GO - JERRY!!!!!!!

On my last night in Chicago I was in the audience for the recording of the Jerry Springer show in the NBC Tower. It was an experience, but at times I kind of wished that I wasn't part of the spectacle! They can now use our audience responses (whoopin & a hollerin) for ANY Jerry show - if we were good enough.

As it turned out Jerry was still in California - he's the American Dancing with the Stars equivalent of our Rodney Hide - he keeps getting voted back on. So the show was hosted by Steve - the big, bald, ex police officer that is usually Jerry's head of security on stage - the guy that throws himself in between the fightin hillbillys.

I was told to report at 4.30, whereupon I joined a queue for 30 minutes before going through similar security to that of an international airport. I guess there were around 100 of us. We were then ushered into a waiting room for another 40 minutes or so. Once in the studio we got to watch a whole lot of the Too hot for TV Jerry clips and then the stage manager instructed us on how we should chant, whoop & holler & bay for blood if that became necessary. (eg when Steve entered the show we were to shout out Steeeeeeeeeve!!! ; not Steve-Steve-Steve as they do for Jerry - quite specific(!)).

The show was about this woman who wanted her daughter to dump her loser boyfriend (ex jailbird, druggie, hits her, etc ...) The boyfriend turned up with a big bruise on his eye that he got from his partner, so she gave as good as she got, or better apparently. Steve lectured the guy on how big a loser he was, and the girlfriend on how ignorant she was & that she should get her baby daughter away from him & get a life. The mother occasionally took swings at the guy & the guy himself took swings at everybody - mostly because he was being goaded by Steve & the audience. He couldn't win - apart from Steve, a fair portion of the audience wanted to smack him over too. I don't know who was worse - the loser boyfriend, or the audience members baying for blood!

Were they faking it? Maybe, it was hard to tell; they were pretty good actors if they were. The thing is, I actually hope they were.