Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Springer Talks To Fancast.com

Chocolate, potato chips and burgers are some of the junk foods Americans are addicted to. Oh, and Jerry Springer. America seems also seems to have an insatiable appetite for the endless line up of cheating husbands and baby mama drama he serves up on The Jerry Springer Show as if he were working the drive-thru window at MacDdonalds. If you haven’t seen Springer or if you’re already a fan, buckle up, click here, and enjoy. But there’s more to Springer than his trademarked tabloid trash. The 64-year-old talk show host and former Mayor of Cincinnati also hosts the second season of NBC’s America’s Got Talent (on this Tuesday) and he was recently tapped by the Donald (aka Donald Trump) to host July 13th’s Miss Universe pageant, where he’ll be partnered with another Dancing With The Stars loser, former Spice Girl Mel B. Fancast.com’s Debbie L. Sklar caught up with Springer, who, she found, is never at a loss for words or opinions.

Q: Your schedule is outrageous …
A: Yeah, but if I keep moving, they can’t find me [he laughs].

Q: Where are you right now?
A: I’m at my home in Sarasota, Fla., then tomorrow, I am in Chicago taping the show, then next week, I am in L.A … It’s a lot of fun and I am very lucky and I’m just riding it out while I can.

Q: Do you call Florida your main home ?
A: Yes, but I am in Chicago, and Ohio, and LA, too, and New York because of the business.

Q: Have you kept up your waltzing and cha-cha since appearing on Dancing With The Stars?
A: Of course not! I don’t know how to dance. The thing is that you really don’t learn how to dance; they choreograph a routine. You have to learn quickly and you only find out after the Wednesday night ‘Results’ show [if you aren’t leaving] what the dance will be for the next week.

Q: How difficult was that schedule for you?
A: Well, I only had two days to learn a dance because we tape the Jerry Springer Show twice a week. Kym [Johnson, his dance partner] would choreograph the routine that we did to a certain song. If they didn’t play that song, I would have no idea what to do.

Q: Are you still in touch with Kym?
A: Yes, she is a really nice person.

Q: She left early on though …
A: Yes, I keep telling her that she should stop dancing with all of these old guys and she may have a better chance.

[Watch Springer's episode of The Simpsons]

Q: Would you do the show again if asked?
A: Well, probably not. It really is a show for younger people; I was 35 years older than anyone in the competition. It is absurd; people were nice to me – they either voted for me because they wanted to hurt me or they thought it was funny to see me slobber around the floor. But, truly, it really is a competition for younger people who can do it all. I was limited but it was fun. The more I begged to be voted off, the more people voted to keep me on. I decided the last week not to say anything.

Q: People saw you in a different light on DWTS didn’t they?
A: I think what happened — and I didn’t realize it at the time but in hindsight — even though I’ve been on TV for 30 years, I have always played a role … either the mayor or the crazy talk show host or a news anchor. So, DWTS was the first time I was ever on TV as myself with no role to play.

Q: So, how did that play out?
A: Well, viewers thought they knew me because they have seen me for years. But that person was never me. I think they were surprised and that’s why I had an impact. I think if I had been an unknown, and danced the same way, I probably would have been off the first week. It was the surprise factor that ‘gee, he’s just a normal guy.’”

Q: You mean the Jerry we saw on DWTS is the real Jerry?
A: Totally, it was me schlepping around on DTWS. On my show, I am supposed to be a crazy talk show host – I try to tell silly jokes and I have outrageous guests. That’s a different environment, what you saw on DWTS it was me a normal person who tried to dance but can’t.

Q: How many Springer shows have there been to date?
A: About 3,400 shows.

Q: Do you have a favorite?
A: It’s all silly. What really makes the show is the personality of the guests. If the guests are wild and have a personality, then we have a great show. The subject matter is basically always the same – I couldn’t pick out a favorite – they are all nuts.

Q: What does your show say about our culture?
A: What has become very clear to me over the 18 years that I have been doing the show is that people are really all alike.

Q: What do you mean?
A: Well, the only difference between people is that some of us dress better or are richer or we’re given a luckier draw at birth in terms of who our parents would be. Or, whether or not we were born with a nice brain. In other words, it’s all a gift from G-d but basically, we are all alike. Everyone on the show wants to be happy, they get upset when they hurt, and then they cry when they get hurt.

Q: So, you mean to say that when celebrities do something out of the ordinary, we as a society seem to like it but when regular people do it, we are more apt to make fun?
A: Yes, in terms of revealing what’s going on in their life. For example, take Barbara Walters, who I love. She talks about everything… so what’s the difference? Celebrities do it all the time. When rich people or celebrities talk about their private lives, we can’t get enough of it. If people of low income talk about their personal lives we call them trash. It is nothing but elitism.

Q: In 200 years, what do you think the sociologists will say about your show?
A: I don’t think it’s the show they will be talking about per se; all they would have to do is read the newspapers. There is nothing that we can do on our show that beats today’s headlines.

Q: What do you mean?
A: The most outrageous things in society happen when you watch the TV news or read the newspapers. Those are the ones that have the real scandals. When they [ the sociologists] make a judgment on our society, I think they will judge what is in our newspapers during this era. In the time capsule, nothing we do on our show competes with today’s papers or evening news – whether it is 9/11 or a scandal… you just can’t find things more unbelievable than the stories we read every day.

[How much do you know about Jerry? Read about his fascinating life.]

Q: People think your show is staged and that the guests are actors …
A: Well, I’m sure some people might say that but it isn’t true. If you are at the show, you realize that.

Q: Do you get tired of the crazy antics on the show?
A: I don’t really even think about it; it’s two days a week I tape and it’s not like it’s a difficult job. The best part about it is that it gives me time to do the things that I like to do.

Q: Such as?
A: I spend most of my time doing politics, but then I also host America’s Got Talent. We are getting ready for the auditions so that takes a lot of time. I also do some shows in England.

Q:Do you think the Springer show will continue?
A: It will go on as long as I want to do it; there’s always a niche for it. At some point, I will probably go to them and say I’ve had enough. But for now, I enjoy it so there is no reason to stop.

Q: How did you get the America’s Got Talent gig?
A: Simon [Cowell] called me, and he said they were making a change .. they originally had Regis [Philbin] … Simon wanted to know if I would be interested in hosting … it is the flagship show of NBC’s in the summer. I said yes, and last year when we did it; it went gangbusters and they asked me to do it again.

Q: What is Simon like to work with?
A: He is great. He plays a different character on TV, but in person, he is wonderful. He is brilliant in terms of keeping his finger on the pulse of Pop culture, and not just in America, but in England, too.

Q: Do you have any special talents?
A: No, I don’t. I think I am a nice guy, but I don’t have any talent, That’s what is so weird, no one would have picked me out at high school or college and said this guy is going to be in show business. That’s why it is so absurd because I was quiet and other than my politics, I was in the background.

Q: What happens when people see you on the streets today?
A: ‘Jerry, Jerry,’ [he chants] … but I understand that because I am in their homes twice a day and have been for the last 18 years. In Ohio, it’s the past 30 years, everyone thinks they know me.

Q: Who are you voting for?
A: I’m a Democrat, and I have been a Hillary [Clinton] supporter for years. I always thought Hillary would be the best president, but she didn’t turn out to be the nominee, I have no problem supporting Barack. I don’t have a problem campaigning hard for him… I think he is a real superstar, and a charismatic candidate. I have nothing bad to say about him.

Q: What do you for fun?
A: I’m just a basic guy who loves sports, music, reading, spending time with family, golfing, and rooting for the Yankees … I’m just a normal 64-year-old guy. There is nothing special about me.

Q: You’re not a Hollywood type than?
A: No, not at all… that isn’t my world. My friends are the same friends that I have had for years.

Q: Family?
A: Married, and one daughter, Katie.

Q: She got married?
A: Yes, and I did dance. It was funny because during the wedding, we had the father/ daughter dance and she had this beautiful wedding gown on and in the middle of the dance, she looked up at me and said ‘Dad, they can’t see our feet.’ She was right, because the dress covered them. We could have done anything and I didn’t have to learn how to Waltz!