Jerry Springer Says His Show Will Go On (For Now)

Jerry Springer is clearing the air about the future of his long-running program, The Jerry Springer Show.

On Monday the former politician and television personality explained in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that the show has stopped production on new episodes ahead of the show’s move to The CW this fall, but it has not been canceled.

“A deal has been made with The CW and so our show will be on in most cities twice a day,” Springer said. “It will be mostly from the shows we’ve done, so every once in a while you’ll be seeing shows where I look a lot younger.”

Springer explained that new episodes (in the sense that they were previously taped yet unreleased) will still air as part of the new season.

“The show as I understand it will be on for at least another two or three years and then they’ll, if it still continues to rate good, then they’ll do some more,” Springer continued.

The show originally debuted in 1991 and has released 3,891 episodes over 27 seasons. Springer admitted the filming schedule required for that kind of continued output won’t be viable given the 74-year-old’s age.

“Other people have come and talked about possible television projects, but I don’t know that I can maintain this schedule that … has been insane for all these years,” Springer said.

News of the show being in danger of cancellation broke on Thursday, with TVLine reporting that filming production had ceased and fresh episodes would not be apart of The CW’s fall schedule. A day prior Broadcasting Cable broke the news that the network had picked up the show on a multi-year contract, replacing The Robert Irvine Show.

The show has been exclusively distributed by NBCUniversal since 2004.

Known for its on-camera fights and controversial talking points, Springer has been openly candid about how he feels about the product in recent interviews.

“The only defense I ever give to the show, when people are attacking it or whatever, is that they won’t admit their criticism is elitist,” Springer told The Daily Beast in February. “We’re all alike. We all have moments in our life when we are not at our best. What is interesting is that famous people can do the exact same things as people do on my show, or even worse, and we put them on late night TV, we buy their albums and books, cheer them as heroes. On our show, people talk about exactly the same thing, but because they are not rich, famous, or good-looking, and don’t speak the Queen’s English, we call them trash.”

Prior to his career in television, Springer worked as a politician for the Cincinnati City Council as served as city mayor for a year from 1977-78.