Jerry Springer, Larger-than-Life Politician & TV Host, Passes Away at 79

Jerry Springer, a former mayor and news anchor, sadly passed away on Thursday at the age of 79. He was famously known for his TV show which highlighted weird family dramas every afternoon, where they were often seen brawling, swearing as well as some naughty content being aired with blurs.

At its most popular, “The Jerry Springer Show” was a top-rated TV show that many people talked about. It became well-known for featuring fights and shouting matches with censored curse words. The show ran for 27 years and even had more viewers than Oprah Winfrey’s program at one point.

Jerry Springer thought of it as fun entertainment, but some people said it was helping to lower the standards of American society.

Jene Galvin, who has known Jerry Springer since 1970 and is a family spokesperson for him, said that it was Jerry’s ability to chat with people which made him successful in in everything he did – from politics to broadcasting and even taking photos with strangers. Jene added that even though his loss affects everyone greatly, we will always remember the intelligence, compassion and humor of Jerry Springer.

TV personality Jerry Springer has died at his home in Chicago after a short illness. He was known for describing himself as a “Talk show host, ringmaster of civilization’s end” and often joked that his wish for people was to “never be on [his] show”.

After airing more than 4,000 episodes, the show finally came to an end in 2018. It often featured stories that sounded extremely scandalous – like one about a stripper who turned straight, another about someone trying to stop her twin sister from being pimped out and the last one about someone hooking up with their therapist.

In a video filmed when the show had reached 7 million viewers in the late 1990s, Jerry Springer (the host) explained why what was shown on TV should not be judged or frowned upon.

Jerry Springer said that television doesn’t and shouldn’t create values for people, it just shows what’s happening in the world – good things and bad things. He also mentioned that politicians or companies who try to tell us what we watch are even more dangerous than any of the guests on his show. Lastly, he pointed out that the people on his show made a choice for themselves to get mocked or humiliated.

Gerald Norman Springer was born on February 13, 1944 in a London underground railway station that his parents were using as a bomb shelter. His parents were German Jews who had to move away from their home during the Holocaust and came to America when Gerald was five years old. They eventually set up shop in Queens, New York City, where they bought him his first Yankees baseball gear which made Gerald a fan for life!

John Springer studied political science at Tulane University and then was further educated in law at Northwestern University. He had been very involved in politics for most of his adult life, and only recently had he considered running for the governor of Ohio back in 2017.

He first got involved in politics as a helper to Robert F. Kennedy during his attempted presidential election of 1968. But, despite failing to be elected on Congress in 1970, John managed to win a seat on the Cincinnati City Council the following year.

In 1974, something surprising happened which startled everyone in Cincinnati. This was when Springer resigned from his position and explained that he had to do this due to “personal family considerations”. It eventually became clear why he did so: because he admitted that he paid prostitutes with personal checks.

When Jerry was 30, he married a woman named Micki Velton and they had a baby girl called Katie. However, the couple got divorced in 1994.

Jerry didn’t stay defeated for long- he started to become successful politically not long after. In 1975 he won a seat on the council and then became mayor of the city in 1977. Pretty soon he was also working as a local TV politics reporter at NBC-affiliated WLWT-TV’s news show which eventually grew to be one of Cincinnati’s most watch programs!

Jerry Springer started his talk show in 1991 with a normal style, but it changed to be a bit more shady when he left WLWT in 1993. It was highly rated, even though TV Guide ranked it as the worst show ever on television! This popularity made Jerry famous and led him to host a radio show, be on “America’s Got Talent”, star in a movie called “Ringmaster” and compete on the dancing competition show called “Dancing With The Stars”.

In 2011, when asked about his life after becoming famous with the show ‘The Jerry Springer Show’, Jerry Springer said he was thankful for it and joked around a lot. Prior to Donald Trump’s rise in politics from reality tv stardom, Jerry felt that he should run for senate to reach out to people who don’t trust politicians very much.

At the time, Jerry Springer said he had a lot of people who supported him even more than traditional politicians. He didn’t agree with the war on Iraq and wanted public healthcare to be expanded, but he never ended up running for government office. He always spoke highly about the U.S., saying it was like a bright ray of hope that led the way for other countries too. He said that his only aim in life was to show his love for this country when speaking at a Democratic meeting in 2003.

In 2019, Jerry Springer hosted a talk show on national television. He also podcasted and talked about anything he wanted to say. But in the modern times of different reality shows and harsh debates on cable TV, his shock value lessened. According to David Bianculli, a television expert from Monmouth University, these other shows had gotten more popular than Jerry’s and even outdid real life.

Despite the restrictions that Springer’s show put on his political dreams, he still accepted its history. In 2003, when Springer was preparing to run for Senate the following year, he used a quote from Jonah Goldberg from National Review who cautioned about brand-new voters that shows like Springer would bring along, which included “uncultured people, country bumpkins, strange people and some not so nice ones.”

In this infomercial, Jerry Springer talked about wanting to help those people who weren’t born with a lot of money or privilege. One journalist called Sewell wrote an article about this, and two others named David Bauder and Andrew Welsh-Huggins also contributed to the story.