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Jerry Springer, the controversial television host and politician whose namesake talk show documenting American chaos drew even more controversy itself, has passed away at the age of 79. Over the course of 27 seasons and nearly 30 years on air, Springer took a tabloid-esque approach to human interest stories and aired them live before a studio audience. He featured cheaters, canned-food fetishists, people who wanted to marry their cousins and every intersection of individuals and low-brow drama they could bring to the table, ideally ending in a physical altercation or a spin on the show’s permanent stripper pole.
“Our show is as silly, crazy, outrageous, sometimes as stupid as you can get,” Springer said of his program on Larry King Live in 1998. But in the five years since the show last aired in 2018, these types of narratives didn’t go away. Instead, they became fodder for TikToks or bizarre PR stunts by OnlyFans models disguised as New York Post articles. Perhaps, though, these stories were best served on stage, guided by the personable, clean-cut sleazeball that was Jerry Springer.
Springer was always the subject of criticism. It was blatantly voyeuristic, often exploitative, turning often vulnerable people and their circumstances into a carnivalesque ritual for public consumption. And it aired right in the middle of the day, a treat for the homebodies and kids home sick from school rather than the late-night television hours where it may have been in more appropriate company.