For over two decades, The Jerry Springer Show has been a battleground for folks in the most bizarre and scandalous circumstances to hash out their feelings. Now, it would appear that era is at an end, the talk show will not tape or release new episodes. The Jerry Springer Show has been canceled, and ironically enough, it's seemingly gone down without a fight.
The drama first began when The Jerry Springer Show's original producer, NBCUniversal, stopped production of the program. Fans were immediately relieved when The CW swooped in to save Springer's talk show, reports have surfaced the network had no plans to put the show back into production. Instead, The CW will air the programs 4,000+ episodes in syndication, so Jerry isn't all gone.
Jerry's producers reportedly told Yahoo News it's possible the network could order more episodes of the series in the future, but it's not known if that's something The CW is interested in. When rumors of the cancellation began swirling earlier in the week, Jerry Spring revealed there are unaired episodes of the series that will run over the next 2-3 years. If those do well, perhaps The CW may order more episodes down the line.
If The Jerry Springer Show is at an end, it's certainly a quiet end to a show that has been anything but. Jerry Springer's show originally started in 1991 as a more tame program in which political and societal issues were discussed with guests of notable fame. The show was purchased by NBC in 1992 and, after pressure from executives to increase ratings or be cancelled, Springer and his crew flipped the switch in 1994 and began to tackle more controversial and provocative topics. The move worked as the show exploded in popularity, was distributed to multiple countries and, for a time, was the top-rated daytime talk show on American television.
Jerry Springer has ridden that fame ever since and celebrated status as a pop culture icon with cameos in films like Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and his own British opera in 2003. In 2007, Springer's long-time head of security Steve Wilkos left the series and started The Steve Wilkos Show, which is also owned by The CW. The network will air new episodes of The Steve Wilkos Show alongside reruns of The Jerry Springer Show, so if there is any silver lining to this situation, daytime television audiences will get a guaranteed block of talk show drama daily.
Folks devastated by the news that The Jerry Springer Show is no longer in production can dry their eyes, as there's still plenty of great television one can watch this summer. Keep up with all the new things headed to television in the near future by visiting our summer premiere guide.
