There is no line,” Richard Dominick, the revolutionary and reviled brain behind The Jerry Springer Show, once said. “If I could kill someone on television I would execute them.”
Dominick, a former tabloid hack known for his outrageous (and spurious) headlines, was hired onto Jerry Springer in 1991, but it was only when he took over as executive producer three years later – amid dismal ratings and the threat of cancellation – that his ethos took hold. Within a matter of months, Jerry Springer was transformed from a by-the-numbers daytime talk show to a sleazy, cynical ratings hit. It took “trash TV” to shocking new lows, and made itself an American institution in the process.
