Morgan confronts King on "oversold" comment

Piers Morgan has confronted Larry King over his comments that the British journalist "oversold" his CNN show.

King recently told BBC Radio 4 that he believed it had been a mistake to use the word "dangerous" in promos for Piers Morgan Tonight, which took over his old CNN timseslot.

During an interview with King on Wednesday night, Morgan said: "I have spent the last few months saying that following you is like following Frank Sinatra. I couldn't pay you higher praise! And you go in my backyard and say I'm oversold, undangerous..."

King then jumped in to defend his comments, claiming that although he thought Morgan had been doing a good job on the eight episodes of the show he had seen, he did not think the journalist had displayed anything "dangerous" yet.

To illustrate his belief that Piers Morgan Tonight had been oversold, King said: "We're doing four specials for CNN... Suppose I said, 'This first special will be the greatest special in the history of American television, the best, and dangerous. It's gonna kill you, this special'... I can't live up to that."

Morgan then interjected to say that he could not come in and undersell the programme, adding: "I'm following a legend! You can't follow Sinatra in Vegas and say, 'By the way, I'm not very good and this will be useless'."

"Why can't you just say, 'Piers Morgan. I'm coming. Watch me'," asked King. "Or 'Piers Morgan. Starts next Monday'."

"I suppose I have always oversold myself," reflected Morgan. "I quite like doing that; it's quite funny." He added that he felt "incredibly privileged" to have taken over King's time slot, and admitted that his "dangerous" remarks had been made in jest.

The interview airs tonight at 8pm GMT on CNN International.