The talkshow host Jerry Springer, a former mayor of Cincinnati whose work was vastly influential in daytime TV worldwide, has died. He was 79.
Springer’s family said he died “peacefully” on Thursday at home in Chicago.
In a statement, the family said: “Jerry’s ability to connect with people was at the heart of his success in everything he tried whether that was politics, broadcasting or just joking with people on the street who wanted a photo or a word.
“He’s irreplaceable and his loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, heart and humor will live on.”
Springer was best known for his 27-year, near-4,000-episode run as the host of the eponymous talkshow, which featured guests who purportedly engaged in controversial, excessive and often overtly sexual behavior.
Episode titles that could have been ripped from tabloid headlines included I Slept with 251 Men in 10 Hours!, I’m a Breeder for the Klan and I Married a Horse.
Guests often fought, or fretted while Springer read paternity test results on air.
The show often drew negative headlines. A 15-year-old boy in Florida charged with sexually battery of his half-sister, aged eight, told detectives he learned what incest was from Springer. A woman in a Secret Mistresses Confronted segment was found dead within hours of the episode having aired.
Despite it all, in 1998, seven years into its run, the show briefly enjoyed stronger ratings than Oprah Winfrey’s more mainstream daytime offering.
It catapulted Springer to fame, including a cameo in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me in 1999, the same year he signed a contract worth $30m. The show also inspired a musical, Jerry Springer: the Opera, which logged more than 600 performances in London from 2003 to 2005.
The show was taken off the air in 2018, years after its audience began to dwindle. Springer later hosted a courtroom show that was canceled after three seasons.
In November last year, Springer said he was “so sorry” for the cultural impact his show had at the turn of the century.
“I just apologize,” he told David Yontef, host of the Behind the Velvet Rope podcast. “What have I done? I’ve ruined the culture. I just hope hell isn’t that hot because I burn real easy. I’m very light-complected.”
Gerald Norman Springer was born in London during the second world war after his family fled Nazi Germany. He was four when his family moved to New York.
In 1965, he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Tulane University in New Orleans. He received a law degree from Northwestern University in Illinois three years later, and advised the presidential campaign of Robert F Kennedy before being elected to the Cincinnati city council in 1971.
He resigned his seat in 1974, after admitting soliciting a sex worker. Springer successfully ran for re-election to the council after apologizing and addressing the scandal head-on in his advertising, and the panel picked him to serve a year as Cincinnati’s mayor, beginning in 1977.
Springer left politics to become a news anchor and commentator at the Cincinnati television station WLWT, setting the stage for his talkshow career.
WLWT reported on Thursday that plans for funeral services and a memorial gathering were still being formed. His family asked the public to consider honoring him by donating to “a worthy advocacy organization” or simply being kind to someone.
“As he always said, ‘Take care of yourself, and each other’,” WLWT added.
