Jerry Springer: the one-time politician who now runs a sleazy talk show

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Jerry Springer was a former lawyer and politician who became one of the most divisive people on US television.

The Jerry Springer Show, his daytime talk show, debuted in 1991 and lasted until 2018. When it first began, it covered current events; then, as its ratings dropped, it transformed into a modern “freak show,” in which “ordinary people” – mostly the poor and socially marginalised, but also a steady stream of white supremacists – were encouraged to air their secrets and scandals in front of a baying studio audience. Springer, who was smartly dressed in dark suits, served as ringmaster.

The show was separated into portions with titles like “You Slept With My Stripper Sister!” and “I Married a Horse,” with the production slogan “No subject too indecent, no individual too pathetic.” They frequently culminated in screaming bouts and fistfights, which the audience encouraged by chanting “Jer-ry! Jer-ry!” Following one programme, a guest was beaten to death by her ex-husband, whom she had just addressed.

According to The Guardian, Springer’s show was not the first of its kind. However, it was undoubtedly the most influential, reaching millions of people and being syndicated in 40 countries. It paved the way for a slew of imitators, as well as the emergence of reality television, “in which contestants chosen for their exhibitionism tried to outdo each other in humiliations and conflicts created and scripted by the producers.” Jerry Springer was born in London’s Highgate Tube station (then an air raid shelter) in 1944, the son of Jewish parents who had fled Germany. They moved to Queens, New York, when he was five years old. After studying law at Northwestern University and working in private practise in Cincinnati, he entered municipal politics. Despite a prostitution scandal, he was elected Democrat mayor of Cincinnati in 1977.

In 1982, he transitioned to political reporting, and within a decade, he was presiding over his own show, for which he made millions of dollars every year. Each one finished with a homily and the identical sign-off: “Take care of yourself, and each other.” Springer defended his show, claiming that viewers had a right to witness the “whole panorama” of human behaviour; nonetheless, he stated that he did not enjoy it. When asked to speak at his former university in 2008, he replied, “Thank you to the students who invited me.” I am humbled. Students who oppose to my presence, you have a valid point. I, too, would have gone with someone else.”