5 Things You Didn’t Know About Jerry Springer (Like That He Recorded a Country Album)

JERRY SPRINGER SHOW, Jerry Springer w/audience member, 1991-present

The new Netflix documentary Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action, released today, Jan. 7, 2025, dives deep into the life and work of the iconic trash TV host, whose tawdry show gave American viewers a major supply of raucous fights, insane personal problems, and bleeped-out curse words for 27 seasons.

In the decade after its 1990 launch, the show — which featured a panel of outrageous guests who typically hated each other, were sleeping with each other, or hated each other and were sleeping together —experienced a meteoric rise. By 1998, The Jerry Springer Show was the number one talk show in the nation, knocking Oprah out of the top spot and airing in 12 million homes every day. Even once the show’s popularity slowed down in the 2000s, there was no mistaking the mark it had left on American culture.

But how much do you know about Jerry Springer himself? Here’s a “final thought”: the real life of Jerry Springer was just as crazy as anything that happened on his show.

1He was born in a British subway station, during a German bombing raid

I wish I could have chosen a different year book picture…@SPLC pic.twitter.com/IzFPuhDupT

— Jerry Springer (@jerryspringer) August 25, 2021

Springer’s parents were Jewish refugees who escaped from World War II Poland while his mother, Margot, was pregnant. Not everyone in their family was so fortunate; both of Springer’s grandmothers died in Nazi concentration camps. The Springers finally settled in London — but Margot had the bad luck to go into labor one night in 1944, while the family was taking shelter in a subway station as Nazi fighters bombed the London streets above. It’s not shocking that after entering the world like that, Springer developed a flair for the dramatic.

2He was the mayor of Cincinnati (a job that led to his talk show)

(Original Caption) 2/22/1974-Cincinnati, OH- Gerald Springer, Democratic Councilman, in a city manager form of government, will become the youngest mayor of a metropolitan city when he assumes the duties December first this year. Already the boyish councilman at 30 has served as vice mayor and performs customary functions of the office as he does here cutting a large sandwich during a recent convention of restaurant operators.

Getty Images

After a few years in the UK, the Springers emigrated to New York City, where Jerry grew up. Watching JFK’s presidency as a young man, he fell in love with politics; he then attended law school and supported Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign. Once he graduated, he found a job at a law firm in Cincinnati.

After a failed 1970 run for the House of Representatives, Springer was elected to Cincinnati City Council in 1971. He stepped down from the council in 1974 after getting caught soliciting a prostitute … but then was elected back to the council in 1975 in a landslide win. And in 1977, he was appointed may of Cincinnati for a one year term. He left the City Council in 1981 to run for governor of Ohio, which didn’t work out.

Once his time in government was up, Springer became a political reporter for Cincinnati’s NBC affiliate, then one of the show’s anchors. A move to Chicago led to the birth of The Jerry Springer Show in 1990 — though when it debuted, it was a political talk show that included guests like Oliver North. A 1994 retooling of the series turned it into the explosive, provocative, chair-throwing show that made Springer a household name.

But even after he hit the top of the TV world, Springer held on to his political aspirations. He even considered running for governor of Ohio in 2018.

3He ran a campaign ad where he admitted paying a prostitute with a check

So that whole thing where Springer solicited a prostitute? Pretty much any politician on earth would have tried to cover that up come campaign time. However, Springer took a different approach — during his 1982 gubernatorial campaign, he issued an ad in which he spoke directly to the camera, “Final Thought”-style, and confessed to getting busted for soliciting a lady of the night. Why mention it in a political ad? Because, Springer says, being honest about it proves that he’s “not afraid of the truth … even if it hurts.”

The ad didn’t make him governor of Ohio. But it did set the template that would make Springer an international star: over-the-top tawdry escapades, with a dash of sensitivity.

4He played himself in a fictional movie based on his life

In 1998, at the absolute peak of his popularity, Springer starred in Ringmaster, a movie about a similarly controversial TV talk show host named Jerry … Farrelly. The film also starred model-turned-actress Jaime Pressley, and followed the lives of two groups of guests on the show as they engaged in various sex and violence-related shenanigans. It also followed Springer’s character, who worries about having become famous for hosting a TV show where guests punch each other in the face.

If you don’t remember the film, you’re in good company — it was a box office bomb, and made back less than half of its budget.

5He recorded a country album

Out of all the shocking things Springer did in his life, the most shocking might have been his decision to record a country-and-roots music album. Released in 1995, Dr. Talk had the host covering songs like “Mr. Tambourine Man” and the Conway Twitty-Loretta Lynn duet “You Lay So Easy on My Mind.”

There’s no two ways about it: Springer is a pretty bad singer. But you do have to salute that level of earnestness (though being that earnest of The Jerry Springer Show might get you hit with a chair). So until next time, take care of yourselves, and each other.