Jerry Springer slides down a pole amid a puff of smoke and the blare of Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle.” Once the chants of “Jer-ry! Jer-ry!” die down, Springer introduces a transsexual named Brea who has come on the show to confront a man she had sex with.
Before long, the man is onstage, Brea has kicked off her high heels, and the two are ferociously shoving and clawing each other.
Out comes the man’s girlfriend, who fells her unfaithful lover with a single smack to the jaw. Audience members jump to their feet, pumping their fists and cheering wildly. By the time Springer’s security guards — three off-duty Chicago cops — pull the guests apart, Brea’s shirt is torn, her bra is exposed and her wig lies on the floor.
This is the Jerry Springer much of America knows: Sultan of Smut, Titan of Trash, Lord of the Lowbrow.
But in recent years, a more respectable Springer has sprung into the mainstream, thanks to his charming turn on “Dancing with the Stars” and as host of “America’s Got Talent,” the summer’s No. 1 prime-time show, which has its season finale Wednesday.
With “The Jerry Springer Show” losing viewers steadily over the past decade — from a peak of 8 million viewers in 1998 to 1.7 million last year, according to Nielsen Media Research — producers of the show are hoping to capitalize on Springer’s newfound popularity.
As the show entered its 18th season this month, producers decided to nix some of the crazier acts that had morphed it into a freak show (the man with no legs, the transvestite puppets), and put Springer back in the spotlight.
“We want to get back to our roots, get back to basics, focus on Jerry,” said Rachelle Consiglio, who this month became executive producer of “The Jerry Springer Show” after serving as producer for 13 years.
“He’s very funny, and people are seeing how likeable he is.”
Onstage, Springer masterfully plays to the show’s boorishness.
“I love you,” Springer purred to a female audience member during his introductory routine during a show taping Thursday, repeating a gag he’s used for years. “He’s a lot better-looking,” Springer said, motioning to a man seated next to the woman, “but I’m rich as [bleep]. You go with what you got, and I’ve got a biiig wallet.”
Backstage, Springer behaves more like the 64-year-old grandfather and politics geek that he is. The former mayor of Cincinnati and Emmy award-winning news commentator freely admits his show is, to use his own word, “stupid.”
“I never said people should watch it; that’s their business. I know it’s not something I’d watch,” Springer told RedEye as he sat in his office in the NBC Tower, feet perched on his cherry wood desk.
Hosting the show is just a job, Springer said, and his main interests remain political. Asked to name the proudest moment of his career, Springer doesn’t mention beating Oprah Winfrey’s ratings for many consecutive weeks in the 1998-99 season. Rather, he’s most proud of being mayor — “If I could have been mayor forever, I would have done that,” he said — and starting an organization to bring medicine to Ethiopia during the ’80s famine.
Just how Springer ended up on TV baffles him. Born in a London subway tunnel during the Blitz shortly after his parents fled Nazi Germany, Springer had humble, if extraordinary, beginnings.
Springer says he has “no talent,” and he attributes his show business success to “pure luck.”
So what’s kept him at the helm of such a silly show for some 3,460 episodes and counting?
First, Springer said, he really likes the guests, who he says are “all really nice young kids,” if a bit misguided.
And as bawdy as the show may be, hosting it is “like playing chess every day,” Springer said. As a rule, Springer knows nothing about his guests before the taping, so “to go onstage, and to hear their stories and try to be humorous, and try to guide it along — that’s exciting,” he said. “It’s like getting a puzzle every day. I find it really keeps your mind going.”
It can be jarring to watch Springer go from chatting thoughtfully about the financial crisis to presiding over a show that rewards women in the audience with “Jerry beads” when they flash their breasts. But Springer compares it to Mardi Gras fun.
“It’s like, if you go to Mardi Gras, you’re not thinking of the intellectual or philosophical consequences of dressing up and being in a parade,” he said.
The controversial show has managed to stay on the air for 17 years precisely because “we’re the only one that’s really nuts,” Springer said. Other talk shows “try to say they’re helping these people’s lives,” Springer said. “Nonsense. This is television. If you’ve got a problem, you go to see a doctor, you go to a counselor. Television is entertainment.”
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Little-known Springer facts
As the host of a show modeled after a college frat party, Jerry Springer is popular on the spring break circuit. But Springer isn’t a drinker.
“Everyone wants to buy Jerry shots,” said Todd Schultz, Springer’s stage manager and sidekick for 15 years. “He’ll [accept] the shots and he’ll say, `Thank you very much,’ and then when no one’s looking he’ll hand it back to us, and we drink it.”
Here are some other bits of Springer trivia.
Springer’s real weakness: cheese-burgers. “Wherever we go, he always gets a cheeseburger,” Schultz said.
Home: Sarasota, Fla., where he lives with his wife. When in Chicago, he stays in an apartment he rents in the Hancock building.
Car: “My real car, the one I love, is a Bentley,” Springer said.
Favorite Chicago restaurants: “I’m such a loser, that I eat wherever I can walk to,” Springer said. He frequents Cheesecake Factory, The Grill on the Alley, Gibsons and Tavern on Rush, which are all just a few blocks from his home.
Favorite TV shows: “I only watch sports and cable news,” Springer said. “I’m constantly flipping between MSNBC, Fox and CNN. It’s amazing to watch the same story on those three.”
Last books read: Currently finishing “The War Within,” by Bob Woodward. Before that, he read “What Happened,” by Scott McClellan.
Sox or Cubs: Neither. “There is no World Series this year because the Yankees didn’t make the playoffs,” Springer said.
A.E.R.
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SPRINGER THROUGH THE YEARS
RedEye takes you though the highs and lows of Jerry Springer’s professional life.
1968: Springer gets his law degree from Northwestern University.
1971: Springer is elected to the Cincinnati City Council.
1974: Springer resigns from the City Council after a raid on a massage parlor in Kentucky reveals that Springer had written a check for “services rendered” to a prostitute there.
1975: Springer is elected to the Cincinnati City Council again.
1977: Springer is elected mayor of Cincinnati.
1982: Springer runs for governor of Ohio, but loses in the Democratic primary.
Springer joins WLWT-TV in Cincinnati as a nightly news commentator, and he becomes an anchor and managing editor. While there, he wins 10 Emmy awards.
1991: Springer is asked to start a daytime talk show in Cincinnati in anticipation of Phil Donahue’s retirement. “The Jerry Springer Show” is born as a serious, issue-driven talk show.
1992: The “Jerry Springer Show” moves to the NBC Tower in Chicago. With all the other talk shows “trying to be like ‘Oprah,’ ” Springer said, producers target a younger audience.
1995: Springer releases his country album, “Dr. Talk,” which consists of Springer singing mostly country covers.
1997: NBC-Ch. 5 in Chicago announces that Springer will join its nightly newscast. Anchors Carol Marin and Ron Magers resign in protest and viewers flood NBC with objections. Springer makes one appearance on the show, then resigns.
1998: “The Jerry Springer Show” becomes the No. 1 daytime TV show.
The show’s producer, Studios USA, vows no more fighting on the show. Viewership drops 14 percent. When the show later brings back the fights, viewership pops up 15 percent.
1999: Ald. Ed Burke (14th) summons Springer to City Hall for a hearing to determine whether the fights on his show are real. If they are, Burke said, Chicago police should arrest the brawling guests for violating the city’s domestic violence statute. Nothing came of the hearing.
2002: TV Guide names “The Jerry Springer Show” the worst show of all time. Among the top 10, “Springer” was the only show that was still on TV.
2003: “Jerry Springer-The Opera,” a musical parody of Springer’s show, officially premieres at the Royal National Theater in London. It’s a smash hit, has a commercial run at the West End, and wins London’s Evening Standard Theatre Award and an Olivier award, the equivalent of a Tony (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text).
Springer files papers to run for the U.S. Senate from Ohio. A month later, Springer pulls the plug on his Senate run, blaming baggage from his show.
2006: Springer competes on “Dancing with the Stars” so he can learn to waltz properly at his daughter’s wedding, and he makes it to the top five.
2007: “Jerry Springer — The Opera,” makes its U.S. debut at Chicago’s Bailiwick Repertory Theatre. It wins the Jeff Award for best non-Equity musical of the year.
Springer replaces Regis Philbin as host of “America’s Got Talent.”
2008: Northwestern University Law School invites Springer to be the commencement speaker, drawing objections from many students. But when Springer does speak the next month, his speech is well received.
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aelejalderuiz@tribune.com
