Jerry Springer Show Cancellation, Media Reaction

SPRINGER'S SPIN

Trashmeister Claims He's "Too Busy" To Continue Show







While we have no doubt that Jerry Springer's career really has taken off since his well- regarded recent appearances on TV's Dancing With The Stars, several Radio Equalizer readers have pointed out the free pass he's received from the media over the cancellation of his liberal talk radio show.

Rather than point out the obvious failure of his "progressive" program, the AP and other media outlets have allowed him to make excuses, such as a lack of commitment to the show:

CINCINNATI (AP) — Jerry Springer ended his syndicated radio show Tuesday after nearly two years, saying he's too busy with other projects that developed following his seven-week stint on TV's Dancing with the Stars.

Springer made no mention in the opening minutes that the show would be his last, instead launching into a critique of what he called George Bush's "runaway presidency that has so destabilized the Middle East while at the same time endangering America."

Later, he kidded with his "Team Springer" sidekicks, saying he hoped they found jobs, and told one caller he might consider running for office some day.

Although it was the last of Springer's live shows, reruns will be aired the rest of the week while Springer gets ready for his daughter's wedding on Saturday, he said.

Springer said it was the wedding that led him to go on Dancing with the Stars so he could learn to waltz with his daughter. He became an audience favorite, and that led to many other business opportunities, he said.

"These things are not going to come around again, partic- ularly at my age, so I might as well take advantage of them," said Springer, 62.

Springer said he is filming a Bud Light commercial next week, has been asked to play a recurring character on the George Lopez ABC sitcom, and in February will play a rabbi in the movie God Only Knows.

"Radio is a full-time job, and I honestly don't devote the time that I should to radio," Springer said. "I can't do the job if I'm not going to do it seriously."

Springer, a former mayor and news anchor in Cincinnati, began TV's trashy Jerry Springer Show in Cincinnati in 1991, later moving production to Chicago. He started the daily radio show in Cincinnati in January 2005, saying he would bring unabashed liberal views to talk radio.

Syndication peaked at 53 stations, and remained on about two dozen in its final week.

Only in that last line is there any hint that the show might not have been succeeding, but the story abruptly ends there. Can you imagine a high profile conservative's failure to catch on generating this kind of mainstream media sympathy?

Another point not made is that Springer's show was actually yanked off the schedule months ago, but continued in syndicated form until this week. We first reported on that development back in August.


What's important to monitor here is how the mainstream media, which provided Air America Radio with so much free publicity in its first two years on the air, is now busy covering up liberal talk radio's colossal failures with these kinds of excuses.

As for Springer, we know he's a political animal at heart, so one can imagine we'll see him return to the fray at some point down the road.

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Springer photo: ABC