I'm UK's best interviewer - Morgan
Graham Norton and Jonathan Ross are not great interviewers, Piers Morgan has said.
The TV star, known for reducing guests to tears on ITV show Life Stories, said that he rated Michael Parkinson but that the famous chat-show host thought he was better than everyone else.
Asked whether he was now the best TV interviewer in Britain, Morgan, who also interviews statesmen and celebrities on his CNN show Piers Morgan Live, boasted: "Yes, because I don't think that my so-called rivals do what I do.
"I'm the only person who sits down with people on TV for two or three hours to truncate to a one-hour show. So I think I'm almost in a category of my own."
The 48-year-old told the Radio Times: "I can't compete with Graham Norton for the comedy he brings and I think he's got a terrific show. Or Jonathan Ross. Or Alan Carr. They're all entertainers and comedians, really.
"They're not any of them particularly great interviewers. I don't think they profess to be. Parky could do both."
Asked whether he would like to be the next Parky, Morgan replied: "No. He might like to be the next Piers Morgan. I like Parky but he doesn't think anyone else could ever come anywhere close to being as good as him."
Morgan told the Radio Times that Sir David Frost, who died in August, was the best interviewer he had ever seen.
"If you look at the early stuff. He took lots of people apart. Frost on the rampage was an incredible spectacle on television - he was a firecracker interviewer. And the Nixon thing was an incredible tour de force because it showed all his qualities," he said.
Morgan insisted that he did not set out to make his guests cry, adding "you don't want to become known as just the crying show".
The former Daily Mirror editor added: "I never want it to look forced. I never want to push somebody. ... It's not that I'm punching the air going, 'Goody, they're crying.' I feel it's just reflective of their character.
"Rod Stewart is never going to cry in an interview with me in a million years even though he's been through stuff that's very hurtful to him. Simon Cowell teared up and that's because I knew where to go where I thought we might get a surprising emotion... different to the normal, self-confident guy."
