Netflix's Jerry Springer documentary fails to explore lots of strange ...

In an episode of the NPR radio programme This American Life about Springer’s storied pre-TV days, one contributor describes his ability to walk into a room of Republicans and make the case against the war in Vietnam in a way that wouldn’t change their minds about the subject at hand, but would leave just about everyone in the room liking and respecting him.

One can easily imagine how Springer’s show may have traded on this likability, getting away with all sorts of morally reprehensible shenanigans under the cover of its host’s seemingly irresistible smile, a host whose name the audience chanted at the start of every episode. If Jerry was ok with what was going on, then surely they could be too? So they watch, the show gets good ratings, the whole thing marches on.

This background information also foregrounds a certain teflon-like quality he seemed to possess, which may have been similarly crucial to the show’s endurance. Springer got himself embroiled in another sex scandal while hosting the show, when he was found to have slept with a guest – an ethical line-crossing that even the producers interviewed for the documentary condemn. And he just brushed it off, and on they went.

This feels completely incompatible with the Kennedy-like politician so many describe Springer as being in his earlier days. So who was the real Jerry Springer? How much did he know about what was going on, and how comfortable did he feel with what he did know?

Did he know that producers would threaten to withhold a plane ticket home from guests who wouldn’t fully cooperate with their wishes? Did he know that the guest-on-guest violence for which the show became so infamous was not just some accidental by-product of the heated discussion that would often happen on-air, but an actual goal of many of the show’s producers?

That the documentary leaves these questions unanswered is a genuine shame. They are addressed fleetingly, but as no more than a quick box-ticking exercise.

Springer having died in 2023, the obvious excuse is that he wasn’t available to be interviewed – but here was an opportunity for the people who were intimately familiar with the exact nature of his involvement with the show to finally tell us, honestly, about that involvement without fear of upsetting the man, and contribute to our understanding of a deeply complicated and fascinating individual while providing some unique insight into how one of the most remarkable and morally-contentious TV shows ever made was able to happen.

As it stands, Springer remains something of a mystery. He once claimed, with typical contradiction, that he wouldn’t want to live in a country that watched his show. What a statement. What on earth did he mean by it? Sadly, we may never know.

Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action is available to stream now on Netflix.