After 4,000 episodes, halt for Jerry Springer’s show
Fallon reveals personal pain
NEW YORK, June 21, (Agencies): Somehow it doesn’t seem right for Jerry Springer to exit quietly.
There should be one last thrown chair or a bleep-filled tirade, at the very least. Instead, it was announced with no fanfare this week that he will stop making new episodes of his memorably raucous talk show, and neither Springer nor his bosses will talk about it.
“The Jerry Springer Show” won’t fully disappear; NBC Universal said this week that the CW and other networks that have bought the show in syndication will air reruns of the slugfest. Producers said “there is a possibility” that more original episodes could be ordered sometime in the future but, since they wouldn’t answer questions, it’s not known how serious that possibility is.
At its heyday in the 1990s, Springer’s show challenged Oprah Winfrey for daytime television supremacy with TV studios filled with seething spurned lovers, gender fluid guests before that was a term and pretty much anyone who was spoiling for a fight. It even provoked serious end-of-civilization-as-we-know-it talk.
Springer, a former Cincinnati mayor who realized he had to do something to distinguish himself in a competitive market, was the low-key ringmaster who didn’t take himself too seriously and let you know he was in on the joke.
During an interview with The Associated Press at his show’s 25th anniversary three years ago, Springer said that anyone could do his job if they learned three phrases: “You did what?” “Come on out!” and “We’ll be right back.” He presided over 4,000 episodes.
Some of his shows last month illustrated that the formula hadn’t changed much: “Straight,” “… My Twin Sister,” “My Bestie is Stalkin’ You,” “Hooking Up With My Therapist” and “Babes.”
After more than 4,000 episodes, it’s hard for things to register on the outrage meter. Between reality television and the verbal slugfests of cable television news, there are plenty of places viewers can turn for experiences that fill the role that Springer once did.
“He was lapped not only by other programs but by real life,” said David Bianculli, a television historian and professor at Monmouth University. At this point, asking to talk about Springer’s legacy is a little like commenting on an obituary for someone you forgot was alive, he said. Only very dedicated viewers may be able to tell next fall that they’re not watching an original episode.
“There was a time that Jerry Springer was running at a minimum of two times a day,” said Bill Carroll, a veteran analyst of the syndication market. “Realistically, I don’t think the audience is able to look at the show and say, ‘that’s one from this year, or two years ago or four years ago.’ It has become so homogenous.”
Jimmy Fallon is opening up about the personal anguish he felt following the backlash to his now-infamous hair mussing appearance with Donald Trump.
The host of “The Tonight Show” tells The Hollywood Reporter he “made a mistake” and apologized “if I made anyone mad.” He adds that he “would do it differently” looking back on the Sept 15, 2016 episode.
Trump opponents criticized Fallon for a cringeworthy interview only weeks before the election where Fallon playfully stroked Trump’s hair. Fallon’s show eventually lost more than one-fifth of its audience and its latenight crown to ’s new and more political “The Late Show” for CBS.
Fallon said in a Hollywood Reporter podcast that he wasn’t approving of Trump or his beliefs just because he joked with him: “I did not do it to ‘normalize’ him or to say I believe in his political beliefs or any of that stuff.”
The talk show host has discussed the episode before, explaining in a 2017 interview with Vanity Fair that he was just “trying to have fun” with Trump, but revealed that he was “devastated” to learn that people had a negative reaction. He also told The New York Times: “If I let anyone down, it hurt my feelings that they didn’t like it. I got it.”
“Universal Soldier” and “The Expendables” star Dolph Lundgren will challenge contestants to complete physical and mental challenges in “The Tower,” a new actionmovie-inspired entertainment format for ITV in the UK.
Lundgren will soon be seen in “Aquaman” and “Creed 2.” He will host “The Tower,” which sees contestants take on a combination of physical challenges and quiz questions that draw on action movies and their tropes. Contestants attempt to reach the top of the titular tower to win.
The six-part series of hour-long episodes is being made for the ITV4 channel by British producer Twofour, which is behind formats such as “This Time Next Year.”
“This is probably the most bonkers idea we’ve had the good fortune to make,” said Melanie Leach, the production company’s chief executive. “But in the words of the A Team, it’s so crazy, it just might work.”
The show was commissioned by Amanda Stavri for ITV and will be executive produced by Twofour’s Leach, Andrew Mackenzie and Rachel Watson.
Ben Robson, best known for playing Craig Cody in TNT’s “Animal Kingdom,” has joined “Emperor,” the Civil War-abolitionist film directed by former Lionsgate exec Mark Amin under his Sobini Films banner, sources have confirmed to Variety.
Dayo Okeniyi, James Cromwell, Naturi Naughton, Paul Scheer, Keean Johnson, Mykelti Williamson, Harry Lennix, Kat Graham, and Bruce Dern round out the cast.
Inspired by a true story, the pic follows Shields Green (Okeniyi), who in 1859 escaped from a plantation and made a daring journey north where he met Frederick Douglass (Lennix) and John Brown. With the opportunity to continue to freedom in Canada, Green instead chose to fight to end slavery. The raid at Harpers Ferry is considered one of the sparks that led to the Civil War.
Robson will play the bounty hunter in pursuit of Green.
The film, co-written by Amin and Pat Charles, is currently shooting in Savannah, Ga. Reginald Hudlin is producing for Hudlin Entertainment with Cami Winikoff and Amin for Sobini, while Sobini’s Tyler Boehm will serve as executive producer. UTA is handling domestic sales.
Apple Inc has ordered multiple live-action and animated series from Emmy awardwinning children’s television producer Sesame Workshop, a source close to the agreement said on Wednesday.
It is the first move by Apple to add children’s programming to its growing slate of original television shows in development for worldwide distribution. The long-running “Sesame Street” is not part of the agreement, the source said.
Apple has not revealed when the shows will be released or how people will be able to watch them. The new programming agreement calls for Sesame Workshop to produce live-action and animated series and to develop a puppet series, the source said.