NEW YORK -- British television host Piers Morgan will replace talk-show host Larry King on CNN's prime-time lineup in January, the network said Wednesday.
Morgan, 45, a judge on the television show "America's Got Talent" and a former British tabloid newspaper editor, was widely expected to take over from King, who announced in June he would end his show after a 25-year reign.
The name of Morgan's CNN show has not been announced but it is being billed as a "candid, in-depth newsmaker interview program" based in New York with Morgan also working from London and Los Angeles, CNN said.
Morgan, who has been host of a variety of shows in Britain, has a reputation on "America's Got Talent" as an acerbic critic in the vein of fellow Briton Simon Cowell of "American Idol" fame. He was the winner on Donald Trump's "The Celebrity Apprentice" reality show in 2008.
Morgan referred to King in a 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."
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