“Jerry Springer Wants His Privacy - The Daily Beast” plus 1 more

Jerry Springer Wants His Privacy - The Daily Beast

Posted: 18 Apr 2010 10:56 PM PDT

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He may play host to out-of-control oversharing on his wildly successful Jerry Springer Show and the new dating program Baggage, but the Maestro of Mayhem tells Lloyd Grove he doesn't want anyone in his business—and he doesn't have a sex tape.

Irony of ironies: Jerry Springer—who has made gazillions of dollars exploiting the perverse secrets and outrageous exhibitionism of his fellow human beings—is fiercely protective of his own privacy.

"People know virtually nothing about my personal life, which is good, and I like it that way," Springer tells me. "And my family likes it that way—they insist on it. You can't mix your personal life with your public life, because if you do that, you ruin both."

"If people want to come on the show, I tell them flat out, I would never do it," Springer says. "I'm just more private."

That seems a commonsensical approach to existence on earth, albeit a rule frequently flouted by Springer's fellow celebrities—to say nothing of the wretched souls who appear daily on The Jerry Springer Show, which is about to start its 20th season. (For a while there back in the last century, he was even beating Oprah in the ratings.)

You can call him the Maestro of Mayhem or the Titan of Too Much Information—or his more popular title, the King of Sleaze—but he is much more than that: I think of him as the Thomas Edison of Self-Reinvention. The son of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, Springer was born in wartime London (actually, in the Underground, in the East Finchley station) and immigrated to Queens, New York, at age 6. In his 66 years, Springer has been a presidential campaign worker for Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the mayor of Cincinnati, that city's top-rated local television news anchor, a lawyer, a Dancing With the Stars contestant, a country music recording artist, the inspiration for an eponymous hit musical in London: Jerry Springer: The Opera, and despite not being able to sing a note, an actor in the London production of the musical Chicago, playing sketchy lawyer Billy Flynn.

With his strangely likable persona, Springer has demonstrated an uncanny knack for finding the sweet spot in the zeitgeist, wherever it may be, and then mining that rich vein for all it's worth.

Now the syndicated television star is adding a new production to the Springer canon: He's the emcee of a dating show titled Baggage, premiering Monday at 6:30 p.m. on the Game Show Network.

The way Springer describes it, Baggage sounds like a cross between The Dating Game and Long Day's Journey into Night—wherein potentially terrible failings are revealed to a would-be hookup (and the studio audience) instead of the usual perky pleasantries.

"Normally on these dating shows, everybody's trying to sell themselves as to how great they are," Springer says. "Everybody's on their best behavior and you don't find out anything bad about them, and it's only later on in the relationship that you start to find out about what the flaws or annoyances are, or, even worse, things you just can't deal with."

Springer elaborates: "Let's say on one show, there's a guy and he's looking for a date, and three beautiful women come out, and they each have these three bags—small, medium, and large—and they get to open the bags one at a time. The guy may be leaning toward one woman or another, and all of sudden she opens her bag and he says, 'Oh boy, I can't live with that!' And then he starts looking at another woman and finds out what her baggage is. Finally, he selects one, but it's not over yet because then she decides whether she can handle his one big bag."

In the 40 episodes Springer has taped so far, the baggage has ranged from divorced with three kids to five months in jail, with the practice of witchcraft and Facebook stalking of exes thrown in for good measure.

"It can be crazy stuff, but whatever it is, the audience wants this couple to succeed," Springer says. "I can see people sitting around watching it, married couples having conversations among themselves, saying, 'I could never accept that,' and then they start talking about their own baggage in life. If this show catches on, I can see people actually having Baggage parties, where you have dates and everybody brings one piece of baggage that you're set to reveal."

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This week's couple: The candy man can! - New York Post

Posted: 18 Apr 2010 10:45 AM PDT

A.C., a 28-year-old tutor, proved he is quite the gentleman on his date with Jessica. Sure, Jessica, a 25-year-old sales and marketing associate, impressed A.C. with her appetite and muscles. But it was A.C. who had a trick up his sleeve. After dinner at the Latin eatery Agua Dulce in Hell's Kitchen, A.C. surprised her with her favorite candy: Skittles. He even drove her home. So did A.C. hit Jessica's sweet spot, or was he a little too sugary for her taste?

He said:

When I saw Jessica sitting at the bar, I thought she looked very attractive. Chatting with her felt very natural and the conversation flowed. We're both health-conscious and runners, so we bonded over our favorite foods and workouts. I found her athleticism to be a huge turn-on. She even let me feel how tight her arms are. It kind of made me wonder, "Wait, who's the guy here?"

Jessica's personality beamed, and it felt pretty good when I made her laugh. During dinner, Jessica suggested that we exchange numbers. I offered to drive her home, and just before I opened the door for her, I gave her a treat I had been saving. I remembered from her profile that she had a sweet tooth, so I brought her a bag of Skittles. She was very happy and surprised with her after-dinner treat. I had a great time with Jessica, and I know we'll be seeing each other again soon.

She said:

I had a really good feeling going into the date, and I ended up being absolutely right about it. Right away, I noticed that A.C. was outgoing, and I love when guys are talkative. He immediately started asking engaging questions — and it didn't hurt that he was really cute, too!

We spent a lot of time talking about our families, careers and favorite foods. We also found out that we're both Italian and runners. A.C. was a total gentleman, and before he drove me home he surprised me with a bag of Skittles. I thought the gesture was adorable and a really sweet touch. I love it when guys think outside the box and have little things up their sleeves. I gave him my number and let him know I was interested in seeing him again.

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