Former 'Jeremy Kyle' staffers recount toxic culture behind the scenes

[what]

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/m...g-timebomb

[RDJ]

I’m not overly surprised. I recall when I was in the shows audience back in 2018 and Kyle would only interact with the floor manager and security man Steve, commenting that he’d been out for dinner with them the night before and the likes. The rest of the crew he didn’t acknowledge at all.

There was also a technical fault when he came to film the shows introduction, and he turned savage about it wanting accountability on who was to blame for it. Though he put on a friendly front towards the audience, you could sense the times he let his guard slip if something went wrong and his frustration would be aimed directly at the crew members.

Since then my perception on Kyle changed overnight. So it’s not surprising to hear the above tales of a topic culture behind the scenes.

[DavidWhitfield]

People had referred to The Jeremy Kyle Show as being exploitative for years. A judge famously branded the programme a "human form of bear baiting" as long ago as 2007 following an assault which took place on stage between two guests. It's just a shame that it took something as serious as the death of a guest for ITV to take a long, hard look at the programme (and put aside its high ratings) to consider whether or not it was an acceptable production in this day and age.

[Brekkie]

And by ignoring the issues when it did blow up there was no going back, a mistake they arguably repeated with Piers.

[KryptonITV]

From this report. I personally think it would be wise on ITV's part to prevent the same mistakes from being repeated; after all, we are now living in a society that when it comes to bad behaviour or publicity, the viewers and Ofcom clearly will not tolerate a repeat performance. Otherwise, a good TV Company does not make the same mistake twice.

[adamiow]

Whilst it is all well and good that they had checks in place for the mental health of the participants, the way they treated them to create good TV makes this slightly irrelevant and inevitably caused harm to many.

[XIII]

And by ignoring the issues when it did blow up there was no going back, a mistake they arguably repeated with Piers.

The situation with Piers on GMB is not really comparable with Jeremy Kyle.

[Ben]

Exploitative television at its worst but I think we all knew that. The sad thing is any entertainment show that features 'ordinary' members of the public is explotative to one extent or the other.

It's not a surprise that the staff were exploited just as much. No idea what Jezza will end up doing his whole shtick has always been about taking the piss out of people.

[BettyS]

The atmosphere was dreadful when you went anywhere near the studio. He would deliberately wind up the studio audience, contributors and anyone else to hand. Ive witnessed him swearing and shouting at them during recordings (all of which was edited out of course). ITV were to blame to allow this to continue for so long.

[Brekkie]

Do these sort of shows even continue in America now? Most of their daytime talk hosts now front more traditional celebrity chat shows as opposed to the classic "talk show" in the format of Springer, Rikki Lake etc, whilst the most well known formats for the general public seem to be court based (Judge Judy, Judge Jerry etc.).

[Blobs]

Exploitative television at its worst but I think we all knew that. The sad thing is any entertainment show that features 'ordinary' members of the public is explotative to one extent or the other.

Indeed, The Jeremy Kyle Show does seem to have been made a scapegoat. If there's going to be a day of reckoning for exploitative television then Big Brother has a lot to answer for. Certainly from series 5 onwards the toxic practices of that show were well known.

[DavidWhitfield]

Do these sort of shows even continue in America now?

'Dr Phil' seems about the most similar offering to The Jeremy Kyle Show that still airs in the U.S.
It's been renewed to 2023, by which time it'll have been on air for over two decades.

[Jon]

Exploitative television at its worst but I think we all knew that. The sad thing is any entertainment show that features 'ordinary' members of the public is explotative to one extent or the other.

Indeed, The Jeremy Kyle Show does seem to have been made a scapegoat. If there's going to be a day of reckoning for exploitative television then Big Brother has a lot to answer for. Certainly from series 5 onwards the toxic practices of that show were well known.

Jeremy Kyle wasn’t really a scapegoat, it was probably the worse of the lot and basically was a privately educated middle class man, telling people who’d had nowhere near the same opportunities in life that they’re worthless.

I’m not saying shows like Big Brother weren’t exploitive, but the whole concept of The Jeremy Kyle Show was to vilify and demean people. With Big Brother and shows like The Circle it’s a bit more complex.

[London Lite]

Do these sort of shows even continue in America now?

'Dr Phil' seems about the most similar offering to The Jeremy Kyle Show that still airs in the U.S.
It's been renewed to 2023, by which time it'll have been on air for over two decades.

Maury Povich and Steve Wilkos are still going as well which also deal with conflict resolution.

[DavidWhitfield]

Maury Povich and Steve Wilkos are still going as well which also deal with conflict resolution.

Good point, well made.

Wilkos having originally started his TV career doing security for the mother of all 'getting people on a stage in front of an audience to shout at each other' shows, Jerry Springer, from which, arguably, The Jeremy Kyle Show (and shows like it) spawned.

Jerry Springer, who - as an interesting aside - when asked about his programme, once said "I would never watch my show. I'm not interested in it." At least he's honest...