Former CNN host Piers Morgan was dropped this week as a guest host on ITV’s Good Morning Britain over a conflict of interest involving an ad Morgan shot for the National Lottery, reports The Guardian.
“Due to other commitments, it was mutually decided that Piers would not guest present Good Morning Britain this week. But we hope to have him on again very soon,” said a network spokesman. The Guardian quotes an “ITV insider” who said the decision was directly related to the lottery ad. “If someone is presenting a news programme, they can’t also appear in adverts. Those are the rules.”
The ad depicts Morgan reviewing plans to build “Piers’ Pier,” an amusement park to be built on the beach in East Sussex, England. “My dream is to build a monument to one of Britain’s favorite sons: me,” Morgan says to camera in the spot, which shows mock-ups of a rollercoaster designed to look like Morgan’s signature, a “Piers-i-pede” ride and a “Piers’ House of Fears.”
The tagline for the lottery ad is “anyone can win with Lotto; please, don’t let it be him.”