The influence seeped over into politics, with the rise of Donald Trump, but Springer got there first. But Springer’s appeal to chaos influenced countless imitators, and, more crucially, the rise of so-called reality television, in which contestants chosen for their exhibitionism tried to outdo each other in humiliations and conflicts created and scripted by the producers. It wasn’t the first of its kind: Geraldo Rivera had evolved from news to trash, while Jenny Jones specialised in revealing guests’ sexual secrets. The Springer show ran from 1991 until 2018, nearly 5,000 episodes, and, at its peak in the late 1990s, passed Oprah as the most-watched daytime talkshow. “The truth is, in most cases, we get treated the way we permit ourselves to be treated,” he told us, and each show ended with Jerry advising us to “take care of yourselves, and each other”. Not just the ringmaster, Springer also tried to play the empathetic therapist, like Oprah Winfrey, but in a bar brawl.
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