Good Morning Britain

I almost gagged recently when someone on this very forum called him "the only voice of sanity" (or something similarly absurd).

Has James Martin returned to TVF?

Of course Piers is nothing like that, as many of his rants are not political.

Often he is counter acting whatever yesterday’s ‘outrage of the week is’, and in reality if we didn’t live in this world where people are constantly getting outraged about stuff we wouldn’t have Piers coming in and ranting about the outrage.

It’s no different to talk radio and the likes of LBC really, people mouthing off and generating news articles and social media discussion.

I don't think anyone was outraged about vegan sausage rolls other than him. Why would they be? It's not as if we have to eat them.

That's the exact problem I have with piers now. When he first started out (whether you agreed or not with him) he debated about proper issues in the news. Now they want an 'outrage' on a daily basis for some cheap headlines and now the stupid stuff comes out like vegan susage rolls, being a vegan, having man flu and all that trash.

He’s playing a character. If anyone thinks he’s being serious in any of his rants, they maybe need to take a step back and stop getting consumed by outrage themselves. That’s what he’s trolling.

But is it really OK these days for adults to play characters and troll people for the sake of getting attention?

The Vegan Sausage roll thing was something Piers actually wasn't seriously that bothered about. I imagine he did it much to use outrage to drum up sales, considering he teased Susanne a lot on her organic diet stuff and was quite willing to take up a dare on doing vegan/organic diet if they won the NTA's last year. I'm sure he does genuinely enjoy his meat, but when I did watch GMB (live abroad now) - I generally got the impression it was put on a bit, which isn't entirely unusual for TV...




Most presenters/personalities in the public space will usually exaggerate aspects of their personal self for a public persona while actually being a bit different in real life. You wouldn't have your Kenny Everett, Johnny Ball, Ant & Dec and Stephen Mulhern's if they just acted as they would in a non-camera running setting.

That and tbh TV is more interesting that way. Sometimes you want to see people play wack-a-doodle versions of themselves. That's why shows like Big Breakfast and SM:TV live generally go down as some classic TV. I wouldn't want "character" presenting to ever be totally phased out.

True, but Morgan isn't an actor or a comedian. He's not hosting a game show. He's covering real-life issues and interviewing real-life people -- all while "playing a character" and trolling people. Where does the entertainment end and the news begin?

There is already a show that’s just that here in the US but locally (and in many markets gets a graveyard slot) here where I am it’s at 12AM. It is so low rent from the existing tabloid/celebrity news shows. It’s produced by Dr. Phil’s production company/Distributed by CBS. The show is so low rent/cheap it records from the studios of their NYC affiliate WPIX, uses all their set elements, where the PIX 11 logo is they put in a cardboard show logo that really clashes with the rest of the sets metal look:

I never left!!!! And I said no such thing of Piers. Oh no.

It's the news. News is boring.