Born Gerald Norman Springer, Jerry Springer is a British-born American actor, journalist, producer, former lawyer as well as politician. He gained popularity as the host of the tabloid talk show called “The Jerry Springer Show,” from 1991 to 2018.
In this article, we will cover Jerry Springer’s net worth, early and personal life, and career highlights.
Jerry Springer’s Net Worth
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Jerry Springer has an estimated net worth of $60 million. At the peak of his show, he earned a yearly salary of $8 million.
Early Life
Jerry Springer was born in Highgate, London on February 13, 1944. He indeed took birth in the London Underground station of Highgate since people were taking cover from the German bombing during World War II.
Unfortunately, a number of his family members apparently died in concentration camps, along with his maternal grandmother. In January 1949, the family emigrated to New York and rooted in Queens.
He went to Forest Hills High School and in 1965, he got his undergraduate degree from Tulane University, later in 1968, a J.D. from Northwestern University. When Springer was an undergraduate at Tulane University, he started working as a broadcaster on WTUL New Orleans FM, a college radio station.
Personal Life
In 1973, Jerry tied the knot with Micki Velton and the couple welcomed their first child, a daughter, Katie Springer in 1976. After almost 18 years of marriage, the duo divorced in 1994. He prefers to stay tight-lipped about his private life. He is a fan of the New York Yankees and goes to watch their home games occasionally.
During his shows on “The Jerry Springer Show”, his audiences chanted “Jerry, Jerry” and this practice has persisted on “Judge Jerry.”
Jerry recorded the album entitled “Dr. Talk” for Fiddle Fish Records in 1995, which majorly included country music covers.
Jerry featured on “Dancing with the Stars.” He collaborated with Kym Johnson on Season 3 of the well-known show. He allegedly aspired to participate in the show in order to learn to waltz for his daughter Katie’s wedding. Jerry was evicted in Week 7 of the competition.
In May 2008, he delivered the Northwestern University School of Law commencement address and got a standing ovation from nearly half of the audience and also received usually positive reviews for his speech.
Later, he said that his speech was regarding “the ethical judgments we all have to make in whatever business we go into.”
In the same year, he left Chicago, where he recorded his show since 1991, for Stamford, Connecticut.
He traveled from his home in Sarasota, Florida to Connecticut to shoot episodes of “Judge Jerry” every Monday and Tuesday. Further, he taped a podcast every week at some other studio in Kentucky. He tours across the United States in favor of Democratic candidates for political office.
Jerry owns a four-bedroom, five-bathroom home on Bird Key, Florida near Sarasota and it is worth more than $2 million.
Career
After he completed college, Jerry started working at a law firm in Ohio. Later, he kicked off his political career. He also briefly served as a campaign adviser to Robert Kennedy.
Following Kennedy’s murder, Jerry went on to practice law in Cincinnati where he was appointed to the city council in 1973. Meanwhile, he began his career in broadcasting, majorly as a news anchor and political commentator.
He ran to be the 56th Mayor of Cincinnati successfully and apparently served from the period 1977 to 1978. He ran for governor of Ohio in 1982 but didn’t win his party’s nomination.
When he was serving as mayor of Cincinnati, he had featured commentaries named “The Springer Memorandum” on radio station WEBN-FM. The success of these commentaries took off his career in broadcasting.
He was recruited by the NBC affiliate in Cincinnati, WLWT where he worked as a political reporter. When he was hired, it was the lowest-rated news program in Cincinnati.
After two years, he became a renowned news anchor and went on to be popular for the next 5 years. He received 10 local Emmys for his stellar work.
In September 1991, “The Jerry Springer Show” aired and it was created to seem like “The Phil Donahue Show.” The show started as a political talk show and features several guests like Jesse Jackson and Oliver North.
Later, in 1994, he and his new producer switched the show’s format to more salacious tabloid matters in pursuit of better ratings. Generally, guests were encountered by a spouse or family member with a revelation to make that resulted in scripted violence and noise on stage.
However, that formula eventually worked and by 1998, “The Jerry Springer Show” became more popular than “Oprah Winfrey Show” in several cities.
He became the host for the second and third seasons of the famous reality show titled “America’s Got Talent” replacing Regis Philbin. After Jerry left, Nick Cannon took on the host of “AGT” for the next 8 seasons.
Jerry served as the executive producer of “The Steve Wilkos Show,” in which Steve Wilkos, a then Chicago police officer and the long-time head of security on Jerry’s talk show, served as the host.
At the time of writing this piece, there have been 2,000 episodes of “The Steve Wilkos Show” across 13 seasons.
His talk show is also well known in the United Kingdom, which prompted broadcast network ITV to propose Springer to co-host “This Morning with Judy Finnigan” in 1999. In 2000, he filled in again and also made 12 episodes of a U.K. version of his show.
He shot “Jerry Springer UK” in the same studio as his American show and further, he also had an ITV series named “Springer” that premiered 5 episodes in May and June 2000 in the United Kingdom.
Later, the U.K.’s Channel 5 picked up the show and renamed it “Late Night with Jerry Springer.” From 2000 to 2001, 2 seasons consisted of 16 episodes in total.
In 2016, he also covered the U.S. presidential election for ITV’s “Good Morning Britain.”
On July 26, 2018, “The Jerry Springer Show” premiered its last new episode and it ran for a long 28 years. From 1999 to 2009, it was recorded in Chicago, and from 2009 to 2018, in Stamford, Connecticut.
Soon, reruns began on the CW network, which holds the rights to make new episodes of “The Jerry Springer Show.”
The courtroom show “Judge Jerry” aired on September 9, 2019, and later a renewal for a second season was announced that aired in early February 2020.
We will keep you updated with all the latest information until then stay tuned to our website.