Piers Morgan groomed to be new Parkinson after signing £3m deal with ITV

Mr Morgan, 42, who has become a household name after starring as a judge on ITV's smash hit Britain's Got Talent show, is about to become one of TV's best paid talents by signing a £3million three year exclusive deal with the broadcaster.

The deal pitches him as potential successor to Parkinson, who this week announced that he would be ending his career as a chat show host after 36 years, following his next series on ITV this autumn.

Mr Morgan, who is also a massive star in the US following his role on America's Got Talent and has previously presented on This Morning and his own show Tabloid Tales in the UK, is keen to take on Parkinson's mantle as the nation's pre-eminent interviewer.

He is understood to want a prime time chat show as a part of any deal, a possibility that ITV bosses are thought to be considering.

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An ITV insider said: "Piers wants to be the next Parkinson in the eyes of the British public and ITV's director of television Simon Shaps and ITV executive chairman Michael Grade are desperate to sign him up on a big exclusive three-year-deal."

He added: "ITV adores him - and they want him on a golden handcuffs deal. After Britain's Got Talent he has become a big star."

Morgan has previously co-hosted his own current affairs show with Amanda Platell called Morgan & Platell on Channel 4 and has also presented BBC documentary series The Importance of Being Famous.

The deal would make him one of the broadcaster's most well paid talents earning roughly the same amount as David Jason, who also gets about £1million a year in his exclusive ITV deal.

Parkinson is currently on £2million a year at ITV and ITV's top acts Ant and Dec are on a £40million three-year pay deal and Simon Cowell is signed up to a deal worth £20million.

Another rather less obvious candidate to become ITV's new chat show king in the wake of Parkinson's departure also emerged last night - Alan Titchmarsh.

Titchmarsh, perhaps best known as a TV gardener, is being groomed for great things by the broadcaster which poaching him from the BBC in March to host a new afternoon talk show.

ITV chairman Michael Grade is said to want Titchmarsh to first expand his appeal in the daily slot - described by an executive as 'a daily mix of music and conversation featuring famous faces and people making the headlines' - before moving into a meatier role later in the evening.

Earlier this week Michael Parkinson, 72, whose guest list has included everyone from Muhammad Ali to Tony Blair - decided to step down to write his memoirs, but has not ruled out a return to the screen in another role.

Parkinson is said to have wanted to go out with a bang having been poached in 2004 from the BBC, where he was unhappy at being shunted around the schedules to make way for Match of the Day. The veteran broadcaster, who also presents a Sunday morning programme on Radio 2, is believed to have felt he had achieved everything he could on the show.

ITV is set to initially show movies in Parkinson's old Saturday night slot after it goes off air towards the end of the year. It will then look at whether to put any new chat show on at the same time or move it elsewhere in the schedule.