Wednesday, May 10, 2000

$30M contract proves Springer's resilience

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        When we saw Jerry Springer a year ago, he was defending his talk show in front of hostile Chicago city aldermen, a program that Studios USA was rumored to have put on the block.

        Now he's signed a new $30 million extension for his daily Jerry Springer show through 2005, taped a game show pilot and hosted a variety talk show in London.

        Does this guy have more Teflon than Ronald Reagan?

        “The truth is: I just love doing what I'm doing,” he says in a telephone interview. “The company (Studios USA) is talking about a variety of things for me.”

Jerry Springer

        A year ago, he seemed to be on the ropes. Chicago leaders clamored for an end to the violence on his daytime talk show. Studio USA executives demanded the show be sanitized. At the same time, Mr. Springer was flirting with calling it quits to re-enter politics, eyeing Ohio's U.S. Senate seat.

        As for the Chicago city hearings, well, the former Cincinnati mayor and news anchor knows a little about politicians trying to make headlines.

        “They were just holding hearings,” says Mr. Springer, 56. “They never had any jurisdiction. It wasn't a serious issue.”

        Talk wasn't serious, either, about selling or ending the show.

        “It seemed to be more of an inside-the-business squabble,” he says about reports he was unhappy over the non-violence edict.

        “A year ago, there was never any thought to end the show. We made too much money. They would never end it.

        “But it was unclear the direction it would take. The big question was if the show got too tame, would people watch it. And that's not been the case.”

        Studio USA President Steve Rosenberg recently told Electronic Media magazine that his company has no plans to divest itself of the show, as reported a year ago by Variety.

        “All we've done is we've made a determination that we should be responsible,” Mr. Rosenberg says. “We're just making sure that what we're producing is good entertainment — that it's true to what we think the audience wants — but without violence. That's the line we drew in the sand. The show's still a hit, and we're happy with it.”

        Ratings have dropped this season, but all talk shows are down. He's second to Oprah Winfrey — and nearly as busy as Oprah.

        Once he decided to stick with TV for five years and forget about the Senate, he has been flooded with show business offers. You could say they're throwing everything but the kitchen chair at him:

        Game show: Studio USA is shopping One Against the World, a game show hosted by Mr. Springer, for later this year. Home viewers would play along via the Internet in a show from the producers of MTV's Singled Out.

        London show: Mr. Springer is commuting to England to tape four talk-variety shows.

        “It's the most amazing thing I've ever done. They treat it there like the Tonight Show,” he says.

        The invitation came after huge ratings for a one-shot London TV special last September. If the shows do big ratings, more will be ordered for fall, he says.

        Late-night show: Folks have talked about Mr. Springer hosting a Saturday late-night variety program here, similar to the old Jackie Gleason or Dean Martin shows.

        “Figuring that they have me (under contract) now, they've got all kinds of projects in the air,” he says. “But there's a limit to all the things I can possibly do.”

        All of this, because Multimedia executives in 1991 thought a Cincinnati news anchor could make it as a syndicated talk show host. It boggles the mind. His, too.

        “When we started (the talk show), it was for what, 13 weeks?” he says.

        Now he's set through 2005. It's wise not to bet against the former councilman who was elected Cincinnati mayor after resigning from office in a Northern Kentucky sex scandal. He has bounced back again, after his bosses took the fight out of him.

        “For better or worse, the (Springer) show has become part of the entertainment culture of America,” he says.

        “It's absolute craziness. It's so stupid. I can't believe it,” he says.

        “Those who hated it, still hate it. Those who loved it, still love it.”

        He's Teflon, isn't he?

John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. Write him at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati, 45202.