LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The world of tabloid journalism, London-style, will be showcased in a new television series executive-produced by CNN host Piers Morgan, who is also a former editor of two of Britain's popular newspapers.
"Fleet Street" will be broadcast on U.S. cable channel Starz and will follow the competitive landscape of tabloid publications in 1970s London, Starz said in a statement on Wednesday.
"It was the dawn of the celebrity era, in all its gruesome detail - a revolution that changed pop culture, and the relationship between the press and politicians, royals, and stars," Morgan said in a statement.
The series "will chronicle the rise of tabloid journalism, the sexual revolution and class warfare, all seen through the eyes of an American journalist," the statement added.
"Fleet Street" is currently in development and does not have a release date. It will consist of eight to 13 hour-long episodes.
Morgan, 48, rose to fame as the youngest national newspaper editor in 1994 when he was appointed to lead Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News of the World tabloid.
He became editor of the Daily Mirror in 1995 but was fired in 2004 after the newspaper published false photographs of Iraqi prisoners apparently being abused by British soldiers.
Morgan moved into television, gaining fame as a judge on Simon Cowell's competition shows "Britain's Got Talent" and its U.S. version "America's Got Talent."
In 2011, Morgan took over from veteran host Larry King and launched the CNN talk show "Piers Morgan Live."
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Walsh)