UNITED KINGDOM: AMERICAN TELEVISION CHAT SHOW HOST JERRY SPRINGER ARRIVES FOR BRITISH TELEVISION CELEBRITY AUDIENCE PROGRAMME

Record ID: 704494

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: AMERICAN TELEVISION CHAT SHOW HOST JERRY SPRINGER ARRIVES FOR BRITISH TELEVISION CELEBRITY AUDIENCE PROGRAMME
  • Date: 6th March 1999
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (MARCH 3, 1999) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF THE GRAND THEATRE IN CLAPHAM JERRY SPRINGER FANS BEING COACHED TO SING HIS PRAISES PROMPT OR 'IDIOT' BOARD FANS QUEUING FRANK BRUNO FORMER HEAVY WEIGHT BOXER 'B' STARS ARRIVING JERRY SPRINGER HUGS HIS OWN IMAGE WIDE SHOT OF JERRY SPRINGER JERRY SPRINGER WITH PAULA YATES JERRY SPRINGER WALKS TO MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (English) JERRY SPRINGER SAYING: "It's the stupidest show on television. I know that. It's outrageous, but because it's so crazy people kind of enjoy it. It's chewing gum. That's all." (REUTERS REPORTER ASKS, DO THE BRITISH HAVE ANY PECULIAR PROBLEMS) "I think that British people are basically just like the Americans. Our television is different from your television. Our television is wilder that yours is, but your newspapers are wilder than ours. It kind of balances out, but people are the same all over". REPORTER: HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN THEY START FIGHTING WITH EACH OTHER?) "I'm glad I'm not in the middle of it. "(REPORTER ASKS ABOUT OPRAH'S RECENT COMMENTS) "I think Oprah's great. I love her, I think she's wonderful, she hates my show. That's fine you know, my mother would have hated my show and I love my Mom. I don't dislike somebody just because they hate my show." (ARE YOU GOING TO DO RICHARD AND JUDY HERE ENGLISH DAY TIME MAGAZINE SHOW?) I might it's a matter of working out the schedules, that's the problem. I've got to go back and do my own show. So if we can work something out, I would like to do it." (DO YOU BELIEVE IN ALIENS) "I am one." (WHAT WOULDN'T YOU DO ON YOUR SHOW) "I wouldn't do anything normal. Our show is about outrageousness, anything that's normal we send to another show." (WHAT DO YOU SAY TO PEOPLE THAT THINK IT'S BEEN FAKED?) "Our are real. About 95 per cent of our shows are real. Every once in a while someone sneaks on our show and makes up a story, but usually we catch them, I'd say about 95 per cent are real." ANOTHER LEVEL POSE FOR CAMERAS (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOBAK KIANOUSH FROM ANOTHER LEVEL (REUTERS REPORTER ASKS WOULD YOU LIKE TO GO ON JERRY'S SHOW?) "I don't have any issues I'd like to divulge to the world, thankfully. I believe in keeping everything in-house, that's the best way to deal with it, especially when you're in the public spotlight." MELANIE BLATT AND NATALIE APPLETON FROM ALL SAINTS CARESS IMAGE OF JERRY SPRINGER (SOUNDBITE) (English) BLATT SAYING: "I think it's amazing we love him. We love the fights, we loved Jerry before he came to England, because I used to live in the States...and the fights yes, the fights. (REUTERS REPORTER ASKS WHETHER THEY'LL BE GRILLING HIM TONIGHT?) We're going to rush onto the stage and fight...yeah, we're going to rape him." TARA PALMER TOMPKINSON SHOUTING 'JERRY SPRINGER' (SOUNDBITE) (English) TARA PALMER TOMPKINSON SHOUTING "This is Fran Cutler she's here and she's been telling us that she's been doing sexual things with Jerry Springer before the show. That's Fran."
  • Embargoed: 21st March 1999 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CLAPHAM, LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA4VOIGABQP69HNM6QVT864WJC4
  • Story Text: King of the American chat show, Jerry Springer has been in England this week, rattling teacups.The man who presides over family rows on screen had the tables turned on him on Wednesday evening when the presenter was himself given a grilling by British stars at a 'Celebrity Night out with Jerry Springer'.
    Love him or loathe him, Jerry Springer, King of tabloid TV, was given the grilling of his chat career when he turned up in South London for the British programme 'An Evening with Jerry Springer' on Wednesday night (March 3).
    Public Relations Officers zealously coached teenagers to sing a Jerry-style welcome with idiot boards, while a couple of fans eagerly awaited Jerry Springer's big entrance.
    Springer's arrival was met by a media scrum keen to ask him about the Jerry Springer show, hugely successful round the world.
    Springer said: "It's the stupidest show on television.
    I know that.It's outrageous, but because it's so crazy people kind of enjoy it.It's chewing gum.That's all."
    Springer's visit was to promote the first all British version of his show on the satellite and cable channel UK Living.But he said that British guests didn't have anything more unusual to confess than people in the States.
    The questions posed by reporters ranged from how he felt about critics of his programme, such as chat Queen Oprah Winfrey, to whether he was an alien.
    One thing that Springer said he would never do on his show was anything normal.
    But the presenter did admit that sometimes an occasional fake guest managed to slip onto his show.
    'An Evening with Jerry Springer' was attended by British celebrities such as former heavy weight boxer, Frank Bruno, English soap stars, Meg Mathews and all four members of 'All Saints'.
    Bobak Kianoush from pop group 'Another Level' told a Reuter reporter that he wouldn't like to go on the Springer show as he didn't want to air his dirty laundry in public.
    Melanie Blatt and Natalie Appleton said they were both Jerry fans and if they had half a chance they'd rape him on set.
    But it was the eccentric behaviour of the host of the show, Paula Yates, which caused the biggest stir.In her first TV assignment since the death of her lover Michael Hutchence, Yates fluffed her lines and even dropped her microphone.
    The show, recorded for UK living at the Clapham Grand Theatre and due to be aired in October, quickly descended into farce.
    Star guests in the VIP lounge carried on swilling free drinks right through the celebrity show and long into the night.
    British socialite, debutante and 'It' girl Tara Palmer-Tompkinson joked that her friend had been having a fling with Springer before the show, alluding to last year's exposee of Springer secretly filmed romping with a 21 year old porn star and her 28 year old step mother, the night before they appeared on his show.Springer blamed the episode on Viagra.
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