Piers Morgan expects 'tension' with King interview

LOS ANGELES  – Briton Piers Morgan on Monday said he expects "a little tension in the air" when he sits down to interview Larry King on Morgan's CNN talk show later this week.

CNN announced on Monday that King would be a guest on "Piers Morgan Tonight," which replaced "Larry King Live" in December, setting up a face-to-face showdown between former talk show host King and the man who took his job.

The announcement came only days after King, 77, told the BBC that Morgan may have been "oversold" to U.S. audiences when his new show replaced King's old one in January.

When Morgan took over CNN's nightly primetime interview time period, he promised to be "polarizing" and "butt-kicking." When he debuted on January 17, more than 2 million people watched the show, but he was still beaten by rival Fox News and its interview with Tea Party favorite Sarah Palin.

"He's good, but not that dangerous," King told the BBC in an interview last week. "I think they might have been better off starting quietly and that's not Piers' fault, or maybe it is, I'm not inside anymore," he said.

Morgan, the former editor of British newspaper The Daily Mirror, on Monday appeared to be amplifying interest in his interview with King when he took to Twitter and said he expects a tense time.

"Got a feeling we may need to discuss Larry's claim that I'm 'oversold' and 'not dangerous,'" Morgan tweeted.

CNN did not immediately say when King would appear on "Piers Morgan Tonight," but the interview is timed to coincide with the show's "Hollywood Week," in anticipation of the Academy Awards on Sunday.