Jerry Springer passed away on Thursday, April 27, 2023 at the age of 79 after a battle with cancer.
He hosted The Jerry Springer Show for 27 seasons from 1991-2018. Outrageous humor gave the show an appeal that helped its success over such a long period of time.
Most Americans will associate the long-time talk show host with the bizarre and shocking antics of his guests on The Jerry Springer Show from the most unexpected demographics of society.
His storylines brought up by his guests had no limits. They talked publicly about relationship issues that left the realm of ordinary (to say the least). They would kick and scream about the wildest things to the point where security had to break them up.
The task of censorship was a handful with countless bleeped curses in the regularly sudden outbursts and screaming matches.
Jerry Springer spoke openly and honestly about his show during an interview with Huffington Post in 2013.
“My show is stupid. It’s stupid, but it’s fun to do. I enjoy it. People obviously like it, otherwise they wouldn’t watch it… It has no redeeming social value. It’s an hour of escapism, but at least our show is reality.”
He even jokingly called himself the “father of the destruction of Western civilization” because of his show’s influence on modern “reality” tv.
However, Springer’s accomplishments include a lot more than one of the most interesting approaches to humor in the history of television. The influence of his show reached far and wide, and it grew a dedicated fan base that helped it last so long.
He even had a successful political career before he ever entered the entertainment business.
Here is a list of 5 Jerry Springer accomplishments you may not be aware of.
The world will remember Springer for major accomplishments within decades of a life in the public eye.
Law Degree
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Springer graduated from Northwestern Law School in 1968.
US News ranked Northwestern as the 13th best law school in the country last year.
He also earned a political science degree from Tulane University in 1965.
Springer Beats Oprah
(Photo by Kevin Winter/ImageDirect)
The public perception of the two celebrity hosts couldn’t have been more different.
However, The Jerry Springer Show overtook The Oprah Winfrey Show in the Nielsen ratings in 1998. In February, Springer became the first talk show to beat Oprah in a single week in 10 years.
Springer continued the monumental climb with a victory in the May sweeps three months later, the first time in over a decade that Oprah had lost an entire month to another talk show.
