Jerry Springer’s run on talk TV may be at its end

In the early 1990s, a television talk show host with dismal ratings was walking with his producer down Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. They had a problem.

Dozens of similarly formatted programs were clawing for the same prize — the attention of middle-aged women sitting in front of a TV during the afternoon — or at least the scraps of that prize left behind by Oprah Winfrey. Competition was fierce. It was hard to stand out.

Then the host had a eureka moment that changed television for good.

“Let’s go young,” Jerry Springer told his producer, suggesting his eponymous talk show lower its sights to a younger demographic of high schoolers and college students.

“We said, from now on, young people in the audience ... young people onstage, young subject matter,” Springer explained to Rosie O’Donnell in 2012. “Well, young people are just much wilder in their personal lives, much more open, much more emotional. So the show started to go crazy.”

Ever since, Springer has been the king of daytime talk, a lowbrow P.T. Barnum who took the format from sober issues-oriented discussions to fistfights, paternity tests, and episodes with titles such as “I’m a Breeder for the Klan” and “I Married a Horse.” Critics attacked. Millions watched.

Now, after 27 seasons and nearly 4,000 episodes, Springer’s television run could be ending. After months of cancellation rumors, this week the 74-yearold host discussed the program’s fate with ET’s Kevin Frazier.

“We’ve stopped production of the show,” Springer said, adding that a contract with the CW Network means older shows will continue to air. A handful of new episodes that have already been taped will also run.

If you diced the TV host’s own life into Springer-like episodes, you would get quite a mix: His parents barely escaped the Holocaust. They were Polish Jews who left for London just before the Nazis closed the borders. He was born in London in 1944 and immigrated to New York City with his family at 5.

He worked as a lawyer in Cincinnati, eventually winning a seat on city council in 1971 when he was only 27. Springer resigned in 1974 when he admitted to hiring a prostitute at a Kentucky health club; two personal checks used as payment for sex tied him to the establishment after it was raided by the FBI.

Still, he was reelected to council a year later, and then elected mayor in 1977. After two terms and a failed campaign for Ohio governor, Springer launched a second act as a local television news anchor. Then, in September 1991, “The Jerry Springer Show” debuted. The first episode was about reuniting a family. Jesse Jackson and Oliver North were early guests.

It wasn’t until Springer retooled the concept for the younger eyes that his audience ballooned, becoming the birthplace of reality television; his warts-and-all socioeconomic voyeurism can be traced to “16 and Pregnant” and “Jersey Shore;” the fistfights breaking out on nearly every “Real Housewife” reunion started with Springer.

Technically, the show has not been canceled. As the host told ET, past episodes will continue to run on CW for “another two, three years.” If the audience watches, the network could renew its interest.