Piers Morgan Leaving America’s Got Talent

Nov. 9 2011, Published 2:30 p.m. ET

America’s Got Talent – but soon, it won’t have Piers Morgan.

Morgan, 46, announced Wednesday on Piers Morgan Tonight that he was leaving the popular NBC talent show to focus on his CNN talk show.

In a reference to Eddie Murphy pulling out as the host of the Oscars, Morgan began his announcement by saying, “Well, members of the Academy, I’m available…”

The British journalist went onto say that he’s “loved every second” of working on America’s Got Talent, but that he found, to his surprise, that juggling both shows had proven to be more difficult than he had imagined. He said he decided o focus on what “will be a huge year” at CNN with the upcoming election year.

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He went onto to thank NBC and Simon Cowell and also congratulated his ‘Talent’ colleagues -- Sharon Osbourne, Howie Mandel, and Nick Cannon -- and said they would, no doubt, be “very relieved to learn they no longer have to work with me.”

Watch the video on RadarOnline.com

Morgan had been a judge on the NBC talent show since 2006. (The last season wrapped in September.) He launched Piers Morgan Tonight this past January, replacing Larry King Live.