(CNN) — Jerry Springer, the former Cincinnati mayor and longtime TV host whose tabloid talk show was known for outrageous arguments, thrown chairs and physical confrontations between sparring couples and homewreckers, has died, Bradley Singer, his agent, said Thursday. Springer was 79.
Springer once told CNN that he did not mind being referred to as the “grandfather of trash TV,” saying in 2010, as “The Jerry Springer Show” celebrated its 20th anniversary on the air: “It’s probably accurate. I don’t know what the award for that is, but I think it is true that we were probably one of the first shows to present some of the outrageousness we have.”
The show ended in 2018, after more than 4,000 episodes and countless think pieces about Springer’s role in the decline of culture, if not civilization.
Springer had said he had no delusions about his show, with its topics such as “Trick or Cheaters,” “Confront this Dominatrix” and “Lesbians Come Clean.”
“I think [the show is] silly, crazy and has no redeeming social value other than an hour of escapism,” he said in 2010. “There is never anything on our show that hasn’t been on the front pages of newspapers in America. The only difference is that the people on my show aren’t famous.”
“It’s a show about craziness,” he added. “I know that going in every day.”
The show’s notoriety peaked in 2000, when a German man was accused of killing his ex-wife after they appeared together on Springer’s show with the man’s new wife. Ralf Panitz was convicted of second-degree murder for beating Nancy Panitz to death. That year, Springer appeared on “Larry King Live,” in his first major interview since the murder.
At the time, Springer said the murder had “nothing to do with the show.”
“Well, one, it’s horrible that obviously the person was murdered,” he told King. “You know, when I first heard it, I can came back home and I figured: Oh, my gosh, you know. But then, you know, we were told it had nothing do with show. It was two and a half months prior, so it had nothing to do with the show. But that – it still – it’s horrible.”
Before becoming a television host, Springer served on Cincinnati’s City Council in 1971 and became the city’s mayor in 1977, serving one term. In 1982, he tried for the Democratic nomination for Ohio governor and lost. After that he became a news anchor at WLWT in Cincinnati.
In 2018, he inked a deal with NBC for a new show, “Judge Jerry,” that featured him as a judge in a courtroom.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Jerry Springer, former Cincinnati mayor and talk show host, dead at 79″
