At age 79, talk show personality and former mayor of Cincinnati Jerry Springer passes away
Jerry Springer, a broadcaster, author, politician, journalist, actor, lawyer, and the host of a daytime program so obscene that he once apologized by admitting it “ruined the culture,” passed away Wednesday at age 79 in his suburban Chicago home following a brief illness, his family said.
Springer held a number of high-profile positions throughout his career, including mayor of Cincinnati, but he is best remembered as the host of The Jerry Springer Show, a syndicated TV program that ran for 27 years and featured contentious debates and arguments between the guests that occasionally turned physical.
In 1991, Springer launched a more traditional version of his chat show. He resembled a younger Phil Donahue of talk-TV fame in a coat and tie and glasses. He asked questions of guests while roving the audience with a cordless microphone in the same manner.
But as time went on, Springer started to have outlandish guests and topics like open racists, cheating spouses, and taboo, explicit topics that were sure to cause a rift.
winning the televised circus
With hosts including Maury Povich, Sally Jessy Raphael, Jenny Jones, Montel Williams, and Morton Downey Jr., the show’s success became one of the foundations of the tabloid talk show movement. Springer, a kind, likeable man with a traditional appearance and a just-asking-questions demeanor, usually came across as a more subdued counterpart to his crazy guests.
I first met Springer in 1997 while working as a critic for the St. Petersburg Times newspaper at a taping in Florida that focused on the case of a white man who was jailed for using threats and racial slurs to evict his African American neighbors. Springer insisted his show was about igniting conversation.
He explained to me that when TV is at its best, it’s like a mirror. “If all this accomplishes is to get people to talk about this at dinner, then it has served some purpose.”
Springer served as the cheerful, criticism-deflecting ringmaster, but the show often created controversial arguments to increase attention and ratings.
a young political and legal career
Gerald Norman Springer was born in London, England, and moved to Queens, New York, with his family when he was 4 years old. He eventually attended Tulane University and Northwest University Law School, graduating in the late 1960s.
He was a practicing attorney in Cincinnati when he was elected to the city council in 1971. He was forced to quit in 1974 after it was revealed he had paid a sex worker by check, but he was later re-elected in 1975. He also served as Cincinnati’s mayor for a year in 1977.
But his breakthrough as a TV personality came in the 1980s, when he was hired by Cincinnati’s NBC affiliate WLWT as a political reporter and commentator. He was later elevated to the positions of lead news anchor and managing editor.
In an interview with WLWT, Jerry Springer revealed that when The Jerry Springer Show first debuted, he was still a news anchor who commuted from Cincinnati to Chicago.
Jerry Springer’s popularity opened up many opportunities for the host, who later appeared as a self-referential version of himself in the 1998 film Ringmaster, briefly took Regis Philbin’s place as America’s Got Talent’s host, made an appearance on Dancing with the Stars, and hosted Judge Jerry, a courtroom program that ran for one season before ending last year. Even his security guard, Steve Wilkos, was given a talk show of his own, which is still broadcasting.
However, the circus-like atmosphere of the show, in which contestants occasionally appeared to enter the arena knowing that they would be expected to cause trouble and brawls, might have grave repercussions. The son of one of the previous guests who was killed by her ex-husband after the episode she participated on aired in 2002 filed a lawsuit against the show. Additionally, a man’s family filed a lawsuit against the show in 2019 after the guy committed suicide after appearing on an episode where his fiancée admitted to cheating on him.
What have I done? Springer expressed regret for the show’s effects in an interview with the Behind the Velvet Rope podcast from last year. I’ve damaged culture…I simply pray that hell isn’t too hot because I burn very easily.
The host’s brazen sense of humor, though, might also disarm detractors. I questioned him about viewers’ expectations of aggressive behavior when I spoke with him again in 2012 for the Tampa Bay Times. He was ready with an answer:
“Our show is a morality play every day, with the good ones winning and the bad guys losing… I contend that watching television or movies with violent behavior where everyone is really attractive and sexy-looking can influence young people. Never has a human said, “Boy, I want to be just like that when I grow up,” after seeing our show.
In a statement, Springer’s family urged supporters to “make a donation or commit an act of kindness to someone in need” in his honor, adding that “as he always said, ‘Take care of yourself, and each other.'”
