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The ruthless Svengali who turned a failing talk show into the most toxic brand on TV - and paved the way for today's wall-to-wall sex and violence on screen
A man who married a horse, a woman who cut off her own legs and a white supremacist enter a TV studio. No, that's not the start of a terrible joke, but a standard line-up for The Jerry Springer Show.
With its conveyor belt of dysfunctional guests discussing their outlandish problems in front of Jerry Springer himself and a live audience, the show quickly gained notoriety – and extreme popularity. One 1997 episode saw a ‘debate’ between members of the white supremacy group the Ku Klux Klan and the Jewish Defence League descend into a physical brawl – with many of the audience getting involved. Campaigners regularly held protests outside the NBC offices, arguing that the show had ‘corrupted American society’ and was taking advantage of ‘vulnerable’ guests – many of whom were under-educated, low-paid and came from the so-called Springer triangle between Tennessee, Ohio and Georgia.
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