Piers Morgan and Larry King Have Awkward On-Air Exchange

Piers and Larry mix it up.

Larry King made a return to TV to sit down with the man who took his job, in a manner of speaking, and it probably wasn't the smooth ride either of the two talk show hosts had hoped for, reports Mediate.

Piers Morgan, seemingly sitting in the catbird seat as the current host of a prime-time show on CNN, took the opportunity during their sit down to ask King directly about recent comments he's made calling the British talker "oversold" and saying that Morgan may have actually benefitted from a more low-key P.R. campaign.

"I have the last few months saying following you is like following Frank Sinatra,” said a crestfallen Morgan. “I couldn’t have paid you higher praise! To go in my backyard and say I’m an oversold, undangerous…”

Cutting Morgan off, the grizzled King, after calling Morgan's performances so far "fine," asked the host if his attempts to portray himself as a "dangerous" entertainer were meant in jest.

"Were you being facetious when you said you were dangerous?" King asked. "Was that at attempt at British humor?"

Morgan eventually said that, yes, British humor was involved in his self-promotional exercises, an answer that didn't seem to placate King.

"I've always oversold myself," Piers admitted. "I quite like doing that. It's quite funny."

"I don’t get it, I'm from Brooklyn," King said. "In Brooklyn, if you say you're dangerous, you better be dangerous."

King further pressed Morgan about his recent stop on David Letterman where the late-night host said that Morgan might need to punch a guest to boost his ratings, which prompted Morgan to muse about...punching King.

"We decided that punching you would not be a great move," Morgan told King during the interview. "You're my hero... Everyday I do this, my admiration for what you achieved grows."

Selected Reading: Mediaite, Deadline Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight

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