Piers Morgan Reacts to Karl Stefanovic's Shock News

Hello, legends.Well, it has been a week.Firstly, I just wanted to thank you all for all of your wonderful messages of support.It means the absolute world to me, literally tens of thousands of you.Like this one on YouTube, I don't agree with the person he had on the podcast, but that's my opinion and that's what makes Australia great.You don't have to agree with it and you don't have to listen if you don't want to.

The Australian media is losing everyone with a personality and an opinion.Well, few others are less supportive, it has to be said.But that's okay.I'm okay with it.It's free speech.It should have happened 15 years ago.

Good on ya.Well, here's another one on YouTube as well.And that is why I don't watch your pathetic shows or news coverages.Power is with me.Like you said, I use my power.Only here to let others know to exercise their power too.

And my good friends at The Guardian, they've been whipped into a frenzy this week.Interestingly though, they covered it in their socials too, but they turned all the comments off, eh?You free speech lovers, you guys.And of course, the show's number one fan, Albo, he wanted in on this action.He said, you go down that road and you go further out on the edges of what is mainstream political debate in this country.Look at what's happened.

I suppose it depends on who's defining political debate, Albo, don't you think?Just a reminder, I did an interview and he lied to the country and still has his job.So we're just getting started.There's a lot to do.I'm committed and I can't wait to bring you these interviews.My first with Piers Morgan.

It's funny, life is funny.Trust me. I don't know exactly how you feel.I don't know how you will feel as it goes on.You've got nothing to worry about.

Okay.Is Piers Morgan Uncensored doing this well?

Welcome to my nice yacht.My God, man.Well, someone's got to get me a taxi around town.Oh my God, it's magnificent.It's good to see you.Are we just going to pretend that we were going to now do the interview we were going to do, where you were going to interview me about life after morning shows, life after walking out in a huge furore over free speech, because I had a view that my corporate bosses didn't like.

Because it does seem a bit ridiculous, Carl, because literally in the last few hours, you've just been fired.

Thank you, Piers.

A little bit of sugar coat it.No, thank you for reminding me.So you having been a great support to me, by the way, when it happened to me at ITV in England, I want to return the favor because it's weird.Like you were going to interview me. I kind of feel like.I should be interviewing you.

I can do whatever I want now, which is one of the side benefits of getting the ass.

But what has happened?

You know, the Robinson interview that I did.

Tommy Robinson.

Yeah, was getting a fair bit of play, criticism, all that sort of stuff.We're over in the UK getting all these interviews about what's happening in the UK with politics.Where are the voices?What are they saying?And I thought Tommy Robinson was a legitimate interview for us to pick up.the what's happening on the right what's happening on the streets and um you know a key came in and we did it and you know i i put it up on on air and um then a couple of days later boom you know once he i mean when you decided to interview him did any part of you think this could be a

problem?

I know that he's hot, but it didn't seem to me when you're from Australia, you're over in the UK, it was this legitimate interview.I mean, he'd just done that debate in Oxford.

Just on a huge march, 100 ,000 people or more marching at his rally to unite the kingdom, as he calls it.I mean, look, I don't like Tommy Robinson.But I've invited him on my show repeatedly.He hasn't come on yet.And I would welcome opportunity to platform him, to challenge him, because he is a culturally significant figure.To pretend he isn't is ridiculous.

The idea that an Australian coming right across the world to analyze what's going on in the UK right now would interview someone like Tommy Robinson and be fired for doing that, I just find completely ridiculous.

I mean, as you know, I'm all about freedom of speech, and I think it is legitimately a part of the story in Great Britain, as is the rise of reform, what Rupert Lowe's doing with the Restore, the collapse of the Tories, and Keir Starmer, who I won't say again is a...Don't repeat that.

Did that play a part?So there's a clip of Ewan Robinson walking through the street and he repeats the chant that's been chanted by English football fans.Now he is a former leader of a football hooligan gang at Luton Town but He knows all the football lads who've been following England have been chanting Keir Starmer is a wanker.Now, I'm not even sure Australians know what a wanker is. I mean, I know a few Australians who've qualified for the title.Is it an accurate description of Keir Starmer?I don't know.

It's what most people in Britain probably think.But regardless of that, again, the idea that you would be sacked from a job you've had 21 years, you've done that morning show for Channel 9, the Today Show.I mean, I've been doing interviews with you for a long time.since I can remember, right?I mean, you're an integral part of Australian culture, popular culture.I mean, just on a human level, how are you feeling?

To be honest, a bit discombobulated.And for me, my first thoughts go to my family.I think those things are really hard for family to hear.

Have you had a chance to talk to them?

Yeah, Jasmine was really upset at first and she was like, I don't understand how you can do an interview and get sacked as a result of it.And, you know, it just, it puts pressure on family members and she's copped heat on social media.And, you know, it's like, that's hard, but also the other aspect of it that to me is really difficult is that I've worked there for 21 years.I've had the most wonderful experience with awesome people there.and I've worked with some of the best people.I've had a lot of co -hosts.

Yeah, I know.

You know, a lot, but...You were the guy no one could work with.Finally, they got me.But, you know, I don't get to say on -air goodbyes to, you know, Sarah's one of my dearest friends, my co -host.I love her so much.

I saw you guys in Dubai.We did a live thing together.And it reminds me a lot.It's not going to be about me, ironically.What are you talking about?

It hasn't happened to you?

Well, no, no.I said I don't want this interview to be about me, because actually, although it was supposed to be, I kind of feel like it's been dramatically taken over by what's happened to you.Exactly.And what's happened to you is very reminiscent of what happened to me.You know, I was at Good Morning Britain for five years with big ratings juggernaut, as you've made the Today Show.And it was when the Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, Oprah Winfrey interview happened.

And I had the audacity to challenge what they were telling Oprah and say, I just don't believe all of this stuff, particularly about racism.and things like that, which has never been substantiated since.But other people on the show were able to say, we believe them.But I got told, you've got to apologize or you're out.So I took the you're out option, because I wasn't going to be told to apologize to people I thought were lying.And I think history has been quite kind to me in how they regard that interview.

But to me, I remember the reaction.So in the immediate aftermath, it was total mayhem.Because I've been there every day for five years, and then suddenly I'm gone.

You know, everywhere we travel with The Karl Stefanovic Show, we hear the same thing.It's hard to employ people in Australia.It's way too hard.Rising costs, thousands of pages of fair work rules, edge cases everywhere.They're like the flies.It's so annoying.

Even trying to do the right thing.you're one step away from doing the wrong thing and who pays for it.No wonder people are fed up.It's almost like they don't want you to hire anyone anymore.That's why I like what the team at Tanda has created.Aussie built software that handles all of that complexity, rostering, payroll, HR, and fair work compliance.

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au.You won't regret it.No chance to say goodbye to my co -host Susanna Reid or anyone else I work with.leading the news as you now are in Australia, you know, public ignominy, a bit of humiliation.You've been, you know, you're out and everyone's sort of gorging on the entrails of your career as a morning host.But then a strange thing happened quite quickly, which I think I'm seeing happening with you.

I started looking on social media and the worm turned very quickly to anger from viewers who really liked me on the show, who were saying, this is outrageous.Why can't you have an opinion?I'm seeing the same thing with you already on social media.And this, in my case, became a big thing in the streets with cab drivers and bus drivers tooting their support and raising their fists and so on.And it was all because it became a debate about my right to have an opinion.Yours is not over an opinion so much, but your right to have an opinion.

anyone you want on your podcast and to ask some questions.You're a bloody journalist.

I just don't understand what Channel 9 are thinking.Well, for me, Piers, one element of that, the audience, right?I have had an intimate audience for 21 years.And I say intimate weirdly in a television sense.It's so intimate, breakfast TV, as you know.But I don't get to say goodbye to them in a public way.

and not in the way that they were used to.So for me not to have that dialogue is, you know, that's upsetting for me.

It must be very painful.

It's painful.Because I love Australia, as you know.I love the audience.And I work really fucking hard.Yeah, you do.And to have it kind of end like that is, you know, I'm not going to stop, you know, and I'm not going to roll up in a ball on the side of the fucking highway.

I will get up and I'll get things done and we'll move on.But those elements that now I'm reflecting on after two hours, since I got the news, is to me, is the thing that is upsetting.But we roll on and we have to roll on.And I think it's important that I keep campaigning and I keep driving forward with freedom of speech.If you don't like the way I do an interview, then don't watch it.It's my style.

It's my show.And I want to feature guys like Tommy Robinson because I just want to find out what it is about them.

Well, you interviewed him, and you were going to interview me, and we couldn't be two more polar opposite people.There will be people who don't like you platforming me because they may be to the conservative right and don't think I'm on their team or whatever.there right there is the preposterous nature of what's happened to you interview anybody i've seen them right you're just and you've never been a kind of combative interviewer like i am i love you know piling into people but i watched the tommy robinson interview and i thought it was an interesting watch as a lot of your stuff is right The idea that it would cross any line just by having him answer questions.

I mean, it is what it is, you know, and there's no going back now.There's a part of me that also feels free.that feels free to really, you know, really have my own freedom.What was your actual plan for the show?

Because I know your contract was running out the end of the year, because I remember you talking to me about it.

I told Nine that I was leaving the Today Show two or three months ago, and they said, can you give us time to, you know, get someone in you know, to test the waters on who was going to be your replacement.So I gave them, you know, a huge chunk of time and I don't know when they were going to announce who was going to be my replacement.So at the end of the year I was, you know, I was going to sail off into the sunset.

But it would have been an enormous moment in Australian television when you left.I don't mean to blow smoke up your eyes, it's the last thing I want to do.But actually, you leaving today's show after 21 years would have been a big thing.And, you know, the conventional way these would happen, you'd have the prime minister probably, you know, maybe even on set, you know, to wish you farewell or good riddance.You'd have a lot of celebrities that you know.I know you've got an amazing contact list.

You'd have all your colleagues, you'd have the behind the scenes people.I mean, a lot of the people I miss most when I left the morning show was all the team you never see, right?It takes an army to make these shows.And that morning show thing is a very special thing because you're all in there at like three, four o 'clock in the morning.It's an unholy hour amongst human beings.And so you develop quite a really intense bond, don't you?

So these guys, these guys who do Steadicam, on the show every single morning when I come in.They like stand up and they do the kumbaya, whatever it is, the yoga pose, and it's like Hados and Isaac, and they're like, Mr. Stefanovic, welcome.And I go, sure, no.It's a funny thing.And then Abby, who's been on the show, the floor manager for 20 years.I love them so much.

And they've all been there for me during the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and misfortune as the years go on.And you know that as well as anyone else.Personal life, whatever it is, you're there and you do the job and you roll on.But the producers at the show, just beautiful young kids.And I loved working with them, I loved mentoring some of them.

How have they been reacting to the news?

I've got so many texts, and these kids are really upset.And I just said, I'm not going to dwell on that, but I said, you just go for it, enjoy your life, and pretty soon, hopefully I'll be able to offer you a job.

Right, I mean, it's interesting because I'm obviously, you were going to talk to me, I mean it's so ironic the whole thing, but you were going to talk to me about life after a morning show.

I want to ask you, how did you feel when it, because I remember seeing when you walked off stage and I was straight onto the phone with you and I said, mate, I've been saying that shit about Megaman for a long time now, but it affected you and I was like,how you were because you had the press outside your house.

Well, it's really, it is a really discombobulating thing.It's almost like watching it happen to somebody else.And you'll feel that, right?It's a shock, right?You would have been planning for months and months for the rest of the year, how you might leave, what you might say, guess you may want to have on.It would have been the long goodbye.

It would have been quite nauseating to watch probably.I think it's one aspect.I'm with you.

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com.But, you know, I remember how I felt and it was a weird thing.You know, I remember coming back home and I went for a little walk to clear my head and make a final decision because it was literally apologize to Meghan Markle or you can't come back.And I was just like, I can't.And I came back and I talked to my wife and I said, I'm just not gonna do it.She said, so what's the alternative?

I said, that's it.And she said, what, like that?I went, yeah, like that.She said, what, for just not believing Meghan Markle?I went, yeah.It's a bit like when I heard what happened to you.

I was like, what, for platforming Tommy Robinson, who is at the center of this enormous cultural moment in the UK over immigration and what we should do about it and so on, even though he's a divisive, controversial figure who I personally don't like at all, I would have him on my show tomorrow.I mean, look, here's the beauty is you're going to find of life doing this when you're the boss and you own the train set.You're not going to fire yourself.I mean, you might, but you know, there's something veryliberating about that.You know, I'm actually the perfect person for you to be talking to hours after you got this news because I've been right where you are.

And in the moment, it is very weird and it will continue to be weird.And you do get moments of real like, you know, when you think about all the people you work with and in particular, in my case, the viewers, you just develop a bond with the viewers, which you would see every day when you walked out on the street it'd be like they would all be watching and they'd be like you know old young all persuasions of creeds and colors and so on and they're all watching morning telly and you're they wake up with you and suddenly it's gone it's gone for you and it's gone for them this guy in your case four times as long as i did i don't know how the hell you did it for 21 years but that bond is broken irrevocably for that morning show set up for you and you don't even get a chance to say goodbye.I know that feeling, it's an awful feeling.

You know and I was just thinking then when you were talking so eloquently about it and I can go into any place around Australia from Broome to Cairns to Tassie Launceston, I walk into a pub and every time someone yells out, fucking Carlos, get a beer up here.And it's like that bond for me with real Australian people is something that I don't take for granted.It's a great privilege and it really is a great honor.And I just, I don't wanna lose that.And that's a little bit of what I worry about.

Have you felt emotional since you got married?

Just when I was thinking about my life.Because she puts up with a lot.and it's not, you know, her finding out this stuff and having to deal with me, because I'm a lot and I'm in the public eye a lot and I really do work hard and I'm away a bit and she knows what I'm trying to do with this podcast so I'm doing that and that and some radio and it's like I'm doing it all for the family but she's on her own a lot and for me, you know, to hear her upset was the hardest thing, you know?But she's so good.I just spoke to her then.She goes, please give Pierce, you know, she always crushes on you.

I just love that man so much.I'm perfectly understandable.I said, you should see his yacht.She goes, thanks for the invite.Anyway, I might have time to do it.But literally, the bond with the Australian people, and I want to be there for them now.

even more so.And I think they feel unheard.I think there's a lot of stuff going on.And it's really a divided community now.And so I just want to get busy doing that and not think about the emotion.

Well, you know, it's interesting.I've got four kids.They're like 32 down to 14.They're all tall and handsome.My boys are big lads, big units.I remember my youngest, when he was about three, I got fired from the Daily Mirror.

It's been an occupational hazard for me, leaving big jobs.How many times have you been fired?Well, that was a genuine firing.The second one was an apologiser will fire you.CNN left pretty dramatically as well.It's been a long history.

What am I complaining about?

Exactly.I'm the perfect world expert, actually, on what you're going through.But I remember it led the news when I left the Mirror.It was over these Iraq photos and stuff of alleged abuse and so on.And I remember My three -year -old rang me, he was absolutely distraught because he was hearing I'd been fired and he thought I'd been set on fire, genuinely.And he was, I know, but he was genuinely like, really, really distraught.

the only time in that whole thing Well, I really got emotional because my young boy thought I'd been set on fire And what it showed me is, you know, it's a story Yeah, and you're gonna be front page news and all over the TV news and so this interview is gonna go everywhere right and at the center of it is a human being you and your family right and your friends who care about you and you know i i it's an old thing isn't it that you find out who your friends are but you really will you really will you'll be struck by people who don't contact you and you'll be equally very touched by people that do that you weren't expecting them to.I've had that a few times and it's a brilliant way of clearing out your Christmas card.

Well you know the other thing Pierce for me is I don't need anyone to feel sorry for me.We've done really well and we work hard, we've got lovely staff and obviously not this yet.You'll get there.And we'll get on to that in a second.We are on the move again today, let me tell you, for the Karl Stefanovic show.And with me every step of the way is Revive 5, specifically designed for 40 to 50 year olds.

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Scientifically supported ingredients including creatine, red knight beetroot and pomegranate.Importantly for me, no caffeine, no complexities and it tastes bloody brilliant.Let me tell you 20 % off code Carlos revived 5 .com .au.I'm getting back into it 20 % off code Carlos But I'm very grateful for what we have and we've worked hard for it So I don't I don't want anyone to feel sorry for this guy who faggot lost his job on TV But what does it what does it say to you about a mainstream media company Channel 9?

Who have decided to?in effect, suppress your free speech.Because by deciding who you want to talk to and asking them questions, that is you exercising your right to free speech.You should be allowed to interview whoever you want.It's your job.You're a journalist, right?

They have decided that you have to go.You have to lose a job you loved.I worked with Rupert Murdoch on and off throughout my career.He'd never battle advertisers.He just wouldn't.He'd rather shoot himself.

You need to have the balls, if you're in corporate life, to stand up to these, I call them the woke wastrels, who believe that cancel culture is a positive force for good, where they can destroy your career or try to.They won't.You'll go on to bigger things.And we'll come to why I believe that so passionately.You're looking at an example of someone who's gone a much bigger career out of what happened.So I've been in your shoes and I know the opportunities are going to come your way.

Corporate entities have to stand up to this.It is mob rule.It's pitchfork stuff.And it is outrageous.And advertisers have to stand up to it.The heads of these advertising companies, are you really comfortable that because Carl interviews someone who some people don't like, but many other people do like, that because he interviews us but on a private, personal podcast, nothing to do with Channel 9, wasn't on television for Channel 9, Are you comfortable that you get bullied into putting pressure on his employer to fire him?

Because I think that that is, to me, that is the root cause of the problem.If corporate life stood up to them and said, we're just not gonna bow to the mob, the mob disappears.But if you fuel the mob, all right, they've got your scalp from today's show, a show that you were great at doing and very popular at doing.All right, whoopie doo.Who wins?Your viewers don't win.

Australia doesn't win.It looks like it's...a cancelled culture police state, right?But who in the end wins?Nobody.So my message to the advertisers and to the corporate bosses at Channel 9 and other companies like that is, for God's sake, stand up to the mob.

Don't bow in this cowardly manner, because when you do, they will keep coming.And eventually, everyone gets cancelled.If you think about it, you could cancel everyone.I know enough stuff about every TV star in the world, probably, to get them all cancelled.But why would I want to do that when the viewers like watching them?

What do you know about me?A lot.I'm amazed it's this they got you on.To be honest, so am I.I mean, there's been a lot worse.

Was this the only reason they cited?

I think it's, yeah.I mean, I don't want to go into the legalities of it, but I, you know, again, Pierce, it's like, this is how these mainstream media companies and I think Frito -Air particularly, you know, if the product is becoming so beige because they're so worried about blowback from advertisers or whoever this mob is, that you end up on air with beige personalities who are so worried about...

Yes!Just a bunch of pub balls, right?I tune in, so I'm not going to name names, but I tune in honestly sometimes to morning telly around the world.I mean, put it on a global thing, right?And I'm like, for God's sake, you're supposed to wake me up, not send me back to sleep.That's your job, literally got one job, wake people up.

And I'll be there in about 10 minutes for some of them.

Back I go.Back I go.

The morning show that sends you back to sleep.Rise and no shine.

I mean, jeez.I mean, anyway, I can now for the first time in 21 years, wake up late tomorrow.Obviously, mysleeping schedule is, even when I'm on holidays, is completely stuffed.But the point is I wake up early and this show is what I think about.Who can I get?

You'll also get some interesting job offers.So when I got fired from the mirror, I drove myself home in a car that the company tried to seize as I drove it away.Until I reminded them I'd bought it off them three months earlier.And I got three calls on the way home.One was Ian Botham, the cricketer, Lord Botham, saying, come to my place in Spain, we'll play golf and get drunk for a week.You'll have a great time.

And I couldn't actually do it at the time, but.Can you give him a call from there?I will.I know Beefy would love to have you out there for a week.The second one was Marco Pierre White, the chef, who said, let's have a long lunch tomorrow.We'll drink sassicaire all day and all night.

And you can turn your phone off and not worry about it.And I did that.It was fantastic.I woke up after a 12 hour lunch.and dinner and nearly into breakfast with no hangover because i was just i just slept so well and the third one was mohammed al -fayed who himself has now been obviously cancelled in absentia because he's dead um but and and rightly it i have to be clear about that but he rang me and said don't worry i've got a vacancy for you for a to be a doorman at harrods and uh but i don't remember you know my my advice to you is you've got this vehicle and take this for what it's worth, but you can build this into something massive.You could be the biggest interviewer, media star in Australia without ever being on actual television.

And that's the thing I've discovered.When I walk around France or New York or London or Middle East now, I get more young people coming up to me than even when I did America's Got Talent, Britain's Got Talent, CNN every night.I get more purely from YouTube.Because it's a genuine global vehicle and it skews young.Young people just watch everything through YouTube.So you've kind of boarded the train without a ticket, but now you've got a ticket.

So how did you, do you mind me asking?I mean, I don't want you to give away your secrets, but how do you go from the idea of it and put it into practice?I mean, we've been going five months and I agree with you.I've never got more reaction from anything I've ever done before.It really means something to people across, you know, not just here, but even...

You know what it is?It's because you're authentic.And I say to people when they want advice of doing what I'm doing, I say, look, you've got to be true to yourself.Not everyone's going to like you.You shouldn't care.Just be true to yourself.

Say what you think.People are terrified of expressing themselves freely now.They're terrified.The whole cancel culture, woke epidemic that swept the world has gagged people into being too fearful to express opinions.But we live in democratic societies.Australia, the UK, America, these are places where freedom of speech should be the bedrock of our democracy.

The right to listen to a view you totally disagree with, but respect someone's right to have it, right?Or to be abusive, or whatever you want.There are limitations.You shouldn't be allowed to incite violence, of course.But outside of that...This concept that me disbelieving Meghan Markle, who I call Pinocchio, or you platforming Tommy Robinson, that these mean we have to be fired from jobs we love, I just think is so archaic.

And young people don't understand it.They're like, what?Why?Why would you be fired for doing an interview?Why would you be fired for having an opinion about someone?It's nuts.

So I think you should really put the foot on the pedal now with what you're doing here and become the biggest.I mean, look, you're already got an amazing, in a way like I did it in the UK.the time it happened on Good Morning Britain.You've got a massive profile in your country, but you can go way outside Australia, right?So my thing to you is don't have any geographic limit.I get as many people watching me in Riyadh now, and Dubai, and Sydney, and New York, and LA, and Houston, or wherever it may be, or India now as well, as I do in England, right?

We choose topics and issues and subjects, which are global stories.And I think if you do that, and you cast it well, and you talk to opinion formers and people at the center of these things, including the likes of Tommy Robinson, where they're appropriate, which he absolutely was, you will build a really powerful business.Because I know you, you are what you are.There's no side to you, right?You've always been the same guy to me, always.And I've loved the authenticity.

I think we see that in each other.But you know, I've come to Cam, the Cannes Lions annual festival and we announced yesterday we've just finished a investor round on Uncensored where I was you know had this idea of taking my show Piers Morgan Uncensored it's got four and a half million subscribers now generates a lot of cash from advertising and sponsorships and so on.

Is that the main drive of revenue?

I call the YouTube channel itself like a mothership.Off the back of it you can do live shows, you can do live tours, you can have You know, all different kinds of commercial mechanisms around your YouTube channel, the spin -offs, books, films, if you want, whatever you want to do, right?So you take the mothership of the YouTube channel, which is where young people consume their content, and off that you commercialize it as you can.So scripture models are really lucrative for this.But I had a bigger plan, which was rather than just be about me and you're going to be astonished when you hear this because almost it borders on humility that I knew I had to build a business which would actually in theend become much less reliant on me.

So I decided to take Uncensored as the brand of the business and we've recently launched History Uncensored.with Bianca Novelos, a former CNN anchor, incredibly smart and does great stuff with history.We then launched the Royals Uncensored with Katie Nicholl and Joe Elvin and Grant Harreld, a former Royal Butler, and they're doing great numbers talking about the Royals in a way that I would on my show, but with a little twist because they're all expert in that area.And we've just done World Cup Uncensored, we're doing at the moment through the World Cup with me, Simon Jordan and John Terry.And that's blown up as well.We're doing bigger numbers Barry Lineker's show, which Netflix paid $14 million for.

So we're on a roll.And the main reason is we've built up social media firepower.So I've got nearly 9 million followers on X, millions more on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok is great for this as well.And you just use them to blow up stuff, blow up clips, blow up promos, blow up everything.But we don't pay anyone to market our content.We do it all ourselves.

So we're in a good position, which we've built up over years.behind us in time, but you have exactly the same toolkit that I have, which is you and a brain and opinions and authenticity and a big profile in your country.Why can't you be just as big around the world as I am?There's nothing stopping you.My mother gave me a postcard a few years ago when I was young, a teenager.And it had a hippopotamus flying with a flock of seagulls.

And it had a headline, Ambition Knows No Bounds.The only one stopping you, Carl, from becoming a global irritant is yourself.

A global irritant.God, you make me laugh.

But you can see how uncensored will eventually become, at the moment it's like 5%, the rest of it 95%.me.The plan, because the investors have valued the business at $145 million.US, right?I've only owned it a year and a half.I did build it for three years with the Murdochs, obviously, when I was at News Corp and Fox, and that really helped.

And they still have, they retain a commercial interest in the advertising revenue and a couple of other things.But I own it.And I just had a vision for how uncensored could be through the prism of YouTube, a new media network, entity, empire, if you like, right?And it's working, and people are really smart investors are buying into this, where we've got a business worth nearly $150 million in 18 months, right?Congratulations.Yeah, but I think the sky's the limit for this stuff.

I think there'll be another investor round coming off the back of it, and you're gonna see other people - What do you do with the investing?Individuals do it.pour a lot of it into the company, obviously, to launch more verticals.So I want to launch football uncensored, crime uncensored, I want to do music uncensored, but split that down into different types of music, different types of crime.You know, you can do health uncensored, you can do, I mean, there's no limit to what you can do.You just have to cast it in a way that is true to your brand, which to me is smart people debating the big issues.

So I recently broke my hip, right, and I read all sorts of contradictory garbage about what you should do when you break your hip.Imagine having four smart charismatic doctors who argue about what you should do when you break your hip.100 ,000 people a year in England have a hip replacement.Not all from fractures, but 100 ,000 a year.Extrapolate around the world, everyone's falling over and breaking hips or having them replaced naturally, right?Imagine if you had a show about that, how big it could be.

This stuff ticks around in your head.Yeah, because Warren Buffett became one of the richest, most successful businessmen in history by studying people's behavior.That's all he did.So what did I do?I looked at my kids.I was like, what are they doing?

How are they consuming stuff?And none of them watch TV.They do for big live events, football match or whatever.But otherwise, they were watching YouTube when they felt like it.So they would watch my show the next morning and they'd say, dad, why do you keep trudging into a studio?You know, my show is airing on Sky News Australia.

And it's like, why do you keep going to a studio at 8, 8 o 'clock at night in the UK live with ad breaks and stuff?None of my age group.will ever watch a show like that and be told where to do it at 8 o 'clock.I said, well, how do you watch it?We watch it on YouTube the next day or next week or whatever.We want to watch it when we want to watch it.

And by the way, there's no limit on YouTube.You can go as long as you want.So I do interviews now.We're supposed to be 20 minutes, and suddenly we've done two hours.It doesn't matter.It's my train set.

If I'm interested, so will other people be.Keep the train set.I did Russell Brown recently.Mate, that was wacky.

Which went global.

But that was nearly a two -hour interview.

It's supposed to be like half an hour.He's interesting.

Well, that's one way of putting it.I think he's still trying to find that Bible verse.We called him Russell Russell.It was the Russell Russell.Where is it, Russ?You've been going three hours, huh?

Who is, apart from Russell, I mean, who's genuinely surprising for you?To interview?

Yeah.It's interesting.I mean, I was talking actually the other day about one I did with Michael Parkinson, before I did Uncensored actually, but in terms of interviews it's suddenly catchy because he was big in Australia, he spent half his year in Australia and he did my life story show for ITV which was biographical interviews and I used to do them over 2 -3 hours and a lot of people because they're talking about emotional stuff they would get emotional and he saw me in his dressing room before and he went you won't make me cry you bugger you won't i've never cried on television and i'm not going to start now right the two northern yorkshire grit and it was a reallyamazing moment, because I asked him about his dad.He was an only child.And I asked him about his father, who had died 50 years before.

And I said, it's amazing to think your father died 50 years ago, when he was pretty young, Michael.I said, do you remember the day he died?And he said, yeah, I do.But I remember it really vividly.Actually, I remember, and he suddenly started choking up, he said, I remember them bringing my father's body down in the body bag and thinking how small he looked.And he'd been a minor, his dad, you know.

And with that, he broke down and he sobbed.uncontrollably for five minutes michael parkinson one of the toughest grittiest northerners you'd meet and he was stunned i was stunned we had to stop filming the audience was stunned afterwards he was still like couldn't believe what had happened to him his son was there michael judy he couldn't believe it either but out of it Parky wrote a book about his dad, based on that just that one moment.And that was an amazing thing.So I think that with anyone, you know, like when I interviewed you, not knowing I was going to interview you, right?But I knew that probably when you talked about your family reacting to this news, that would upset you more than how you felt about it.You and me are big enough and ugly enough, we know we're going to barrel through.

For your loved ones, who've been there morning, noon and night, living, as you said, the slings and arrows, it's much tougher.I remember getting upset for them like you did.But I think with interviews, You just have to let people talk.And the beauty of this medium is you don't have to put a time limit on it.You can talk as long as you want.And it's like two guys meeting in a bar.

If we were in a bar, we'd have the same conversation.But we'd have a beer.

Yeah, we'd have a beer.And you'd probably be saying a few more scathing things about Channel 9 executives.

No, I'm very disappointed.I don't know why.And I don't want to.I'll tell you one thing, Piers.

Just on a procedural point.Are they going to honor the rest of your conversation?or no?

No, we're working that out, working that out.

Would you like it to end amicably?

I'd prefer to.You know, I thought, these guys are actually so cool.You know, they're allowing the interviews to happen and maybe this is the start of a wave of finally free to air going, you know what?this stuff is interesting and it's drawing more audience in.So, you know, maybe I was just completely and utterly ignorant.

But you're right.You're right.And they are very naive about not realizing it.I think too many of these media executives in conventional mainstream media, they fear this kind of thing because they think it threatens their business model.Actually, what they should be doing is pivoting to this stuff as their business model.This is the future.

it and if it all right it's a bit like i always use the equation we used to ride around on penny farthing bikes remember the ones with the big wheels at the back and the little one at the front and now we move around on motorbikes right which go 100 miles an hour uh it's doing the same thing So the motorbike doesn't threaten the penny father, he just replaces it.This kind of thing.People like me and you saying what we really feel on YouTube will in three or four years be way bigger.In my case, it already is way bigger than most of the network equivalent shows.And you'll find the same.And suddenly they'll be thinking, well, why didn't we flip our business model into having Carl as the star of our new digital business, right?

That's what I would have done.

And I think along with that, for me personally, on this particular day, when I just found out, I'm already saying that I don't want this to define me in any way.I don't want to... to be so present in my life that I'm consumed by bitterness and anger.

You're going to be in an igloo on a holiday, right?With a couple of Eskimos.And someone's going to pop up out of nowhere wearing a big coat and say, oh, I'll miss you on bloody Breakfast TV, Karl.And that'll be in 20 years.Wow.It happens to me every single day.

The only thing I get mentioned more, I think, is Australians saying, mate, you and Brett Lee, gutsiest thing I've ever seen.Well, mate, you know, I faced him too.It was so shocking.

But also, my friend, you know, the whole Arsenal experience.I mean, every single morning, Because I do love you.But every single morning, as you got closer and closer and closer, I was like, oh my God, Piers Morgan is going to be so tragically insufferable.Every time Arsenal won.And I'm delighted to say I was.And then you're on the way back in the plane.

I know.You are a funny guy.How is it that it came to pass that you don't seem to give a shit about saying to everyone, this is what I...

I don't understand why people do give a shit.What?what strangers think of them.Who cares?I care what my mum thinks of me. I care what my dad thinks.And she doesn't think you're a wanker sometimes?

She would never use that word.But she can give me a frown occasionally, which suggests I'm edging perilously close.

But you know what I mean.

When you've got nine million followers on x or just under as I have, you can imagine the crap that comes through all day long, right?If you were a shrinking violet or had a thin skin, it would be a nightmare.I just look for people who can't spell.And I correct their spelling or their grammar.And it drives them nuts.I had a guy yesterday, and he said about me, it was me and Cristiano Ronaldo, and I was supporting Cristiano, he's a great mate of mine, and everyone was writing him off.

I was loving it because I knew what he'd do.And I was texting him, I said, you know what to do, legend.Just do your normal thing.Whatever one's written you off, it says you're a washed -up has -been, just banging a couple of bangers, and it's the ultimate two -finger.exactly what he did and someone replied to me on X to one of my gloating tweets when he scored two goals last night and it just said you and Cristiano what a pair of bellends right so I looked at his profile pic that's all I said I said mate If I had a profile pic like yours, I would not play the Belling card.Anyway, I checked this morning when I woke up and his account's been deleted.

I suspect quite a few million people were calling him Baland.So it's a bit like Trump with Kim Jong -un when they were talking about the size of their rockets.Trump was like, my rocket's bigger than your rocket.So I've got no problem if people want to start a fight with me on social media, but it is not going to end well for you.

Can I ask you a couple of, I mean, that's one thing.You climb into it.You don't shy away from it.

I think you have to.

Does it ever affect you?

No.Yeah.Genuinely.

Yeah.

People think it must do, but it doesn't.I don't give a shit and in fact I'd like to wake up with a bit of antagonism.I'll wake up to someone calling me a bella and it's like game on.All right, let's have the Belling conversation, shall we?I'm going to profile pick like he did, happy days.But it's yeah, I think I'm a bit more confrontational than you are by nature, a bit more combative by nature.

It's my personality.I'm incredibly competitive.My sons are exactly the same.You know, my family is exactly the same.I come from a gigantic family, and they're all incredibly competitive.I'm also the least opinionated member of my entire family.

Get out.And there's over 100 of them.Trust me.

What would Christmas be like?

I mean off the charts I mean start with bottles go flying it's like yeah my army brother my sister my I mean all of it it all kicks off um but we all love each other but it's mayhem and I think that um because of that because I grew up in that environment I was being thrown out my local pub when I was 16 for being too opinionated and Mary the the landlady would throw me out I must go and beg her tonext morning to be allowed back in.But I've always loved that.I love the battle.To me, life is a battle, right?It's a bit like the Rocky Balboa speech to his son in the sixth movie, when he finally has it out with his spoiled brat son, and he's out in the street.

He goes, life is tough, and it will beat you down if you let it.And he said, and it's not about how hard you can hit.It's about how hard you can get hit, get back up and keep moving forward.That's how winning is done.And it's quite funny because when I broke my hip at the start of the year, I was lying in hospital in total agony.I fractured my femur.

I tripped on a step in a restaurant.Sober!If I'd been pissed, the surgeon said to me, had you had a few drinks, you'd have fallen slower and probably rolled, and you would have been fine.He said the fact you had a couple of coffees meant you were like a little live wire, so as you hit the dead air, missed a step, missed the dead air, and then you're slightly tensing your body, and then bang, and the femur's the biggest, hardest bone you have on your body.And I fractured the whole neck of the femur, so I was in agony, on morphine all over the place, and my three sons come to see me, and they go, Dad, we've got something to say to you.about Rocky's speech for years.

They said, Dad, it's not how hard you can hit, it's how hard you can get hit.Get back up and keep moving forward.That's how winning is done, Dad.Now we're gonna see, aren't we?And I was like, you know what, I needed that.Because you start to feel a bit sorry for yourself lying in the hospital.

Well, I remember texting you and you'd get straight back, you know, and that is, You know, I was worried about you because I know what it's like to be in a confined space.

Well, fortunately, Brett Lee did help me in dealing with broken bones.Yeah.He very kindly rearranged my rib cage and then hit the broken rib with the fourth delivery and came running down and went, Oh, mate, you hear that one crack?I'll be damned.bigger.Psycho.

You mentioned before, Piers, you'd be surprised about the people who reach out.You are one of those people.And I want to thank you at this time in my life for being part of my life, genuinely for the message that you sent me before.I mean, is everything all right with this Tommy Roberts stuff?

You went, not really.I've been sacked.And then he'd be like, I hope I see you later.I said, mate, don't worry about it.I'll be there.I'm the world expert at this stuff.

But no, it's interesting because people, I've had times in my life where people in my situation would have just canceled.Oh, that's a bit toxic.Oh, yeah, I like it, but not that much.I think I'll swerve this one and go down the pub, right?Wouldn't cross my mind, because I know how important it is when you have a moment like this, that your mates stand up for you.And you're going to feel that really strongly.

My bet is by the end of this week, Australia will be completely united behind you.And they'll think this is, I hope, knowing Australians as I do, they will think this is an outrageous way to treat a guy who has done nothing wrong, who's been there on TV every morning for 20 years, doing his best to entertain and inform and educate the country.And this is how he gets treated.After two decades of loyal service, he gets absolutely shafted for doing his job.That's all you did.You platform somebody in the news and you talk to them and ask some questions in what was an interesting interview.

And the fact that you've been shafted for that is an outrage.And the Australian public will know it's an outrage and they will rally behind you.And by the end of the week, those bosses at Channel Nine and those advertisers who bow to the mob are going to all regret it.And then they're going to beg you to come back.And then your answers should be the same as mine.Go fuck yourself.

What a great way to end the interview.

I love you, mate.

Cheers, mate.Thank you.Cheers.

hiring people to onboarding, paying staff and everything in between.And a big shout out to the Ringers clothing.It's great gear and they're just awesome people to deal with, very loyal.Head to ringerswestern .com .au and use the code CARL20 for 20 % off your first order.

Look, I'm going to be out of the country for a bit doing interviews.I've got a whole bunch of people lined up.I'm starting with the man who wants to be British PM, Restore Britain's Rupert Lowe.Keep an eye out for that one in the coming days.Love you all.