What Oprah Winfrey Has Said About The Jerry Springer Show -

Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action
reveals some insightful details about the show that overtook The Oprah Winfrey Show in the late 1990s and 2000s, including some comments by the Queen of All Media herself. While both The Jerry Springer Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show were popular talk shows that were characterized as tabloid talk shows, the two couldn’t be more different. The Oprah Winfrey Show began airing in 1986, and within a relatively short time, the show swept the nation and became the most-viewed talk show of that era.

Jerry Springer’s show began airing in late 1991, and like many other contemporary talk shows, it tried to carve out some space in the talk show landscape, but never expected to come close to competing with Oprah Winfrey, which regularly pulled in tens of millions of viewers per episode. However, when The Jerry Springer Show took off, it not only managed to compete, but actually overthrew Oprah’s talk show, which also appears to be around the time when Oprah began to have more vocal opinions about the controversial competition.

The Jerry Springer Show Was The First Talk Show To Beat The Oprah Winfrey Show In Ratings

Oprah Winfrey Was The Undisputed Queen Until Jerry Springer’s Rise

As seen in the Netflix documentary, when The Jerry Springer Show changed the formula to focus on more scandalous and outrageous content, the show was able to pull itself out of the bleak hours of the early morning, and finally land a spot during peak hours. In fact, The Jerry Springer Show went from being in a cursed 2 am slot to getting two slots running the same show during the day, and then again in the night, where some viewers first found the show. This also meant the show was able to get double viewing figures, with a second chance to grab audience attention.

25 Wild Details About The Oprah Show

Oprah is one of the best-known personalities on television but there are some wild details behind her show and rise to fame.

Up to this point, The Oprah Winfrey Show stood in a league of its own, while other talk shows struggled to get 2 million or more viewers to stay relevant. But Jerry Springer’s change in approach led to the show becoming wildly popular, and becoming the first talk show to actually outpace Oprah (via MSNBC). While both shows battled for the higher ratings in the late 1990s, the popularity of these types of talk shows began to decline more generally in the 2000s, with Oprah eventually wrapping up in 2011, and The Jerry Springer Show continuing to attract curious viewers through to its cancelation in 2018.

Oprah Publicly Criticized The Jerry Springer Show

Oprah Was No Fan Of Jerry Springer’s Circus

In the wake of The Jerry Springer Show overtaking The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1998 and 1999, the media took an interest in finding out exactly what both hosts thought about the situation. And for Oprah, it clearly hit a nerve. While both shows brought in people who were vulnerable and asked them to bare it all, the approach was evidently different. Oprah did not appear intent on publicly shaming her guests, while Jerry Springer frequently lobbed insults at unruly guests, and brawls broke out regularly.

As a result, when Oprah was asked about the situation, she responded with exasperation and frustration about the state of talk shows, and whether she felt she fit in that space any longer: “I am all talked out. My contract has two years left, then I am getting out of such shows, because I feel they are going to burn themselves out.” Oprah also had some choice words to say about Jerry Springer’s show, which she described as a “vulgarity circus” (via TheThings). And on another occasion, while stating the differences between her show and Jerry Springer, Oprah said: “Confessing and baring your soul is one thing. Baring your penis is another” (via The FreePress).

What Jerry Springer Said About Oprah’s Criticisms Surrounding His Show

Jerry Springer Took The Criticism Well

Despite Oprah having a strong opinion about The Jerry Springer Show and the show he hosted, Springer did not try to retaliate. In fact, many of his responses to Oprah’s harsh words saw him uplift and praise Oprah. He complimented her work, praised her ability to communicate, and her values, and even suggested that Oprah could make a strong candidate for the U.S. Presidency.

The fact is, Springer was likely very aware that his show was not in the same realm as Oprah’s, and seeing the two compared and conflated came as a surprise. What Jerry Springer brought to the world of TV was mind-numbing entertainment that highlighted some of the worst aspects of humanity. Yes, it was engaging, and the headlines always pulled viewers in, but the show as a whole was not important or valuable. The Oprah Winfrey Show tried to make a difference, and when looking at Oprah’s career and legacy, it genuinely did, so conflating her work with The Jerry Springer Show seems redundant.