Guardian News and Media/WashingtonCNN has confirmed it is pulling the plug on Piers Morgan, as falling ratings finally took their toll on a transatlantic talk show experiment that failed to connect with American primetime audiences.Three years after the former Daily Mirror editor - famed in London for bouncing back from a series of scandals - took over from US broadcasting veteran Larry King, Morgan was told by CNN president Jeff Zucker it “was time for the show to end”.A spokeswoman for the US network said recent disclosures that British police had interviewed Morgan over phone-hacking allegations were not a factor in his dismissal.“The decision had nothing to do with the hacking interview - not at all,” said CNN’s Allison Gollust, who said the date of the final episode of Piers Morgan Live had yet to be determined.Morgan, who lost his job at the Daily Mirror after publishing fake pictures of alleged British troop misconduct in Iraq, had built a reputation for campaigns on gun control while at CNN but was blamed for a steady slide in the show’s ratings since Larry King’s retirement.“It’s been a painful period and lately we have taken a bath in the ratings,” Morgan told the New York Times, which first broke news of the CNN decision on Sunday.“Look, I am a British guy debating American cultural issues, including guns, which has been very polarising, and there is no doubt that there are many in the audience who are tired of me banging on about it.“That’s run its course and Jeff and I have been talking for some time about different ways of using me.” Morgan has struggled to match the ratings regularly achieved by his predecessor and had recently started to suffer new lows in terms of audience figures. This month saw six of the show’s smallest 10 audiences since he took over in January 2011.