Bring back Piers Morgan: More than 60,000 sign petitions in 15 HOURS to demand return of GMB host
GMB fans switch to BBC Breakfast 24 hours after Piers Morgan quit: Up to 200,000 ITV viewers change channel the day after show beat rival in ratings war for first time – as over 60,000 sign petitions to reinstate former host
- Series of petitions demanding Piers Morgan reinstated at Good Morning Britain
- Total signatures for the three polls is now more than 160,000 – up from 110,000
- Piers tweeted his thanks to GMB team today, adding ‘Thanks guys. I’ll miss you’
- Ratings have plummeted as people turn to BBC Breakfast in the wake of his exit
Good Morning Britain lost 80,000 viewers the day after Piers Morgan sensationally quit as its rival BBC gained 200,000 as a result.
The popular host walked out after helping GMB achieved its highest ever ratings this week, with 1.29million viewers – beating BBC’s 1.25m.
But ratings plummeted after his smash-hit final episode and on Wednesday BBC took the lead again, with an average 1.42m viewers, compared to 1.21m for GMB.
Shares in ITV also plunged in the wake of his resignation with almost £200million wiped off the company’s value last night.
This comes as more than 65,000 people have put their names to petitions demanding the popular GMB host to return to his presenting job – with more signing every minute.
One petition, called ‘Bring Back Piers Morgan!‘, accused ITV of treating him ‘appallingly’ and another, ‘Keep Piers Morgan on GMB for his common sense approach to life‘, now has more than 113,000 signatures.
And a third, which has been signed by more than 39,000 people, describes getting him sacked as ‘an absolute farce’.
Piers happily stopped and smiled for the cameras as he left his west London home with daughter Elise this morning
Overnight, just over 54,000 Britons signed various campaigns calling for the popular GMB host to return to his presenting job
Piers Morgan today tweeted a message of thanks to the Good Morning Britain team
Piers today tweeted a message of thanks to the Good Morning Britain team and said he’d achieved his one goal as he bowed out – to beat BBC Breakfast in the ratings.
He tweeted this morning: ‘I had one goal when I joined GMB – beat BBC Breakfast in the ratings. On my last day, we did it.
‘That was down to the hard work & dedication of the whole team.
‘They don’t all agree with me, some don’t even like me, but we were a team..and we won.
‘Thanks guys. I’ll miss you.’
On Tuesday BBC got 1.25m viewers, 33.4% share, compared to GMB’s average 1.29m viewers and 35.3% share.
He was in cheery spirits as he left his west London home today, happily smiling for the cameras – as his wife Celia of ten years shared a witty parody video about her husband.
Celia Walden shared the Instagram video created by comedian Alexandra Haddow, which was captioned: ‘Piers Morgan’s wife waking up this morning.’
It shows a woman blissfully waking up before showing her horror as she turns to see her husband in bed beside her.
One petition tells fans: ‘This man has stuck by our NHS when many others didn’t care including our government.
‘He confronts the politicians on questions many of us want answering. He sponsored sir captain Tom £10000 to start him off to support our NHS.
‘Please sign this petition and share it on, give him the support that he has given us as NHS workers.’
Another states: ‘How ITV have treated Piers Morgan after he saved one of their failing shows is appalling.
‘They have thrown him under the bus and allowed him to be bullied by an colleague on air.
‘Piers has turned the show into the most talked about show on ITV.
‘He was the only person who spoke on behalf of viewers during the pandemic and now he’s been bullied by the snowflakes all for speaking the truth.
‘BRING PIERS BACK ITV.’
Another petition, set up in 2019 to ‘Keep Piers Morgan on GMB for his common sense approach to life’ is also gaining momentum.
The total number of signatures for the three polls is now more than 172,411 – up from 110,000 yesterday afternoon.
There has been an outpouring of support for Piers on social media
The programme’s Health Editor Dr Hilary Jones also paid tribute, saying Mr Morgan ‘has a big heart’
Former BBC presenter Andrew Neil, who is launching new channel GB News, said he wished to talked to Mr Morgan about a role, saying he would be a ‘great asset’.
Meghan Markle wrote to ITV’s boss to complain about Mr Morgan hours before the GMB co-host quit following an on-screen row with weatherman Alex Beresford.
The Duchess of Sussex insists she was not upset that Mr Morgan said he ‘didn’t believe a word she said’ in her Oprah interview – but was worried about how his comments could affect people attempting to deal with their own mental health problems, an insider told the Press Association.
Standing firm yesterday, following his departure, Mr Morgan told reporters outside his West London home: ‘If I have to fall on my sword for expressing an honestly held opinion about Meghan Markle and that diatribe of bilge that she came out with in that interview, so be it.’
On Monday Ms Markle went directly to ITV’s CEO Dame Carolyn McCall, the former boss of the left-wing Guardian newspaper, who signed off on the broadcaster’s £1million deal to show the Oprah interview and said yesterday they were ‘dealing with’ the GMB host.
Mr Morgan is understood to have been ordered to apologise – but he refused and quit instead saying he had the right to tell viewers his ‘honestly held opinions’ and declaring: ‘Freedom of speech is a hill I’m happy to die on’.
