Word on the street is that CNN is close to signing a successor for Larry King, who announced that he’d be ending “Larry King Live” this fall. And CNN’s potential pick for his replacement? Piers Morgan of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” Yeah, a judge on a talent show. Yes, that’s him posing with a risque cardboard cut-out of himself below.

From the New York Times:

“But what many people in the United States might not know is that Mr. Morgan, 45, is an A-list interviewer, and he has essentially been rehearsing for CNN for the past year by hosting “Piers Morgan Life Stories,” a series of well-received and high-rated interviews with figures like Gordon Brown and Simon Cowell, on the British network ITV.”

The one potential snag is if NBC is willing to let him go. The network has exclusive rights to all his work on American television.

“In the usual course of contractual niceties in the entertainment industry, Mr. Morgan and his representative could listen to what CNN had to say, but had to steer clear of anything that might constitute a formal negotiation.

The main action has not directly involved CNN. It is taking place quietly between executives from NBC Universal and Turner Broadcasting, a unit of Time Warner. These talks centered on whether Turner had something to offer NBC Universal.”