan is contractually bound to continue on America's Got Talent for three more years.
"Having said that, I can also tell you that he has approached us about asking us to do another job as well," said Zucker, without naming CNN or its talk show soon to be vacated by King. "I don't think they're mutually exclusive," Zucker said.
However, the CNN job, were Morgan to land it, would occupy "second position" in his work priority, according to an industry official.
No negotiations have yet begun between CNN and Morgan, said another industry official who requested anonymity.Along with such candidates as Katie Couric and Ryan Seacrest, Morgan has been considered a favourite to replace King, who on June 29 announced his departure from the prime-time perch he has occupied for a quarter century.
King, 76, said he would step down from his weeknight show this fall.
The choice of an heir to the show is a crucial one for CNN as it struggles to boost its sagging prime-time ratings.
Also, part of CNN's mission is presumably to restore the lustre of what was Larry King Live as a go-to place for newsmakers and celebrities.
In recent years, many observers had begun to wonder if King was losing his touch as well as his audience.
Morgan is a 45-year-old former British tabloid editor who turned to television several years ago. He has since been seen hosting such varied series as You Can't Fire Me, I'm Famous for BBC and doing interview shows and documentaries for ITV. He has been a judge on Britain's Got Talent and its US spinoff, America's Got Talent. In 2008, he won the competition as a contestant on NBC's Celebrity Apprentice.
