Las Vegas Weekly

October 8, 2009 · 3:26 PM

Jerry Springer juggling AGT Live! and talk show’s 19th year

By Robin Leach

Jerry Springer.

Photo: Courtesy

For the next 10 weeks, TV talk show host Jerry Springer will juggle a brutal, nonstop work schedule as he jets bi-coastal to host the new America’s Got Talent Live! here at Planet Hollywood and tape his outrageous, and sometimes near violent, daily TV program in Connecticut.

At 65, Jerry, who this year made his Broadway debut in Chicago, is celebrating the 19th anniversary of the talk show. The British-born personality was elected to the Cincinnati City Council in 1971 and then served as mayor for one year but failed in his Democratic bid in 1982 for governor of Ohio. His “Springer memorandum” appearances on Cincinnati radio stations led to the TV talk show.

Jerry and I chatted early this morning after last night’s preview of AGT Live! and in advance of tonight’s official media opening. We’ll have the full photo report of $1 million winner Kevin Skinner and runner-up Houston opera singer Barbara Padilla here at Vegas DeLuxe tomorrow.

Said Jerry, “We opened last night. Great fun for the kids, even Grandma Lee, who is 76 years old. It’s the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to them. They aren’t professionals, and all of a sudden, they are on a show starring in Vegas. This is great because we normally see celebrities when obviously they are already famous, but on this show, you get to see them before they are famous. It’s great to hear their stories and just enjoy their performances.

Robin Leach: How do you define the X factor, the “It” ingredient called talent?

Photo: Fremantle Media

Jerry Springer.

Jerry Springer: It’s a combination of doing something at a level that most people can’t and then having it be truly enjoyable. It’s the whole package. The talent may be in the thing they are doing, or it may also be included in their personality, the trappings of the person. How do we decide who is going to be a great singing star? It’s not necessary that great singers have to have the greatest voices in the world. Not a science; it’s an art. Did Elvis Presley have the greatest singing voice in the world? Compared to an opera singer, no, but it was the whole package that made people go crazy and make him an icon. I think it’s not anything you can measure. You can’t put 10 singers in a studio, turn on a machine and figure out who was the best. It would have to be the whole performance.

RL: In a sense, is it sad that you might never have heard of Kevin and Barbara if America’s Got Talent hadn’t been on the air?

JS: First of all, it’s true you might not have ever heard of them, but what is so great about this show is it gives people who aren’t connected an opportunity to be found and discovered. That is what I love about it. It’s so American; everybody gets a shot. People get discovered. It’s been like that through history. Every now and again, you hear about somebody being found being discovered in a drugstore or in Hollywood. In most cases you needed a connection, somebody who knows somebody, but now, all of a sudden, it’s a much more democratic system whereby you don’t have to be rich or famous, you don’t have to live in Hollywood. You don’t have to have a parent who is in the business. All of a sudden, you get the opportunity, too, and nothing is more American than that!

RL: Describe your emotion last night for the first time standing at the side of the stage as Kevin and Barbara were singing at two opposite ends of the musical spectrum?

Photo: Courtesy

Jerry Springer poses with a cake made in his likeness.

JS: Honestly, I loved it. The most fun show I do on TV. I get to know these people. I know their families and see how nervous they are. Then the crowd loves them when they step out there. It’s the most exciting moment in their life, and you get caught up in the emotion of it all. It’s just so wonderful. You become emotionally invested in what they are doing. You know the back-story, you know what they have overcome and what, why and how they are trying to do it. Now you are there on their opening night, their very first time on a big stage. I think Barbara is spectacular. I can’t say tears welled up, but I’d pay to see her for 90 minutes in her own concert. She’s that good.

RL: Which is more emotional, the TV show or the live version?

J: Good question. The live version is more emotional, even though the final night of the TV version is very charged as they go for the big win. Here you are dealing with the people you know from the TV show now performing live in front of you. They are all talented people who can put on a show, and you are reveling in their success. When you do TV, so many things go on surrounding it that it’s hard to get focused on exactly the performance, so the magic moment is interfered with on TV. On our live show, the talent and the performance is the only thing you are watching.

RL: You are still doing your talk show. How are you juggling Vegas live shows and the TV tapings?

JS: We are in the 19th year of doing the talk show, and this season for the first time, we are doing it out of Stamford, Conn. How I juggle the schedule is I live in the air. I tape three talk shows on Monday and two on Tuesday, and then Tuesday afternoon, I fly to Vegas and do Wednesday through Sunday shows here and then fly back Sunday night to Connecticut again. It’s crazy. I am also tired and old. Seriously, though it’s an exciting life, and I really enjoy doing it. It’s not about the money anymore at this point. It’s exciting, and I just enjoy both, especially being around these people and watching them start out in show business.

Photo: Marion Curtis/StarPix

A stylish and suave Nick Cannon at Sundance.

RL: Nick Cannon stepped into your shoes on the TV show and you kept the live show?

JS: They wanted somebody young and hot, and I’m worn and wrinkled. That’s probably one reason, but the second reason is that this summer, I was on Broadway, so that didn’t make any schedules work. Let’s face it: They want a younger demographic, and I’m 65. I can’t be doing that stuff all the time, appealing to the younger set. I grew up in New York and loved Broadway shows. The offer to do Chicago came out of nowhere. It wasn’t a life-long dream, but it was awfully exciting doing it -- the most exciting thing I’ve done. I played the Billy Flynn role, which Richard Gere did in the movie, so that gave me a chance to act, to sing and to dance. I loved it.

RL: It’s all a long way from the world of politics you were once involved with?

JS: That’s still my passion in life. I pay a lot of attention to politics, but I’m at an age where to go back and run, by the time I got seniority, I would be too old, so that’s not necessarily in my future, but I still stay pretty active in that. Hopefully we’ll celebrate a 20th year with the TV show. I have a grandson. We love our daughter, and all my wishes for success go to them. I have no more life goals. What a life I’ve had. How lucky have I been? It would be very arrogant on my part to ask for something else. What comes my way is great, but I’m not looking to do anything. Just trying to enjoy life so I want my kid and grandkid to be happy.

Photo: kevinskinnerfans.com

America's Got Talent champion Kevin Skinner.

Photo: NBC TV

America's Got Talent contestant Barbara Padilla.

RL: Do you get amazed at the crazies that wind up on your show baring all?

JS: No, because I have been doing it for 19 years, so I’m not amazed anymore. But in today’s world, is anything shocking anymore? You may be surprised if it happens to somebody you know, but in 65 years, you’ve lived through a lifetime with a world war, assassination, Holocaust, every kind of scandal imaginable. I don’t think anything is shocking anymore. You cant be a grownup today and be surprised. The surprise comes only if it’s someone you know, and then you’re shocked. You then say it’s disgusting and move on. The one show that stands out in my mind was the guy who married his horse. That was pretty unforgettable. We did the follow-up, and the horse left him. Fortunately. I remember that, but I don’t get shocked by anything anymore.

Vegas DeLuxe will have the full photo report from tonight’s show and our meeting with all the performers. They will be at Planet Hollywood every Wednesday through Sunday at 7 p.m. until Dec. 13. Peepshow remains in the 9 p.m. slot.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter HERE.

Follow Vegas DeLuxe on Twitter HERE.

Follow VDLX Editor Don Chareunsy on Twitter HERE.

Share This