Springer was noted as a pioneer in the emergence of "trash TV"; his eponymous show was a "commercial smash and certifiable cultural phenomenon" in the 1990s.

[2] Born in London during World War II to Jewish refugees escaping the Holocaust, Springer was raised in Queens, New York City.

He attended Northwestern University School of Law, qualified as a lawyer, and first became actively involved in politics working for the campaign of Robert Kennedy in 1968.

[8] His parents, Margot (née Kallmann; a bank clerk) and Richard Springer (owner of a shoe shop), were Jewish refugees who escaped from Landsberg an der Warthe, Prussia (now Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland).

[9][10] His maternal grandmother, Marie Kallmann, was killed in the gas vans of Chełmno extermination camp in German-occupied Poland.

[8] His paternal grandmother, Selma Springer (née Elkeles), died at the hospital in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in German-occupied Czechoslovakia.

[8] Selma Springer's brother, Hermann Elkeles, was a renowned Berlin doctor who also died at Theresienstadt concentration camp.

[11] In January 1949, when Springer was five,[12] his family immigrated to the United States, settling in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens, a borough of New York City.

One of his earliest memories about current events was when he was 12 and watching the 1956 Democratic National Convention on television where he saw and was impressed by then-Senator John F.

He had previously spearheaded the effort to lower the voting age, including testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of ratification of the 26th Amendment.

Three days after announcing his candidacy, Springer, who was also an Army reservist at the time, was called to active duty and stationed at Fort Knox.

"[28][29] He failed to win the Democratic party's nomination—finishing a distant third behind former lieutenant governor Richard F. Celeste and Ohio Attorney General William J. Brown—and his political career was put on hold.

[35] Springer was hired as a political reporter and commentator on Cincinnati's NBC affiliate, WLWT, which had, at the time, the lowest-rated news program.

Later, having been named primary news anchor and managing editor, he needed a broadcast catchphrase in the model of other great newsmen.

For five years, he was the most popular news anchor in the city,[16] garnering ten local Emmy Awards for his nightly commentaries, which were frequently satirized by Cincinnati radio personality Gary Burbank.

However, this proved to be unpopular among viewers, as it resulted in the resignation of long-time news anchors Ron Magers and Carol Marin due to Springer's talk show.

[43] Guests were everyday people confronted on a television stage by a spouse or family member's adultery, homosexuality, transsexuality, prostitution, transvestism, hate group membership, or other controversial situations.

[57] Springer hosted America's Got Talent on NBC for its second and third seasons, replacing Regis Philbin,[58] before leaving to concentrate on other projects.

[68] Springer guest hosted the 22nd-season premiere episode of WWE Raw on September 8, 2014, in an attempt to conduct an intervention with The Bella Twins.

[70] After a few years of his US talk show being broadcast in the UK, ITV1 approached Springer, who temporarily co-hosted This Morning with Judy Finnigan in March 1999[71][72] and again in 2000.

In summer 1999, ITV made 12 episodes of the UK-based version of the series, Jerry Springer UK, filmed at the same studios as his US show.

Al Bundy and his friends tie Springer to a chair and take over his show with a stripper who jumps up and down for the crowd's delight.

[83][84] Springer starred in the 1998 film Ringmaster as a talk show host largely based on himself, though named "Jerry Farrelly".

"[85] Four years later, Springer appeared in Brad Paisley's music video "I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)" where the host is trying to stop a fight between men who like to fish and the wives who do not.

[87] In June 2012, he appeared in Chicago at the Cambridge Theatre London as Billy Flynn for a short period of time, starring alongside Aoife Mulholland and Leigh Zimmerman.

In 1998, he voiced a cartoon version of himself in the "Starship Poopers" segment of The Simpsons Halloween episode, Treehouse of Horror IX.

[103] Although many students had criticized the university's choice of speaker, he received a standing ovation from about half the audience and reviews of his speech were generally positive.

[108] In 2006, Springer donated $230,000 to Park School in Evanston, where his daughter worked as an assistant teacher, to help construct a high-tech facility called "Katie's Corner" for students with disabilities.

He was buried at Memorial Park Cemetery, Skokie, Illinois, U.S.[114] During and after his career, Springer and his program quickly became a cultural phenomenon, with commentators describing the show as central to the emergence of trash TV.

[117] The BBC noted that Springer had televised the "fringes of [American] society to a global audience" and called him an "era-defining TV host".