Written by “The Jerry Springer Show,” which ran from 1991 to 2018, was known for on-set confrontations and fans screaming, “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!” He died of pancreatic cancer, a spokesperson said.
Longtime TV personality Jerry Springer, who helped pioneer the genre of confrontational daytime television, died Thursday after a bout with cancer, his representatives said.
He was 79.
The former mayor of Cincinnati, Springer died in Chicago, publicist Linda Shafran told NBC News. He died from pancreatic cancer, family spokesperson Jean Galvin added.
“The Jerry Springer Show” ran from 1991 to 2018 and was known for its profanity-prone guests who often had to be restrained by on-set security guards as audience members wildly cheered, “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!”
The show’s 1990s popularity made it a ratings rival of daytime polar opposite, “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” and Springer had no regrets for the high-energy, low-brow material he aired on afternoon TV.
“I don’t watch the show, but it’s not aimed at 66-year-old men,” Springer said in a 2010 interview. “If I were in college, I would watch. I enjoy doing it. It’s a lot of fun.”
Former Education Secretary William Bennett in 1995 famously called “Springer” and other shows of the era “perpetrators of cultural rot.”
“Springer” was such a success, that the words “Jerry Springer” became a synonym for anything outrageous or ridiculous TV.
At the end of each episode of the confrontational and occasionally violent show, a seemingly sincere Springer would appeal to his viewers’ better angels.
After the infamous Will Smith slap of Chris Rock at last year’s Oscars, Alec Baldwin bemoaned how the show had “turned into the Jerry Springer show.”
He’d sign off each “Springer” episode: “Take care of yourself and each other.”
Fellow 1990s daytime talk show host Maury Povich mourned Springer’s passing and called him “a unique showman.”
“I am shocked and saddened by the passing of Jerry. He was not only a colleague but a friend,” he said in a statement. “We worked for the same company for decades. He was joyful, smart and, in his own way, a unique showman. I will miss him.”
