by Rachel Ogbu

It almost seemed no one was cabable of replacing Larry King and then Piers Morgan came along. At the time, the critics reigned supreme but it’s been exactly one year since Morgan went live on CNN and what an eventful one it’s been.

At first when news began to spread than Morgan was taking over from the legend himself, King on a new show tagged ‘Piers Mogan Tonight’, a lot were pessimistic and almost believed that the fill-in was a trial and error move that wouldn’t last. Critics gasped when he quit his lucrative job as America’s Got Talent judge and were worried he had gambled badly. Soon afterwards, his reputation was dragged into a phone hacking scandal that occurred when he was editor of two British tabloids, including Rupert Murdoch’s shuttered News of the World.

But Morgan survived. He marks his first anniversary this week with appearances by Chelsea Handler, Rosie O’Donnell and former President Jimmy Carter.

Piers Morgan Tonight has recorded younger viewers than the time of King and viewership was up 9 percent over King’s final year. However, Morgan plans to break newer grounds. “It isn’t as successful as I’d like it to be. I’d like to get the ratings significantly higher, and we believe there is a real opportunity this year to put the foot on the gas. But am I pleased with where we ended up after the first year? Yeah, actually, I am. It would be pretty churlish to be overly critical given that we’ve taken the ratings up,” he said in a recent interview.

CNN believes Morgan has had a strong first year, and his viewership has been growing in the United States.