Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Arts myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.When Jerry Springer left a career in politics and got his first job in TV as a news anchor, he came up with a catchphrase he would use for decades to come. “Take care of yourself and each other,” he would say as the credits rolled, a warm sentiment that would ring somewhat hollow in his next job as host of The Jerry Springer Show.For nearly 30 years, Springer — who died in 2023 — presided over a daytime TV series in which friends, lovers and family members aired their dirty linen in front of baying audiences and which would often descend into fisticuffs (the series took to keeping bouncers on set). The Jerry Springer Show was a TV phenomenon, at its peak overtaking queen of daytime Oprah Winfrey in the ratings. Yet its critics saw its increasingly explosive stories of adultery, incest, white supremacy and sexual deviancy — you may recall the man who married a pony — as a new entertainment low. The podcast Final Thoughts: Jerry Springer documents the rise of the show and its controversial host. It is written and presented by Leon Neyfakh, the brains behind hit podcasts Slow Burn, Fiasco and Think Twice. If you’ve heard any of those, you will know the meticulousness with which Neyfakh handles his subject matter. That attention to detail is evident here as he consults a range of people who knew, worked with or were guests of Springer, stitching together their testimony in a thoughtful and compelling narrative that, though familiar, still has the capacity to surprise.Naturally, Springer had his detractors and defenders. In the former camp is a once homeless woman who went on the show with the promise of $200 and a chance to tell her story; in the event she was demonised and, she claims, left with half the promised fee. And in the latter camp is producer Melinda Chait Mele, who says: “A lot of people wanted to come on The Jerry Springer Show and a lot of people wanted to watch it. So what do I have to be ashamed of?”Neyfakh’s series is unfortunately timed, coming months after a Netflix documentary on the same topic. But where the TV series gives only cursory attention to the ethics and long-term impact of The Jerry Springer Show, Final Thoughts digs deeper, contemplating, among other things, the repercussions of children coming home from school to watch families throwing chairs at one another on TV. It is also an insightful character study as it reveals the competing aspects of Springer’s career and personality: the multimillionaire ringmaster of a tawdry TV circus who was also a dyed-in-the-wool liberal (and one-time mayor of Cincinnati) who longed to return to public service. Perhaps David Leland, former Ohio state representative, puts it best when he says: “We make our choices and we live with our choices. He certainly did that.”audible.co.uk
