Jerry Springer, the hugely successful US talk show host is set to guest on the Ray D’Arch Show on RTE tonight. Springer’s show – titled The Jerry Springer Show – is now in its 27th season. It is one of the mots successful US talk shows in history.

Springer was born in London to Jewish refugees who had escaped from a part of Germany that has since been subsumed into Poland, where it is called Gorzów Wielkopolski. The family emigrated to the US in 1949. A lawyer by profession, he became a political adviser to Robert F. Kennedy. He became active in the Democratic Party and ran for Congress in 1970, taking 45% of the vote but falling short of ousting the Republican, Donald D. Clancy. HE later became a city councillor in Cincinnati, and was elected Mayor in 1977.

He launched The Jerry Springer Show in 1991. What began as a political show, covering social issues was turned into a tabloid-style show, on which ordinary people began to spill their guts in the most extraordinary way. It became a huge ratings success, peaking at . million viewers. He has had a parallel career in TV in the UK but without ever achieving the same level of notoriety or success.

Springer is also a musician and recorded an album of country music titled Dr. Talk, which was released by Fiddle Fsh Records. The musical Jerry Springer: The Opera, written by Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas, is based on his US TV show. A hirst the Edinburgh Festival is has since played in the West End and in the US. The show was filmed by the BBC and shown on BBC 2.

Springer was involved in a controversy early in his career, in 1974, when it emerged that he had visited a sex worker, but he survived the controversy, making an asset of his honesty in relation to the event in later political campaigns.