NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” features the nicest of the imported UK personalities, Piers Morgan.
British journalist and Britain's Got Talent judge Piers Morgan - back in the judge's chair EPA/DANIEL DEME
It is a bit ironic that Morgan came from the not-so-nice world of British tabloid and print media, specifically News of the World and the Daily Mirror, where soft fuzzies are far and few between.
But in comparison to his peers Simon Cowell and chef Gordon Ramsay, Morgan is atypically warm and quite emotive when it comes to sparing people’s feelings and bolstering their spirits.
It was the Susan Boyle phenomenon that showed his true character, as he first appeared bemused and doubtful of the Scottish singer's initial stage tryout, until she opened her mouth. He took all the eye-rolling and snarky prejudgment back, apologized to her, and ultimately became her champion and foil to those ready to eviscerate Boyle when things got tough for her towards the end of “Britain’s Got Talent.”
Morgan now sits with Sharon Osbourne, who wavers between delightful and flat-out unpredictable in the temper department, and the effervescent and always over-the-top David Hasselhoff, whose gargantuan ego matches his ability to laugh at himself the hardest.
Nick Cannon has stepped in Jerry Springer’s shoes, as “America’s Got Talent” premieres tonight, Tuesday, June 23. It will air from 9:00 to 11:00 on the 23rd and will air again Wednesday, June 24 from 9:00 to 10:00.
Piers Morgan spoke to Monsters and Critics last week along with other online journalists.
So, the Burger King ad, care to elaborate on your take over the reaction?
Piers Morgan: I’m actually really enjoying it. I think I’ve spent 44 years for my body to be the subject of speculation and there we are. Finally I’ve achieved my great aim. My body has been the subject in the last 24 hours of extremely wild media speculation and as a former newspaperist myself, I know how the media can do this. And all I would say is that the picture speaks for itself. You must make your own conclusions.
Those people who have met me I think are totally unsurprised by the quality of my physique but I can tell that some people in America are not wholly convinced. I think we’ll have to leave it as one of those mysteries for a bit?
Would Simon ever do something like that?
Piers Morgan: I think there’s more chance of Simon Cowell flying to the moon in a wheelbarrow than there is of him ever doing something like that.
The surprise look on your face after Susan Boyle sang, is that what shows like America’s Got Talent really all about?
Piers Morgan: Yeah it is. I mean, I think the great thing about Susan was it came at a perfect time -- a time when the whole world was suffering a bit from this big recession and feeling a bit down in the dumps.
Unlike Terry who’s gone on to this $100 million contract in Vegas, Susan’s reaction to the world was even bigger I’d say. That’s why everyone’s so excited about her career now because I’ve never seen anything like it. I mean, the whole world just went bananas for her.
I think it was as I say a question of timing, a question of surprise. I think when you watched it nobody who watches that clip is expecting her to sing like that. I think it was the judges being quite sort of sexist and cynical and the audience laughing at her. And you put it all together and then you have this incredible voice coming out and you suddenly have an amazing moment of television, of theater, of inspiration.
What is very exciting about the American show this year is that from the moment Susan Boyle exploded onto the world’s radar, from the time that show was aired in Britain, I noticed on the America’s Got Talent audition trail that we were getting suddenly thousands more people turning up to auditions so that had a very big effect on the quality of the auditions. And as a result we chose the Top 40 last week in Vegas in our boot camp and it’s by far the most talented collection of acts we’ve ever had on the show.
How did you warm to Nick Cannon on the show?
Piers Morgan: Nick’s fantastic. I mean, I love Regis, I loved Jerry after him, Nick’s very different obviously, he’s a younger guy, he’s very dynamic, he’s very happening. I didn’t know much about him before but I’ve certainly learned that he is very quick witted, he’s very funny, he’s very warm, he loves the show, and I think he’s had a lot of fun.
I think he’ll bring a whole new vibe to it which we haven’t had before which is always good. When a show is into its fourth season you want to, shake things up a bit and I think Nick does that really well.
Ever hang with the Donald?
Piers Morgan: You know, I’d love to. Whenever I’m in New York I always see him and we always have great fun. He calls me a champ, which I really like. It makes me feel like Lennox Lewis or Muhammad Ali or something. So I really like him.
Occasionally I get these letters through the post in London and it will be some cutting about me, some clipping from the New York Post or something and it will have a message from Donald on it saying, I always knew you were a winner my champ. And it’s really nice. He’s become someone I consider a friend and a bit of a mentor and I learned a lot from working on that show. It was terrific.
Are there any acts that will have the Boyle surprise factor?
Piers Morgan: I’m not talking about people who look or sound like Susan or even do anything like her act. I’m talking about acts which I think could have the same impact. I mean, obviously no act in the history of these shows has ever had that kind of phenomenal reaction that Susan had but certainly the American show has still produced the biggest winner in terms of commercial success in Terry Fator.
These shows produce genuine world stars whether it’s for parts or Susan or, Terry Fator or others and I think that’s what we’re looking for.
I don’t want to give too much away at this stage because no one has seen these acts even on an audition show but I think they will be fairly obvious when you see the first couple of shows who I’m talking about and it’s exciting. They’re varied, they’re not the same kind of acts, they’re I think quite unique in what they do. They’re just acts that when they came on I felt that shiver go up my spine and I thought okay, now we’ve got something exciting here.
Some are singers and some are non-singers so they’re very different kinds of acts. There’s one group that sing which I think are incredibly emotional and there will not be a dry eye in America when they perform. There are other acts which have the surprise factor of Susan Boyle.
There are some brilliant dance related acts this year and some great variety - a great magician this year which we’ve never had really before. We’ve got some really old fashioned variety acts. I’m excited by it. It’s a great range of talent.
Are you tipped to the contestants’ true ability prior to their performance for you?
Piers Morgan: No. I mean, Simon Cowell who obviously judges that show with me and he’s the creator of the Got Talent format, he’s absolutely adamant we should never have any warning from the producers about what is going to come on stage in terms of their ability because, sometimes we might get told their name and that’s about it.
I don’t think in her case we even got told that so she just came out and that was it. We had a whole run of auditions that day where we didn’t know anything about them at all. But, you know, you might get their name, that’s about it.
If we knew Susan Boyle had a voice like an angel we wouldn’t have been pulling all those faces and being rather condescending towards her. We would have been thinking well let’s give her a couple of seconds to sing and then we’ll all know she’s great.
I think that it’s very important for the integrity of the show that people understand the judges do not get any warning. I mean, I’ve spent the last six months judging the British show and the American one and knew nothing about any of the acts. And that’s again for the judges' part of the wonderful spontaneity and unpredictability of the whole thing is that we don’t know what’s coming.
Were you condescending ?
Piers Morgan: Yeah I think no question. I think that we were not expecting her to be able to sing at all. I looked at her coming on, she was a little bit eccentric, she was having a laugh with us, and we all thought she would be like the other acts we had seen that day.
It had been a very long day in Glasgow and we thought that she would be a bit of a laugh, a bit of fun, something to sort of cheer up our day possibly just through laughter. What we were not expecting was her to have this incredible voice and certainly had no idea that she would have this impact on the world. I mean, it’s been the most extraordinary thing I’ve ever witnessed.
What are you really looking for in a contestant? Do you think it helps to be that underdog type of person or is it just if you’ve got talent?
Piers Morgan: No I think honestly it’s pure talent is what will win in the end. I think being the underdog is fine but in the end this show will root out the winner as being the most talented act and they might not be - in Britain Susan Boyle only failed to win in the end. She came very close but she didn’t win in the end because I think it was just too much attention.
You saw with American Idol that you can be the red hot favorite the whole season and people just get a little bit bored with it and they start to go with somebody else and that can happen in these shows. But as a judge I am looking for talent.
Now what makes it special in relation to your real question, is obviously if the talent comes from an unexpected source that is exciting, more exciting I would say than it is, if you were expecting somebody to be good or they looked the part, if they looked like a star.
So I think there’s no doubt that when it comes in the form of a Susan Boyle or Neal Boyd or something, that is where I get most excited because it’s so unexpected.
Will America’s Got Talent match Britain’s Got Talent? Do you think it can measure up?
Piers Morgan: I think America’s Got Talent has got a potential this summer to be absolutely huge and I really think that. I think that, I’ve looked at the competition, I’ve looked at the buzz around the show, NBC has put - stacked more money behind it, they’ve been promoting it fantastically well.
And they’ve been using very sensibly all the excitement around the British show which has been dominating American television for a couple of months now. They have been using that to encourage interest in the American show.
I said it’s a bit like the Ryder Cup. It’s like this is Britain has laid down its standard, can America respond? And I believe it will be able to from what I’ve seen of the Top 40 acts.
What advice would you give to anyone who auditions for this show?
Piers Morgan: Generally my advice to any auditionee is to be yourself and give it everything you’ve got. I mean, too many of them come out with confidence issues or they dress badly or they are dissident when they talk to the judges. They choose the wrong song, I mean, lots of factors come into this.
Susan Boyle was a classic example of if she had come out and sung the wrong song for her voice she may have disappeared as fast as she arrived. The fact that she chose a song that was so perfectly complimentary to her voice and the fact that she engaged the judges and was self-deprecating and funny and warm, all that counts in your favor.
A good personality, genuine humility can go a long way. All these things are factors. But they are factors of being a star generally. I think the criteria for being a good auditionee is the same as it would be for being a genuine star, you need these personal human qualities.
Can you compare the two audiences. How different is the UK audience from the U.S. audience? And an act that wins in the UK, do you think it would do as well in the U.S. show and would the winner of the U.S. show necessarily do as well on the UK show?
Piers Morgan: That’s a good question or a couple of good questions. I think in relation to the audiences, they are pretty similar actually. I mean, the show is pretty similar. You have 2000, 3000 people, they come along, they listen to the judgment, they get involved, they get noisy.
I think it depends where you are in America. I mean, we found some crazy audiences in places like Seattle where they don’t get many shows like us going up there whereas LA of course, they see so many shows they’re a little bit quieter, a little bit less easily impressed.
But it’s the same thing in England where London can be a tough audience for the auditions because, you know, they’ve seen it all before, they’ve seen so many shows where you go to somewhere like (Cardis) or Glasgow and they don’t get this kind of show there very often so there’s more excitement perhaps in the audience.
Back when you were a tabloid editor on (Fleet Street) did you ever think you’d see a day where you would sit down and be the guest of BBC Hard Talk?
Piers Morgan: Honesty, no I didn’t. And it was quite amusing because I think the guy started off by saying, we need to talk to this guy Piers Morgan, transatlantic TV whatever, whatever, to see if he is responsible for dumbing down the planet or something.
And I was thinking to myself if I am dumbing down the planet why have you got me on Hard Talk? So I thought that was a bit of a contradiction there. But no, it was a great honor. I mean, BBC Hard Talk, they told me it was watched by 17 million people.
Can we expect Susan Boyle to be guesting on America’s Got Talent?
Piers Morgan: I hope so. I’m seeing Simon Cowell tomorrow. I’m going to badger him. And I think the plan is if she’s up for it and well enough which she seems to be, performing last night brilliantly, is that she could well come on AGT and that would be - what a moment that would be.
How do you think America can possibly measure up to (Shakeen) and Susan Boyle and all these great acts?
Piers Morgan: Well not easily is the answer because it was the best show we’ve ever had in this country. I mean, the ratings were the highest of any entertainment show in I think 20 years so a real phenomenon. However, as I say I just spent a week in Vegas whittling down the Top 40 from all the acts we put through the auditions and it is a stunning lineup. And I think America should prepare itself for, you know, some big, big acts. It’s going to be very exciting to see how they all go down.
It’s very varied, the final lineup on America’s Got Talent. There are some very funny acts. There are some very unusual acts. And there’s some very good conventional acts, some great singers, some great dance acts, you know, some weird sort of gymnastic acts which are really clever in the way they’ve executed it. Some great magic acts like I said earlier which is unusual. We don’t normally get good magicians.
I think the show feels a lot bigger this year because of all the excitement from Britain. I think it’s really goaded Americans to come out and say right, we are going to show the Brits what we’ve got. And that’s what’s so exciting for me and that’s why I think you’re going to get huge ratings this series because I think that, you know, the whole of America is going to tune in to see have they got someone to rival what we’ve produced over here.
How are you taking becoming a big star in the USA now?
Piers Morgan: To have this kind of success in America is completely unexpected and great fun. I love working in America. I love the American people. I love the fact the country is so huge and so different and when we fly around from Seattle to Houston to LA to New York it’s like in a different country sometimes but all joined really by great American values.
I think there’s a lot that British people right now could learn from America. And I think that America through Barack Obama is going through a real transformation for good and I think we need that in our country.
What has been the most bizarre or cool moment for you?
Piers Morgan: I think my favorite moment was when - there were two actually. I got my first bona fide groupie when I won The Apprentice. It was a very attractive blonde lady who came up to me and gave me her phone number in front of my own mother. And as she passed it to me she said that’s my number and by the way, trust me, I’m no apprentice. I thought that was a good chat up line. And the other one was - my mother made me put it in the trash can obviously.
The other one was when I went to Shutters in Santa Monica with my girlfriend at the famous hotel there and all the staff were lined up. I had booked it online but using my name but I hadn’t gone through any agents or any of that kind of thing. And when I got there all the staff were lined up and had informed me that I was being upgraded to the Presidential Suite with the previous occupants being Bill and Hillary Clinton. And I thought then Morgan, you jammy little devil. You may just have pulled this off.
You touched upon this briefly talking about your travels across the United States and I’m curious. What part of the United States has surprised you, that you were charmed by, some impressions maybe of some of the areas that you warmed to?
Piers Morgan: All the places I went to actually in the last two years and we’ve been all around America, have had their own charm. But the point I make is that they’re very, very different but Britain’s a bit like that too. I mean, you could go to Manchester in Britain or London or Cornwall and they feel like three different countries.
I thought Seattle had a real charm to it. I think that it reminded me a lot of Britain. It was cold, it was wet, full of people with good senses of humor. I could always tell when the audience laugh at my jokes that they’re quite British in their thinking and I like that. And I found it was a very beautiful place.
Having said that, the place I would say I have the most affinity to as a Brit would be New York because New Yorkers I think are very like Brits in their outlook on life. I mean, London is a bit like New York. It’s buzzy, it’s very fast paced, people are very quick witted there, and they’re quite aggressive and confrontational. Whereas if you go somewhere like LA of course you have, the typical person who lives in LA that is not part of the business is very polite, very excessively charming, go out of their way to help you.
I remember when I walked the streets of New York for The Apprentice being struck by how rude they all seemed and I thought well they’re like the Brits. Whereas in LA if you wanted help from a local Angelina they’d be, running up to help you with a big smile on their faces.
You have all that sort of weird obsession with self improvement in LA that you don’t get in places elsewhere that I went to. I didn’t really sense that kind of thing in Chicago or down in Austin or Dallas. It’s a different kind of thing. I mean, I found the people in the South there, I remember going to Dallas and just thinking they’re so incredibly polite. I mean, everybody called me sir down there. You certainly wouldn’t get that in New York.
So I think that each had its own particular charm. Nowhere is perfect. But I think collectively what I was always struck by was an absolute loyalty to their country, a real sense of patriotism about them all. I think America has a real sense of its own identity.
I think in Barack Obama certainly from a Brit’s point of view you have now got somebody who is articulate, intelligent, good looking with a lovely family who’s really taking dramatic action to sort the world’s problems and it’s incredibly impressive. So I think America’s reputation which took such a hammering in the last few years I think is really surging back fast and it’s an exciting time to be in America right now.
Simon’s sort of set up camp here and Sharon Osbourne certainly has.
Piers Morgan: People are always asking me this. I mean, the bottom line is I’ve got three young sons in England so I don’t want to spend too much more time away from them than I already do. So I spend about 3-1/2 months in America and I love that. And I come and go and, you know, the jet lag gets to you but other than that I don’t have much to complain about.
I think that I really enjoy coming to America. I enjoy meeting Americans, hanging out with Americans, and I think they quite enjoy having us Brits over as well. There’s a good relationship there between Britain and America which I think again is actually coming back now to where it used to be which is that we are very close. And I think that Americans and the British have a close strong affinity and long may that continue.
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