Jerry Springer, the renowned television talk show host, died on April 28, 2023, at his home in the Chicago area at the age of 79 after a brief illness, according to a family spokesperson. Springer was the son of Jewish refugees who left Prussia to escape the Nazis, with 27 members of his family being killed in the Holocaust. Springer was born in a London tube station in 1944 during a German bombing raid. His family moved to the United States in 1949, settling in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens in New York City.
Springer started his career in politics, working on the 1968 presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy that ended with Kennedy’s assassination. He then ran for US Congress in 1970 and was elected to Cincinnati’s City Council in 1971. He was subsequently elected as the mayor of Cincinnati in 1977 and served a single one-year term. After serving as mayor, he anchored the news for the NBC affiliate in Cincinnati for ten years before making the leap to syndicated TV.
Springer transformed daytime television with his program, “The Jerry Springer Show,” which began in 1991 and lasted until 2018, over nearly 5,000 episodes. He encouraged conflict among guests and brought on everyday people to pit them against each other on the show. He talked about topics such as incest, adultery, and polyamory. Springer’s show was different from those of his rivals like Oprah Winfrey and Phil Donahue, who interviewed celebrities and tackled more serious issues.
Although his show had high ratings, it also faced severe criticism, with some groups calling for boycotts. Springer apologized for the show’s impact on society and admitted that it had fueled divisions in society. Springer’s Jewish family story was obscured by the show’s popularity and queasy critical reception.
In 2008, Springer investigated his family’s fate on the BBC1 program “Who Do You Think You Are?” He broke down in tears at the train station where his maternal grandmother was sent to her death in the Chelmno extermination camp. In 2015, he visited London to support a British Holocaust refugee project preserving the archive of what was originally known as the Central British Fund for German Jewry and later World Jewish Relief. The group helped tens of thousands of European Jews escape the Nazis to Britain in the 1930s and 1940s, including thousands of children as part of the Kindertransport, and Springer’s parents.
After his talk show went off the air in 2018, Springer attempted a comeback with a courtroom show called “Judge Jerry,” which ran for three seasons. His last TV appearance came on “The Masked Singer,” where he performed as “The Beetle,” singing a Frank Sinatra tune.
In 2018, an off-Broadway version of the musical “Jerry Springer: The Opera” opened in New York. Originally staged in London 15 years earlier, it featured songs celebrating the Springer ethos. However, a reviewer said the musical was “surprisingly free of the sometimes savage cruelty that distinguished the [talk] show from its wimpy competitors.”
Springer is remembered for his contribution to popular culture, transforming daytime television with his provocative show, and for being an advocate for Holocaust survivors and refugees.