Few Guests from "The Jerry Springer Show" Could Compete on His New Game Show "Baggage"

There must be something about Jerry Springer that makes people want to tell the truth, because within seconds of Springer appearing on set Imus said, “I made fun of your record, which, by the way, is awful.”  

Springer admitted releasing “Dr. Talk” in 1995 was not his best laid plan (nor was bringing it to Imus’s attention by saying its tracks were some of his five favorite songs).  

But he did not swing by to be ridiculed for his lack of musical prowess. Instead, hetalked about his new show Baggage, which will debut next week on the Game Show Network.

“It’s a dating show, but the contestants come on with their baggage, things they’ve done in their lives that would discourage you from dating them,” he explained. Each contestant is presented with three potential mates, and selects the one whose “baggage” seems the least encumbering.

Springer’s day job for the last almost 20 years has been to host The Jerry Springer Show, which is notorious for its cast of characters. As it turns out, becoming a guest on the show requires more than just the ability to find and dial the phone number.

“It has to be an outrageous story,” he said. “It can’t be warm and uplifting or mainstream. It has to be outside ordinary experiences.”

His guests have been known to fight, pull hair, scream, and curse, though normally not at Springer, a self-described “chicken” who has never been injured. “There’s no excuse for it,” he said about his show. “I apologize. It’s awful. It’s fun, but you can’t justify it.”

Springer was the mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio in the 1970s, and later became a popular television news anchor for the NBC affiliate there. In preparation for Phil Donohue’s retirement, the station picked him to host a talk show with a younger slant.

“There were about 20 shows trying to be like Oprah, going after middle-aged housewives,” he said, adding that he and Ricki Lake were among the first shows to go after young people.  

Imus said Lake’s show was good when she was fat, and Springer cautioned him against criticizing the overweight. “We wouldn’t have a show if people couldn’t be fat,” he said.
 
Segueing from figurative pigs to literal ones, Imus wondered if Springer eats meat, which he said he does, but not pork because he is Jewish. In fact, Springer owns a pig: a 500-pound beauty named Bella that he saved from slaughter, at the request of a fan, after she won the blue ribbon at a county fair near Sarasota, Florida.

“I could see if Bella lost and came in third, then you can kill her,” said Springer, who whipped out a picture of his pig to show Imus and Charles (who would be a perfect candidate for the Jerry Springer Show, having married his sister and all).

Before he left, Imus made sure to remind Springer of that he is battling cancer, and treating it holistically without any chemo or radiation.

To which Springer replied, “So, you normally look like this?”

-Julie Kanfer

Comments

[Marsha]

The interview with Jerry Springer was great. I loved, especially, the pig story. Making America kosher one pig at a time.