Jerry Springer hits back at rumours his show was fake and says it was '98% real'
Jerry Springer has denied rumours that guests on his controversial show were fake.
The Jerry Springer Show ran from 1991 to 2018 and saw guests discuss their explosive personal lives, with controversial topics covered such as as incest and adultery, with swearing, nudity and fights in the studio on occasion.
The host, now 79, has said that although the situations were true, responses from the guests could be "embellished".
While speaking to Australia's The Morning Show, Jerry was asked by hosts Larry Emdur and Kylie Gilles how real the show was.
He responded: "I'd say it was 98% real. In fact, the lawyers were involved, you'd get sued if you made it up."
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Jerry Springer chats on The Morning Show (The Morning Show)Jerry explained that before the episode was aired would-be guests would explain their situation while the cameras were rolling, and they would "liable" if they made it up.
He described how the guests would "perform" on the show, just like celebrities do on late night TV.
The showbiz veteran said: "The situations were truthful. What was embellished probably, not probably, certainly, was the reactions. Because you had the audience screaming, 'Jerry, Jerry!''
"They'd seen the show 100 times before. And so you could have the same people on Oprah and they would have behaved perfectly.
Jerry Springer chats on The Morning Show"It's just that when they came to our show, they kind of knew the drill and they just behaved like that."
The Jerry Springer Show initially focused on political issues but struggled in the ratings, leading to a major overhaul with controversial topics covered.
The move was so popular that the likes of Jenny Jones, Maury Povich, Montel Williams, and Ricki Lake revamped their own shows in order to improve ratings
It was slammed by the critics, leading Jerry to introduce the programme as "worst TV show of all time" at the start of each episode.
But the show was a ratings hit, particularly in the late 90s, becoming the first talk show in years to beat The Oprah Winfrey Show.
In 2008, Jerry admitted to not actually watching the programme, because he thought it was "silly".
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"I would never watch my show. I'm not interested in it. It's not aimed towards me. This is just a silly show."
"My show is about outrageous behaviour so by definition everyone on the show has to be outrageous," he said.
The Jerry Springer show was a ratings smash (YouTube)"Most of them are not wealthy and they're not well educated, but I like them. I find them very refreshing. They don't put on airs."
After a staggering 27 seasons and nearly 5,000 episodes, Jerry Springer's show came to an end in July 2018.
The presenter then fronted Judge Jerry, where he wore black robes to look at small claims court cases that had already been filed in jurisdictions across the United States.
After three seasons and 366 episodes, Judge Jerry was cancelled due to a decreasing viewership in 2022.
When the news was announced, Jerry said he "wants to try out retirement while I'm still healthy."
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