Names and faces

■ Piers Morgan will join News Corp. and Fox News Media and host a TV show that will air in the United States, Britain and Australia, the company announced this week. News Corp. executive chairman Rupert Murdoch said Morgan, 56, is “the broadcaster every channel wants but is too afraid to hire.” Murdoch added:

“Piers is a brilliant presenter, a talented journalist and says what people are thinking and feeling.” The show is billed as the prime-time draw on the new channel talkTV, expected to premiere in the U.K. early next year. It will also air on the video streaming service FOX Nation in the United States and on Sky News Australia. Morgan said he would also become a columnist for The Sun and The New York Post. He said his new show will be a “fearless forum for lively debate and agenda-setting interviews,” and praised Murdoch for championing free speech. Morgan left Britain’s ITV in March after sparking a record 50,000 viewer complaints with his comments about Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. Morgan said he did not believe Meghan’s claims — made during a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey — that the monarchy ignored her struggles with mental health. Britain’s media watchdog said this month that Morgan’s comments may have offended some but were not in breach of the broadcasting code. Morgan began his media career at News Corp. some three decades ago and has worked for tabloids including News of the World.

■ Elton John still plans to start the U.S. leg of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road world tour in New Orleans in January, but he’s postponing the European dates until 2023 so he can get an operation on an injured hip. The 74-year-old singer-songwriter had been due to play cities in Britain and Europe this year, but he said a fall this summer had left him in pain. He said this week that “despite intensive physio and specialist treatment, the pain has continued to get worse and is leading to increasing difficulties moving. I have been advised to have an operation as soon as possible to get me back to full fitness and make sure there are no long-term complications.” John said that “it is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I am forced to reschedule the 2021 dates of my Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour in Europe and the UK to 2023.” He promised fans that “the shows will return to the road next year and I will make sure they are more than worth the wait.”