Jerry Springer, syndicated talk-show host and politician, dies at 79

Jerry Springer, the bespectacled syndicated talk-show host and former Cincinnati mayor who reigned over daytime television for nearly three decades, has died. He was 79.

Springer died Thursday at his home in the suburbs of Chicago after "a brief illness," his family confirmed to the Los Angeles Times. Multiple outlets, including TMZ, have reported that Springer was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few months ago.

"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, in a statement.

“He’s irreplaceable and his loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, heart and humor will live on.”

The entertainer was best known for hosting "The Jerry Springer Show," a hugely popular daytime program that ran for 27 seasons (and continues to air in syndication), boosted by sky-high ratings that at one point surpassed even "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Often considered a cultural pariah, the series debuted in 1991, welcomed oversharing guests and traded in sensationalized content that embroiled Springer and the show in controversy for years. Brawls, flying chairs and profanity-laced tirades eventually eclipsed each episode's matter at hand, ultimately resulting in the show eliminating physical violence in 1998.

The epitome of shock value, Springer's show featured episode titles such as "My Baby Daddy Has 12 Other Kids," "Wild Sex With Your Sis," "Barbershop Smackdown," "Stop Pimping My Twin Sister," "In Love With My Nephew" and "Threesome With My Mom" — and those were all from the final season alone.

Springer never harbored any delusions about the outrageous, brain-melting nature of his program, writing it off in 2010 as "a silly little show that has a niche."

"People enjoy it and it has absolutely no redeeming social value whatsoever, other than escapist entertainment," he told The Times.

Springer would usually end each unhinged episode with a more sobering "Final Thought" and a reminder to viewers to "take care of yourselves and each other," while his lively studio audiences would chant his name and pump their fists in the air.

The NBC-produced series — along with similarly salacious daytime programming such as "Maury" — functioned as a somewhat of a blueprint for an incoming era of unabashedly trashy reality TV. Before there was "Jersey Shore" and "The Real Housewives," there was "The Jerry Springer Show."

“You can either have authentic and not let it get out of hand, or you can be inauthentic and let people stay in their seats. That’s the choice," Springer told The Times in 2010.

"It’s not my cup of tea, but this is not a show that’s aimed at a 66-year-old man. I don’t watch the show. It’s more of a fraternity party sort of thing.”

While emceeing the program, Springer became a de facto babysitter to millennials and 1990s kids outside of school. He also launched the career of Steve Wilkos, the soundstage security guard who later got his own syndicated talk show.

“Other than my father, Jerry was the most influential man in my life. Everything I have today I owe to Jerry," Wilkos said in a statement provided to The Times. "He was the smartest, most generous, kindest person I’ve ever known. My wife and I are devastated. We will miss him terribly.”

Springer was born during World War II in a makeshift bomb shelter located in an underground London train station. His Jewish parents, Richard and Margot, had escaped Germany during the Holocaust and took refuge in England.

When he was about 4 years old, Springer immigrated with his older sister and parents to Queens, New York, where he became a lifelong Yankees baseball fan. After studying political science at Tulane University and graduating from the Northwestern University law school, Springer wore many hats as an Army Reserve serviceman, attorney, politician, journalist and broadcaster.

In addition to headlining "The Jerry Springer Show," he undertook several other multimedia endeavors, including "The Judge Jerry Show," "Springer on the Radio," "The Jerry Springer Podcast," "America's Got Talent," the game show "Baggage" and a ’60s folk-music radio program in Cincinnati — where the City Council elected him mayor for one year in the late 1970s.

Springer launched his political career as an aide to 1968 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. While working at a law firm in Cincinnati, Springer ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1970, then secured a City Council seat in 1971.

Citing "very personal family considerations," Springer abruptly and mysteriously resigned from the City Council in 1974. It later came out that Springer was at the center of a prostitution probe, and he admitted to paying sex workers with personal checks.

Springer was quickly reelected to the council in 1975 and served as mayor from 1977 to 1978. He also made an unsuccessful bid for governor of Ohio in 1982.

"A crazy television show is a crazy television show, but I keep that separate from my politics, which I take very seriously," Springer told the Dallas Morning News in 2017.

"And I think it should be serious and you can be the same person and do both."

Following his short stint as mayor, Springer pivoted to broadcast journalism, covering and commenting on politics for NBC-affiliate news station WLWT-TV. Foreshadowing his resounding success on national TV, Springer and co-anchor Norma Rashid dominated the ratings for news programs in Cincinnati.

“Jerry Springer was much more than a talk show host who redefined television," NBCUniversal said in a statement provided to The Times.

"He was a savvy politician, pop cultural icon, and devout and loyal friend who was most proud when he spoke up for the marginalized and unrepresented. He connected equally with both the powerful and the man on the street. Strangers would open up to him and he loved nothing more than to give them a voice. We deeply mourn his loss and are fortunate to have been partners in a career that was truly astounding and a life that emulated the very best of us.”

Throughout his career, Springer leveraged his immense talk-show fame into myriad entertainment opportunities. He starred as a fictionalized version of himself in the 1998 movie "Ringmaster," competed on "Dancing With the Stars" in 2006, got wheeled out in a stretcher during a 2014 episode of "WWE Monday Night Raw" and inspired the Olivier Award-winning production "Jerry Springer: The Opera."

But his "silly little show" was and always will be his magnum opus.

"If I wanted to do a show for me, I would have Yogi Berra on every day. I would have politics on every day," Springer told Larry King in 1998.

"But I was hired to be a ringleader of a circus."

Times staff writer Nardine Saad and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.