“I left my family to marry a Shetland pony”, “Your husband made me pregnant”… He hit the headlines for almost three decades (1991-2018). “The Jerry Springer Show”, broadcast during the day on NBC, was the heyday of American television. Hosted by Jerry Springer – former mayor of Cincinnati turned political journalist – the show managed to dethrone that of Pope Oprah Winfrey thanks to its provocative tone. Always pushing the limits of entertainment to the extreme and defining the contours of “trash TV” across the Atlantic.
Available on Netflix since January 7, “Jerry Springer: silence, engine, altercations” offers a dive into the dark behind the scenes of the American talk show. Richly documented and with numerous testimonies from former members of the show, the two-part documentary paints a stunning portrait of one of the most famous but controversial programs on the American small screen.
Initially, when it was launched in 1991, the show aimed to invite people to present their problem in front of an audience ready to interact. But the audiences are at half mast. Until the producer, Richard Dominick, had the idea of inviting members of the Ku Klux Klan and the founder of the Jewish Defense League. On the set, tension rises very quickly and the guests come to blows in front of an audience galvanized by what is happening before their eyes. The ratings then skyrocketed, enough to give ideas to Richard Dominick. “If we could kill someone live on screen, I would,” he says on camera.
Controversial methods
Increasingly daring, trashy and sensational subjects are offered on the air. Each time, the production applies the same recipe: using verbal and psychological violence so that the guests, prepared behind the scenes, end up fighting once in front of the cameras. “They did everything to disinhibit us,” says a former participant. “The producers were there from the beginning, coaching us on what we needed to say and do. »
Toby Yoshimura, one of the producers, confirms these comments. “We were the ones who set the tone. It was our show, they were our actors,” he confesses. “Sometimes I would storm into the dressing room, throw a chair across the room and start screaming… You have to shake them,” he continues. “When they arrived on stage, the guests had to know what to say and even be ready to fight,” adds another.
Jerry Springer at the heart of a sex scandal
In 1998, Jerry Springer made headlines. The star host is at the heart of the turmoil after photos showing him in a hotel room with pornographic film stars – and ex-guests – were leaked. But for all that, the scandal does not taint the success of the show which continues to break audience records. “He was very lucky that the case was forgotten,” says Toby Yoshimura. “If it had happened now, he would have suffered the effects of cancel culture. »
-The show involved in a murder case?
The Netflix documentary unearths a dark criminal case in which “The Jerry Springer Show” would have its share of responsibility. In 2000, Nancy Campbell-Panitz, a single mother, participated in the show to win back her ex-husband, Ralf Panitz, then in a relationship with another woman. But when the tone rises, she prefers to leave the set without resorting to violence. For this, the production would have refused to pay for his return plane ticket.
A few months after recording, the show was broadcast on television. Her former husband, Ralf Panitz – under a restraining order due to domestic violence – watches the show while he is in a bar. Drunk, he then went to Nancy’s home and strangled her to death. “The police told me that someone attacked my mother, strangled her, threw her to the ground and stomped on her head. This was the cause of death,” testifies the victim’s son. They said it was one of the worst crime scenes they had ever seen. »
Aware of the devastation of the show he hosted, Jerry Springer wanted to make his mea culpa in 2014. “I would like to apologize for everything I did on television. I ruined the culture,” he said in a radio interview.
With “Jerry Springer: silence, engine, altercations”, Netflix sheds harsh light behind the scenes of a maligned show, broadcast in broad daylight, thus raising the question of the limits of entertainment and those responsible when the situation becomes uncontrollable.
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