Former Guest's Suicide Leads To U.K. Talk Show The Jeremy Kyle Show Getting Pulled From The Air
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A particularly tragic story has emerged out of the U.K. in the past week concerning the popular daily talk show The Jeremy Kyle Show, which is akin to U.S. talk shows hosted by Maury Povich and Jerry Springer. A guest of the show, whose episode was filmed but had yet to air, allegedly took his own life as a result of how the filming went down. In the aftermath, the episode was shelved, and Jeremy Kyle's show was soon pulled off the air entirely.
Let's take a closer look at how this unfortunate situation went down.
What Happened On The Jeremy Kyle Show Episode?
The guest in question was reportedly named Steve Dymond, and was a 63-year-old man who wanted to get front and center on The Jeremy Kyle Show in order to prove himself a loving and faithful mate for his fiancee Jane Callaghan. Those efforts only worked against him in the end.
Dymond apparently took a lie-detector test for the episode, filmed on May 2, in order to prove to Callaghan that he had not cheated on her. According to Sky News, Callaghan claimed that Dymond had actually convinced her of his fidelity just before they went on the show. However, the lie-detector test results showed that Dymond failed.
What Allegedly Happened To Steve Dymond?
Following the episode's filming, Steve Dymond and Jane Callaghan split up, and their impending marriage was called off. Callaghan said that Dymond was "quietly struggling." She last saw him days after the taping.
Steve Dymond's body was found on May 9 at a home in Portsmouth, and according to The Sun, he had been dead a "number of days" before being discovered. It's reported that he appeared to have died from an overdose of prescription medication, which he was taking for arthritis. Autopsy results would be needed to further determine the cause, and it's expected that an inquest will be opened.
Jane Callaghan said that Dymond sent her text messages saying that he couldn't live without her, and that he "just wanted to say sorry before I go," stating his life wasn't worth living without her. Dymond's social media posts before and during the recent split conveyed similarly loving messages about Callaghan. Some of his posts also spoke to symptoms of emotional distress, as did his final texts to Callaghan.
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What Is ITV Doing With The Jeremy Kyle Show Now?
After Steve Dymond's death became widely reported, ITV issued a statement that reflected the immediate choices it was making concerning The Jeremy Kyle Show's future, and was pulled from the schedule, replaced by an episode of Dickinson's Real Deal. Here's the statement from ITV:
Everyone at ITV and The Jeremy Kyle Show is shocked and saddened at the news of the death of a participant in the show a week after the recording of the episode they featured in and our thoughts are with their family and friends. ITV will not screen the episode in which they featured. Given the seriousness of this event, ITV has also decided to suspend both filming and broadcasting of The Jeremy Kyle Show with immediate effect in order to give it time to conduct a review of this episode of the show.
For now, the talk show has been suspended indefinitely, and there's no clear sign of when it might return to the air. Especially since The Jeremy Kyle Show has been criticized in the past for producers not giving the emotionally vulnerable guests the proper care and attention needed.
For their experience, Jane Callaghan said that the Jeremy Kyle producers were "brilliant" and that for Dymond in particular, they were "really persistent in offering him help."
Some are calling for the series to be cancelled outright, while others (like Piers Morgan) are defending the show and putting the impetus on the guests that go on shows of this nature. He also alluded to the two former Love Island guests, Mike Thalassitis and former Miss Great Britain Sophie Gradon, who died earlier this year in unconnected incidents. Both also died of suspected suicides.
To that end, ITV itself has been criticized for quickly pulling The Jeremy Kyle Show off the air while still continuing to air the reality show Love Island following two former guests' deaths. It's clear that this story isn't finished yet.
Below, you can check out some of the highlights, for better or worse, that The Jeremy Kyle Show recently posted on its YouTube page.
Stay tuned for further updates on The Jeremy Kyle Show and the highly popular Love Island.
Nick is a Cajun Country native and an Assistant Managing Editor with a focus on TV and features. His humble origin story with CinemaBlend began all the way back in the pre-streaming era, circa 2009, as a freelancing DVD reviewer and TV recapper. Nick leapfrogged over to the small screen to cover more and more television news and interviews, eventually taking over the section for the current era and covering topics like Yellowstone, The Walking Dead and horror. Born in Louisiana and currently living in Texas — Who Dat Nation over America’s Team all day, all night — Nick spent several years in the hospitality industry, and also worked as a 911 operator. If you ever happened to hear his music or read his comics/short stories, you have his sympathy.