Ah the good old chat show! Don’t you just love them? How things have changed from the good old days of ‘Ricki Lake’ and ‘Oprah’. Oh yes, they sometimes got heated but then ‘The Jerry Springer Show’ burst onto our screens complete with bizarre guests, and punch ups galore! Compulsive viewing, to start with as it was just so shocking.

Over here in the UK, we have got good old Jeremy Kyle, Some of you might have already heard of him. He just loves to get right in people’s faces, and wind them up, calling them stupid, or telling them to go and get a job etc. Then gets out of the way was they are about to lash out. He is very agile is Jezza!

God knows why anyone would want to go on TV and air their dirty laundry but there seems to be no shortage of guests ready and willing to put themselves up for humiliation, not just by him, but by the press who occasionally latch on to a story associated with the show.

I have to share with you, a couple of extracts from a conversation between Jeremy, a female guest and her ex-boyfriend. It went along the lines of:

Jeremy, “So you sent pictures of your private parts to another woman on your phone?”

Ex, “Well I had a bad day at work!”

Jeremy: Why did you get arrested for harassing her?”

Ex, “Because I harassed her!”

Now I get the fact that the show is trying to help people; It  offers after care services,  for all manner of problems, addiction, child contact centres, financial help and the like, but they really have to go through the ringer in order to get it!

Jeremy is very often condescending; takes the mickey out of the guests, and shouts in people’s faces. Not to mention his favourite expression is for men to ‘put something on the end of it’! Now that is a catchphrase to be proud of!

Do you think these shows are really helpful, or just titillation for the viewers?