Jerry Springer Passed Away!

The ringmaster of trash television and iconic entertainer Jerry Springer passed away from cancer.

A part of American television history has passed away.

The king of trash television and former Cincinnati mayor Jerry Springer has passed away at the age of 79. 

Perhaps best known as the world famous ringmaster of reality TV, Springer hosted The Jerry Springer Show from 1991 until 2018 and Judge Jerry from 2019 until 2022 He hosted dating show Baggage from 2010 until 2015 and was a judge on America's Got Talent for two seasons.

The Jerry Springer Show was America's most controversial talk show. Where Oprah Winfrey, Phil Donahue and Sally Jesse Raphael tackled controversial issues, Jerry brought the issues to the front lines with many guest ending up famous adult entertainers or popular figures in their own right.

The program was unsuccessful in ratings in its first seasons due to its focus on more political issues. This led to an overhaul of the structure which by the mid-1990s led to the show as it is known now, filled with controversial topics (such as incest and adultery), profanity, physical fights (involving a mixture of boxing and wrestling), nudity, and scantily clad guests. He hosted morbidly obese people, Americans with dwarfism, transgender women and men, adult film stars, racists, people with sexual fetishism and the oddities.

The show premiered on September 30, 1991. It was taped in Chicago, Illinois from 1991 to 2009 and in Stamford, Connecticut, from 2009 to 2018. On June 13, 2018, NBCUniversal ended production of new episodes of the show after 27 seasons.

Jerry Springer with Steve Wilkos. Jerry's former security manager is currently hosting his own talk show. 

He gave way to his former security guard Steve Wilkos hosting his own talk show and fellow Cincinnati agitator Bill Cunningham, a far right agitator who hosting a talk show on many CW stations for five years.

The entertainer had hosted a podcast until February 2023. Springer was also a progressive agitator who had stints on Air America Radio.

His family confirmed that he passed away from a brief illness at his home in Chicago.

"Jerry, born Gerald Norman Springer in London, England on February 13, 1944, immigrated to Queens, New York at the age of four along with his parents and older sister. He graduated from Tulane University and Northwestern University Law School, served in the United States Army Reserves and had a long career in law, politics, journalism and broadcasting. He was known for the Jerry Springer Show, the Judge Jerry Show, the Springer on the Radio Show, Baggage, the Jerry Springer Podcast and until recently even his own 60s folk music radio show in Cincinnati. He also wrote an autobiography and once starred in a movie. But he captured the emotions of the country in 2006 with a shockingly long and humorous run on the popular Dancing With the Stars Show."

Springer was elected to the Cincinnati City Council in 1971. He resigned in 1974 after admitting to soliciting a prostitute. Springer came clean at a press conference. Long-time Cincinnati newsman Al Schottelkotte pronounced Springer's career over, but Springer's honesty helped him win back his seat in 1975 by a landslide. 

Springer was mayor of Cincinnati in 1977 and 1978 and served on a city council throughout most of the 1970s and early 1980s. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the Democratic Party primary for governor of Ohio in 1982.

Jerry Springer: The Musical was a Broadway hit.

“Jerry’s ability to connect with people was at the heart of his success in everything he tried whether that was politics, broadcasting or just joking with people on the street who wanted a photo or a word,” said Jene Galvin, a lifelong friend and spokesman for the family. “He’s irreplaceable and his loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, heart and humor will live on.”

Springer was born in the London Underground station of Highgate while the station was in use as a shelter from German bombing during World War II, and grew up on Chandos Road, East Finchley. His parents, Margot (née Kallmann; a bank clerk) and Richard Springer (owner of a shoe shop), were German-Jewish refugees who escaped from Landsberg an der Warthe, Prussia (now Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland). His maternal grandmother, Marie Kallmann, who was left behind, died in the gas vans of Chełmno extermination camp (German-occupied Poland). His paternal grandmother, Selma Springer (née Elkeles), died at the hospital in the Theresienstadt concentration camp (German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Selma Springer's brother, Hermann Elkeles, was a renowned Berlin doctor who also died at Theresienstadt concentration camp.

In January 1949, at the age of four, Springer immigrated with his parents to the United States, settling in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens, New York City. He attended nearby Forest Hills High School. One of his earliest memories about current events was when he was 12 and watching the 1956 Democratic National Convention on television where he saw and was impressed by John F. Kennedy.

Springer earned a B.A. degree from Tulane University in 1965, majoring in political science. He earned a J.D. degree from Northwestern University in 1968.