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Jerry Springer hosts WWE TOO HOT FOR TV, debuting tonight on the WWE Network.
Image courtesy of WWE.
Loud characters throttling towards each other, each hell-bent on the destruction of the other, being held apart from ripping each other limb from limb by security as verbal jabs and promises of physical pain are expressed? The latest episode of Monday Night Raw? Not quite.
More like your average episode of the seemingly-eternal "Jerry Springer Show."
For twenty-five years, the now 71-year old former Mayor of Cincinnati has been the centerpiece of his own talk show, one that at times, has been as strange and tumultuous as any riotous situation created in the ever-zany world of professional wrestling. So, hosting a new series for WWE, "Too Hot For TV", might not only be old hat for Spring, but perhaps, it might be a tad bit safer.
"The WWE is a natural fit, certainly for what we do on ["The Jerry Spinger Show]", said Springer during a phone interview this past Friday. "It's just that in WWE, they are bigger, stronger, faster and better looking, but otherwise, it's the same show. When they asked me to host the show and show clips from their vault of 20-30 years, they have so much material. To be able to show clips of their 'finest moments' and then joke around about them, it's so natural an idea. The only question is, 'how come we didn't do this sooner?' "
WWE Too Hot for TV debuts tonight via VOD following the conclusion of Monday Night Raw on the USA Network. The series is WWE's first attempt to use a mainstream name as an anchor for regular programming on the Over the Top Network. While everyone from Hugh Jackman to Bob Barker to the Muppets have appeared as guest stars on WWE programming, Springer will be the full-time host for this series, which will dive into the company's massive video library to review some great and not so great material that has amazed, entertained and perhaps even embarrassed fans over the years.
"It's like [E! series] 'The Soup' is for talk shows, where they show clips and the guys jokes around about it," Springer explained. "This will be the same thing. We'll show clips of great matches and great drama and the outrageousness of the WWE, and I'll joke around about it. It's the same genre in a sense."
The debut episode of the series is titled "Love Hurts" and will showcase romance over the years in the unique landscape that is WWE storytelling, a world that has seen love triangles involving the "Demon Spawn" of Kane, live "Sex celebrations", The Undertaker attempting to force Stephanie McMahon to marry him in an "unholy ceremony", a wedding reception crashed by a Cobra and all sorts of other lovey-dovey antics you'll never find on The Hallmark Channel.
"I didn't know any of this happened, " Springer noted, pointing out that as a child, he watched names like Haystacks Calhoun, Ricki Starr and The Great Bolo, but keeping up with wrestling while working in television and politics isn't easy.
"[The debut episode] is about the various romantic efforts that have been made on the show between the wrestlers. Sometimes it's within the ring. Sometimes, it's just their private lives or at home and the craziness that came about because of it, the disasters that came about because of attempts at romance...the marriages that fell apart and all the attempts at romance within the lives of these wrestlers. Some of it is really crazy and that's the theme of the first show."
Indeed, such antics fall squarely into the Jerry Springer wheel-house. He sees a great similarities between the drama that takes place on WWE's weekly programming and his own series, noting that the only major difference is that for his shows, the audience has a "clean slate" and don't know the guests they are going to meet and watch (Springer claims he isn't allowed to and the trademark cards that he holds on the air are his guide to the guests he is about to interview) while with WWE, the characters and stories are something the audience is already intimately aware of and invested in.
Beyond that, however, what are the differences in the two long-running television entities? Are there similar challenges in keeping the franchises viable as technology and television marketplace continue to evolve?
"Well, what Vince McMahon does is a little different and in a sense, perhaps a little more difficult, " Springer intoned. "He and his producers have to create, they have to come up with the drama and what the stories are going to be, in a sense. On my show, we don't come up with the stories. The people who call us come in with the stories - it's their lives. So, in my show, it's just providing the platform and have it come across within one hour, but we don't have to come up with the storylines. So, to that extent, to what [Vince] does, is probably more difficult."
At the heart of all that drama is dysfunction, the type of over the top, dysfunctional situations that not only results in someone having the unique life experience of appearing on "The Jerry Springer Show" but also in having many viewers being attracted to the "car crash" as they watch. So why do we, as passengers on the highway of life, never fail to stop and rubberneck at the situations of others?
"That's human history. We are social beings," Springer said. "A couple of thousand years ago, it was the same thing. We just didn't have television. Back then, people would gather in the marketplace or gather in a town square and they would talk among themselves about what was happening in their neighborhood and if someone did something weird or crazy, that would be what they would be talking about. 'Oh, did you hear what so-and-so did? Isn't that unbelievable?' So, that conversation has taken place throughout history, in literature, it's in the Bible. There's never, ever been anything, for example, on a talk show, that you can't find someone in The Bible, of Shakespeare, or great literature. It's only the technology that has changed and we are social beings. We are fascinated in how other people live and relating it to our own lives. That's human nature and if we had television 2,000 years ago, we'd have had the same shows."
Looking at some of the WWE's own twisted romances, was there anyone that he came across that he would have wanted to get on his own show to probe the situation deeper?
"There's nothing deep going on at our show," Springer joked, before noting that anyone could be a guest. "Everyone in their own family has at least one story - and I don't mean scandalous - that if the rest of the world knew about, they'd be scratching their heads and going, 'Oh my Gosh?' Everyone has an Uncle Bob or whatever in their family, sure."
Springer noted it's just a matter of finding someone who's willing to share their privacy on television, although today, people are more than willing to share via social media, which will end up being a social media experiment of it's own for future generations.
"Just look at Facebook and Instagrams. What are kids today not sharing?", Springer pointed out. "It's everybody's worry and should be. We will see. This generation will grow up learning the consequences of it, so the next generation will probably be more circumspect in terms of what they share."
As "Too Hot for TV" debuts tonight on the WWE Network, one has to wonder if Springer is looking forward to making a third appearance on Raw after his last one led to Springer being legitimately carted out of the Arena on a stretcher after getting injured as The Bella Twins, trying to tear at each other, rolled over him and indeed, caused him to roll his ankle:
Is he looking for a triumphant comeback?
"I'm in training now," jokes Springer, obviously in a tone that reveals the last thing he wants is to be stretchered out of an Arena again. Some things, indeed, may be too hot for even Jerry Springer.
WWE Too Hot for TV can be seen on the WWE Network, which is free for new subscribers signing up until the end of April.
Mike Johnson can be reached at MikeJohnsonPWInsider.com@gmail.com and followed @MikePWInsider.
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