That's What I Said: Piers Who?

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Larry: Piers who?

By Michael Shain

Last Updated: 10:19 AM, July 16, 2010
Posted: 4:35 AM, July 16, 2010

Larry King is making it clear that Piers Morgan wouldn't have been his first choice to replace him.

"I don't know if I'd recognize him if he was walking down the street," King said yesterday in his first interview since news broke that Morgan is on the verge of taking over King's long-running CNN show.

King still says Ryan Seacrest was his pick for the job.

"He's my favorite," King told Forbes.com. "It's subjective because he's my friend, but I think he'd be immediately accepted.

"I'd pick him in a minute," he said.

Seacrest already has three substantial jobs -- emceeing "American Idol," hosting a daily radio show and anchoring a nightly entertainment show on E!, King conceded.

But, says King, if asked, "I think, though, [Seacrest] would do it. That's my own opinion."

King even suggested that either CNN anchor Anderson Cooper or Katie Couric "could work" -- even though Couric is said to have turned down the job before it was offered to Morgan.

As a judge for "America's Got Talent," Morgan has appeared on King's show several times in the past few years

But King, who claims he's conducted 40,000 interviews over his 53-year career, doesn't seem to recall much about the 45-year-old Brit.

"I'd assume I'd like him," King says.

"I'll tell you this: I'll have him on my show before he starts. I would do an interview and promote him -- I'm still with CNN. I don't want him to do badly."