We have let Ben loose on the
Jerry Springer show and he is about to give them what for … Ben Dark style!
He's someone people either love or hate but whatever your feelings about him, Jerry Springer has been riding on the crest of a wave of success for 11 years.
His show has bad language, people firing insults and accusations at one another, the airing of the dirtiest of linen, physical attacks, sparring families, amazingly degrading confessions, and generally the worst of human foibles on display — but there is a waiting list for tickets and the Jerry Springer Show is seen in 190 US markets and over 50 foreign countries, including Australia, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Greece and Poland.
Studio audiences of course get to see the lot and can ask questions of those on camera. Home viewers are spared some of the violence and bad language thanks to rigid editing. In the past that meant every second word was being "beeped" so now the show's producers have eased up a little on what is cut.
Springer himself was born in London in 1944 after his family had fled continental Europe during the Holocaust. They then emigrated to New York, where Jerry received a degree in political science and a law degree and his first job was as one of the late Senator Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign aides.
In 1971 Springer was elected to the Council-at-Large of Cincinnati, Ohio, and then at 33 was elected Mayor of Cincinnati, becoming one of America's youngest ever mayors.
Since then he has been a political reporter and commentator, received many Emmy awards, written a book, had roles in feature films and — the thing of which he is most proud — been highly active in Cincinnati Reaches Out, an organisation responsible for providing assistance to famine-stricken Ethiopians and Sudanese.
