TALKING TRASH

From KKK brawls to the infamous man who married a horse’ episode, a new Netflix documentary delves into the story of The Jerry Springer Show’. Louis Chilton finds out more

- Louis Chilton

"There is no line," Richard Dominick, the revolutionary and reviled brain behind The Jerry Springer Show, once said. "If I could kill someone on television I would execute them."

Dominick, a former tabloid hack known for his outrageous (and spurious) headlines, was hired onto Jerry Springer in 1991, but it was only when he took over as executive producer three years later – amid dismal ratings and the threat of cancellation – that his ethos took hold. Within a matter of months, Jerry Springer was transformed from a by-the-numbers daytime talk show to a sleazy, cynical ratings hit. It took “trash TV” to shocking new lows, and made itself an American institution in the process.

The scandal-splattered story of Jerry Springer is now the focus of a new Netflix docuseries, Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action, available on Netflix from today. Over the course of two episodes, director Luke Sewell charts the show’s rise from scrappy underdog to reality TV titan, using archive footage and interviews with those involved in the show’s production. “When I first saw Jerry Springer as a teenager, I was dumbfounded,” the British filmmaker says. “It seemed like TV from another planet – this wild, crazy trainwreck that you couldn’t not look at.” The series, he continues, made its name “exploiting guests for people’s entertainment, and ultimately just for ratings. It contributed absolutely nothing positive to society in any way, and in many ways was incredibly negative.”