DAN WOOTTON: Woke critics may still sneer, but Jerry Springer changed TV forever

The snobs scoffed and the critics raged, but without Jerry Springer, ordinary people would never have become the entertainment industry’s biggest stars.

Without him there would have been no Kardashians, no Big Brother, no American Idol.

Jerry, who passed away peacefully today at the age of 79 after being diagnosed with cancer, literally revolutionized television around the world by proving that mere mortals were much more interesting to watch than most spoiled A-listers that cost millions to hire.

Under the fantastic and infamous daily chant of ‘Jerry, Jerry, Jerry’, the people who never before got on screen got the chance to battle out their everyday problems in front of a global audience, while becoming local celebrities for five minutes.

Oprah Winfrey may have tried to convince us that we wanted to remember our minds with mumbo jumbo California claptrap, but actually there were times when we just really enjoyed watching our contemporaries hang their dirty laundry – and that was okay.

Since his explosion in the late 1990s, there have been countless academics and genteel commentators claiming that Jerry was pretty much responsible for the downfall of Western civilization, but I believe he simply reflected a major shift in our collective mindset.

After the British-born Jerry’s show became the biggest hit on American TV, it was clear that there was an audience that didn’t want to be accosted by the liberal elites almost every hour. should be important to us.

Indeed, it is no coincidence that since Springer went off the air in 2018, there has been tremendous pressure from television to censor the “basket of deplorables,” as Hillary Clinton likes to call Trump voters in the US or Brexit supporters in Britain. .

In the UK, ITV used the tragic suicide of a guest on the Jeremy Kyle Show – on screen most akin to the Springer circus – to close the whole concept of ‘the great unwashed’ on the box being allowed to deal with their daily problems. discuss.

It was just too dangerous, objected the new awakened breed of censoring TV executives.

Today I already saw American reporter Mark Stone of Sky News attacking Jerry’s show, saying, ‘Frankly, it brought together some of the most dysfunctional families in the United States… to literally watch them fight on television. to get reviews.

“To bring deep, bitter angry division to television for entertainment. That’s what the Jerry Springer Show did.”

Yup, within hours of Jerry’s death, the mockery of those so-called “deplorables” agreeing to appear as guests was back.

As Jerry, a longtime Democrat himself, rightly put it before his death, “Believe this: The politicians and corporations that try to control what each of us is watching are a far greater danger to America and our cherished freedom than anyone else.” . guests ever were or could be.’

Jerry’s show may have been a circus, but there was an underlying sense of fun, humor and – believe it or not – kindness to what he put out on a daily basis.

His Twitter biography, tongue-in-cheek, described himself as the “circus master of the end of civilization,” referring to the mass of punch-ups, abusive confrontations, and tasteless revelations made in a single episode of the eponymous show. delivered.

Some of the titles of the more than 4,000 Jerry Springer episodes that would stay on screen for an hour and a half have become famous in their own right.

Some of my personal favorites were I’m Happy I Cut Off My Legs, Sex Worker Loses Her Teeth, You Slept with My Stripper Sister and, who can forget, A Man Marries a Horse.

Most importantly, the self-effacing Jerry never believed he was better than anyone participating in his daily circus.

Sure, he was the ringmaster, but he never looked down on the contestants who agreed to join the madness.

Perhaps it was partly because he knew that these contributors’ desire to share the most shocking and dark moments of their lives had made him a very wealthy man.

But I believe it was something more fundamental than that.

Jerry was an equalizer who knew he didn’t have the immense wealth or fame of many of his contemporaries, but a quality of all people that grew in importance.

In fact, his TV show’s final farewell five years ago—by then a shadow of the cultural phenomenon it had once been—emphasized this point.

“What I’ve learned in our quarter-century of shows is that deep down, we’re all the same,” an emotional Jerry began.

“Some of us just dress weird, have a better education, or are luckier in the gene pool of parents.

“I’ll say it again, deep down we are all the same. We all want to be happy, we cry when we are hurt, we are angry when we are mistreated, and to be liked, accepted, respected, not to mention loved is the greatest gift of all.”

He insisted that he never considered himself any different than any guest who had decided to share their troubles on his show, concluding with his iconic sign-off in the daily Jerry’s Final Thought segment, “I’m not better, just happy.” Take good care of yourself and each other.’

And that’s why I refuse to describe him as the inventor of “trash TV.”

So here’s my final thought on Jerry Springer: He made real TV.

Real TV that gave you or me – or our wild classmates or slightly crazy relatives – a chance to experience that elusive five minutes of fame.

And if millions around the world wanted to watch, why didn’t they deserve that chance?