When Piers Morgan was chosen to succeed Larry King at CNN, liberals believed his (overplayed) British persona might finally be the ticket to cutting into Sean Hannity’s domination of the same time-slot at Fox News. After all, Morgan is a man of the world with all the open-mindedness mainline liberalism can promise while Hannity is a man of this nation who’s not ashamed to be mentioned in the same sentence with close-minded “bigots” like Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin.
Looking at things on paper, it appeared it wouldn’t be long before Hannity would be forced to come begging and pleading for a menial position on Morgan’s staff.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the actual squaring off of Morgan’s show with Hannity’s: namely, Morgan’s guest lineup betrayed the fact that he believes the American people want to spend another hour of their night watching Hollywood elites get tossed softball questions by a host who’s consumed with reminding us he came here from across the pond.
In other words, to date, Morgan’s plan to beat Hannity includes interviews with Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, and Kim Kardashian, among others. When we consider the fact that Hannity’s offerings have included salt-of-the-earth folks like Sarah Palin and down to earth commentary from the ever-present “Great American Panel,” it’s little wonder that Morgan is getting shellacked in the ratings. (Yes, Morgan is beating MSBNC’s Rachel Maddow, but that’s no feat.)
The lesson here is the same one that Hollywood elites refuse to learn from plummeting box office ticket sales and which politicians from the ruling class are still denying in the wake of the November 2, 2010 midterm elections: the American people are as sick and tired of seeing elitists and pontificators on the big screen as they are with having them in legislative offices (and this carries over to the television we watch).
Thus, while Morgan’s fourth show drew roughly 1.03 million viewers, Hannity’s continued to draw about twice that number.
Tellingly, Morgan recently sought to steady his floundering ratings by interviewing none other than Howard Stern. I don’t know if they talked about the demented topics that usually please Stern’s fans on satellite radio, but one thing’s for certain: Morgan made a one time trade of elites for a train-wreck in hopes that the old adage is true and people wouldn’t be able to turn away.
Long story short: it didn’t work. Hannity’s substance and America-first approach to life and his art are demolishing Morgan’s pretense and esotericism as soundly as conservatives trounced liberals on November 2, 2010.
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