Piers Morgan replaces Larry King

British television host Piers Morgan will replace veteran CNN talk show host Larry King in January, bringing what is expected to be a more acerbic tone to the long-running prime time US interview show.

CNN said that Morgan, 45, a former British tabloid newspaper editor and currently a judge on the popular NBC show "America's Got Talent", will start his CNN show in January. King announced in June he would end "Larry King Live" after a 25-year reign.

Morgan will also keep his job with "America's Got Talent" but he will leave his judging seat on the UK version "Britain's Got Talent", CNN said.

The name of Morgan's CNN show, which will air every week day at 9pm, has not been announced but it was billed by CNN as a "candid, in-depth newsmaker interview programme" based in New York with Morgan also working from London and Los Angeles.

Morgan has been host of a variety of shows in Britain and has a reputation on "America's Got Talent" as a caustic critic in the vein of fellow Briton Simon Cowell. He has appeared alongside Cowell on "Britain's Got Talent" on every series since 2007. A fifth series of the British talent show is scheduled for January 2011.

The winner of Donald Trump's "The Celebrity Apprentice" reality show in 2008, Morgan will however keep his job on British network ITV, where his programme "Life Stories" has included interviews with celebrities and politicians, the New York Times said.

The 76-year old King, who forged a reputation for nonconfrontational interviews with an eclectic guest list, will host his last show in mid December, CNN said.

Morgan referred to King in a CNN statement by saying he had "dreamed of one day filling the legendary suspenders of the man I consider to be the greatest TV interviewer of them all."

King spoke about Morgan to Forbes.com in July, saying that "most Americans wouldn't (know him) unless you watch 'America's Got Talent'....I've never seen him interview but I hear he's quite good."

Morgan beat other candidates said to be in the running for the prime time TV job, including King's personal favourite -- "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest -- and CBS television news anchor Katie Couric.

Morgan's career has not been without controversy.

He was fired from his post as editor of Britain's Daily Mirror in 2004 after the paper ran photos, later revealed as fake, of British soldiers apparently abusing an Iraqi detainee.

Several years earlier, he was investigated for, and later cleared of, charges of insider trading relating to shares tipped in a Daily Mirror financial column.

Morgan has a record of reducing people to tears -- whether it be a 12 year-old contestant on "America's Got Talent" in 2006 or usually aloof politicians like then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who wept while talking in a 2010 TV interview about the death of his 10-day-old daughter.

Morgan will have his work cut out on CNN. Ratings for "Larry King Live", where King has latterly been known for soft-ball questions to visiting celebrities and politicians, has lost about half of its audience since 2008.

Cable rivals MSNBC and Fox News have gained viewers with their confrontational-style political news shows.

- Reuters