Jerry Springer is well aware that his raunchy chat show was a blunder, but he has no grudges.
The TV personality tells Page Six exclusively, “I can’t think of anything more fun.” “I mean, I never really paid attention to it.” I had a feeling it was going to be a bad show from the start. But it’s entertaining, and the audience seemed to enjoy themselves.”
“It isn’t going to rescue the world, but it isn’t going to kill you either,” Springer, 78, says, comparing the show to chewing gum.
Between 1991 and 2018, “The Jerry Springer Show” aired almost 5,000 episodes over 27 seasons. It began with a focus on political topics, but swiftly descended into guests’ stories of infidelity and violent clashes laced with expletives.
Springer notes that the hit series had “a democratic quality to it” in that it introduced real, gritty people to American television.
“It was always well-scrubbed-looking upper middle class people on ‘Seinfeld,’ ‘Frasier,’ and ‘Friends.’ “And that was it, and then my show came on,” he says.
The media personality boasts that he has featured people who “had never truly been on television before” and could only be found in newspapers or on the street.
He’s also eager to defend the show’s frequently explicit subjects, joking that “our show is like ‘I Love Lucy'” in comparison to today’s social media.
Springer began dispensing justice on “Judge Jerry,” which is syndicated across the country and in its third season, after closing up his eponymous tabloid show.
In comparison to Judge Judy, who he sees as a “disciplinarian” and “quite stern,” the former lawyer and politician described his courtroom style as “fair” and “grandfatherly.”
“I’m the second parent you go to after the disciplinarian parent says, ‘You’re not having that,'” he continues, noting that ranting and bellowing is not in his character.
“It’s just not my personality,” he adds. “No one would take it seriously if all of a sudden I started [yelling]. A lot of people watched for 27 years my crazy show, but I’m never yelling at the guests, I’m never cursing.
“So it’s easier to be yourself than to play any other role. That’s what I feel, right?”