It’s not news to anyone that Dan Walker, 43, and Piers Morgan, 54, have an intense rivalry other presenters can’t match, as they both chair morning breakfast shows – BBC Breakfast and Good Morning Britain. But it seems one of them takes a more bitter stance than the other in the battle for breakfast supremacy.
In an interview with Radio Times, Dan opened up about the root of their many feuds of which sometimes stem into viral beatdowns, with the mild-mannered BBC presenter berated by the outspoken fury of Piers.
“He hates that we still get double the audience every morning, despite all the money they’ve spent on GMB,” Dan admitted.
And it’s true, BBC Breakfast is in the lead when it comes to breakfast news programs, with Dan sharing the 2019 latest figures that showed on average the BBC show pulls in 1.44million viewers.
ITV‘s GMB on the other hand pulled in 726,000.
READ MORE: Dan Walker hits out at Piers Morgan over ‘amateur’ coronavirus advice
With his co-host Susanna Reid unimpressed, he continued: “No, we love you really Carol.”
“But we love you more Laura [Tobin – GMB weather presenter] – you’ve won the popular vote, you are the Hilary Clinton of the whole operation.”
It wasn’t long before Dan dived in to stick up for his colleague, tweeting: “Oi @piersmorgan… I don’t mind you lying about your viewing figures but lay off @carolkirkwood. She is queen. You are 1 of her subjects.”
But there are occasions where the Football Focus presenter admits he probably should leave him to it.
“Maybe I should on occasions just let it lie,” he confessed of Piers’ tendency to get nasty.
“I’d like to think he doesn’t really mean those things. I really don’t think it’s genuine animosity. He talks about us an awful lot on GMB, whereas I don’t think we’ve ever mentioned him on Breakfast.
Away from the bizarre and heated Twitter spats, the pair have hung out together on occasion, where they “have a laugh” and Dan was invited to his 50th birthday.
“I like Piers. He’s a very good broadcaster and they do a great job on GMB. Calling me a ‘snivelling sycophant’… That’s the way he operates.”
But he still believes there is a good guy on the inside.
“Outside all the froth, somewhere inside there is probably a decent bloke.”
BBC Breakfast continues this morning at 6am on BBC One.
