CNN's Piers Morgan was left holding the bag tonight when embattled GOP congressman Todd Akin cancelled as Morgan said, "at the last possible moment, leaving us and you looking at an empty chair. It’s a very nice empty chair, but it remains an empty chair.” He then extended a further invitation for Akin to appear, albeit laced with some venom:

PIERS MORGAN: Congressman, you have an open invitation to join me in that chair whenever you feel up to it. Because if you don’t keep your promise to appear on the show, then you are, what we would call in Britain, a gutless little twerp.

As Morgan went into a piece with Democrat Jan Schakowsky on the meaning of all this they continued to highlight the empty chair in a small corner box on the screen.