First look at TalkTV studio, home of ‘Piers Morgan Uncensored’

Ahead of its April 25 debut, TalkTV has revealed its flagship studio for “Piers Morgan Uncensored.”

Designed by Jim Fenhagen and imagined by Erron Gordon, the studio is located at the Ealing Broadcast Centre in London and is part of a larger build-out for the new network.

“I began with an absolutely blank canvas in terms of the studio space – with the simple vision to create something as unique as the show itself. Knowing ‘Piers Morgan Uncensored’ will be broadcast across three continents, we have created a truly state-of-the-art environment containing unique design elements not yet seen in British TV news,” said Gordon, executive director, TalkTV.

“Uncensored” will air across three networks including TalkTV, Sky News Australia and Fox Nation in the United States.

The design includes a 360-degree shooting plan with generous amounts of LED display technology including an LED arch over the studio into the lighting grid.

The network notes this is the first time a British news programming has used such an LED arrangement which has recently been included inside Studio TV3 for ABC News and in the recently updated Studio 3A for MSNBC.

Fenhagen, previously of Jack Morton Worldwide, has worked with Morgan and Gordon previously on ITV’s “Good Morning Britain.” 

The main anchor desk for “Piers Morgan Uncensored.” Photos courtesy of TalkTV.

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“Using the LED screens and lighting, the studio environment can be turned from the Piers Morgan Uncensored look into any other environment; we will utilise this working with Piers to create special event programming. The space is uniquely flexible,” said Gordon.

The studio includes fully automated LED lighting with lighting design from Deke Hazirjian of New York City Lites, supplied by JL Lighting.

Along with the studio for Morgan, studios have been added at The News Building which will serve as the home for “The News Desk,” “The Talk” with Sharon Osbourne, along with news and weather bulletins. 

The studios were built by Scott Fleary and feature augmented reality and virtual capabilities via Brainstorm and Chyron, with virtual design and integration from Moov. 

“One of the key considerations of the design of these studios was making them feel as real as possible. Our sets are about creating a realistic backdrop to house content from some of the best journalists in the country. We never want to distract from the storytelling, so we use the virtual environment to help create an authentic space to tell those stories,” said Gordon.

TalkTV’s daytime schedule includes co-broadcasts of TalkRadio, with its studios also seeing updates ahead of the network launch.