Page 2 | To ask what made Jeremy Kyle qualified…

whynotwhatknot · 13/03/2022 21:45

It wasnt the first show though was it-it was based on jerry springer and noone says anythng about him

i dont thin its fair to blame jk all on his own

mumda · 13/03/2022 21:46

The Jeremy Kyle Show was the most popular programme in ITV's daytime schedule, with an average of one million viewers and a 22% audience share.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48279613

It was hugely popular among the very people who took part. Mostly people without jobs. Oh and students. I assume arts students have something else to watch now.

Didn't they fund lots of counselling and DNA tests.

Gonnagetgoing · 13/03/2022 21:46

@Hospedia

I used to travel for work and when we were in Manchester the hotel we used was one of those used by the JK production team.

Not all of the guests knew why they were there, they were either told false reasons or they weren't told at all, just that they'd find out on the day but they were led to believe it would be something good.

They had a tab at the hotel bar and were encouraged to use it, they would also have rooms at opposite ends of the hotel. I don't know if the production stirred things up but there would inevitably be arguments, people looking for each others rooms, loud behaviour, and so on.

They would be picked up from the hotel much earlier than they'd been told they were getting picked up so they'd think they had time to wake up, get ready, eat, etc ready to be picked up at a certain time and instead the production team would rock up to unexpectedly knock them out of bed much earlier than agreed.

This is all based on what we saw and what we heard from the guests themselves. We used to groan when we saw Manchester as the meeting location because we knew it would be that hotel and that it would be a shitty night. The whole night before the show and rhen the morning after seemed designed to make sure the guests were potentially hungover and as tired, stressed, and dishevelled looking as possible.

@Hospedia - not me but a friend of mine who travelled to Manchester and NE for work. Stayed at the hotel twice.

She couldn’t believe what she saw as it was exactly like what you saw and next time she went up she insisted on another hotel.

She said it was absolute chaos and she actually had disturbed sleep due to one of the guests on the show staying next door to her and of course the other person on the show found out etc and there was drama. Funnily enough as there was so much noise she asked to be moved and the hotel accommodated it. She felt it was cruel and took advantage of the people going on the show.

Clarabe1 · 13/03/2022 21:48

I can’t believe anyone watched it! I remember when it first came on the telly and I said to DH ‘who is that gobshite, he is just a bully’ Horrid man and vile programme. There was an American version - Jerry Springer. That was far less harmful, at least Jerry didn’t lay into his guests and it was very tongue in cheek. I am glad Kyle is getting his comeuppance- see how he likes having his life ripped apart. The prick.

Gonnagetgoing · 13/03/2022 21:49

Jeremy Kyle was car crash TV. You always felt a bit dirty and guilty watching it but you still watched and judged.

I feel incredibly sorry for the guests on the show and did feel the same when I watched them especially finding out the lie detector tests were often false. Graham was always a nasty piece of work, you could just tell the faux sympathy dripping off him.

ParisLondonTokyoSlough · 13/03/2022 21:50

To be fair I think lots of 90s TV was terrible and abusive to contestants. America’s Next Top Model (in an episode a model whose best friend had died that week, was made to lie in a coffin in a shoot the next day…and Tyra regularly shouted at the contestants). Pop Idol was the same. I know a guy who had to move from our local area because of the humiliating way he was portrayed on Pop Idol.

There was lots of TV like that those days- I guess the only surprise was that JK went on for long enough for the producers to know better.

Original poster

ClandestineAdulation · 13/03/2022 21:50

For anyone saying the blame doesn’t solely lie with Jeremy Kyle - I agree, there’s a whole team behind it but there still has to be a certain level of accountability.

If not JK, I’m sure they’d have found someone else to host the show, but morally, so much of it is wrong and it’s about haranguing the guests and humiliating them, and I don’t know how anyone could go along with that and have the repercussions on their conscience.

To my initial question though, what made Jeremy Kyle any different to anyone else? As far as I can see, he didn’t have any counselling experience or any great authority to be in the position of ‘power’ as his audience saw him.

OP posts:

Gonnagetgoing · 13/03/2022 21:51

It’s not fair to entirely blame JK but he didn’t have to carry on presenting it and he got a god complex doing it.

ThatsALotOfPassionfruit · 13/03/2022 21:52

The lady who went on with her heroin addict daughter was heartbreaking. To be told they were vying for a place at rehab against 3 other families when in fact they already had a place is despicable.
There were 100s of people complicit in it.
He does appear to be an absolute cunt though, even to other members of staff.

hangrylady · 13/03/2022 21:52

@whynotwhatknot

It wasnt the first show though was it-it was based on jerry springer and noone says anythng about him

i dont thin its fair to blame jk all on his own

I might be wrong but I'm sure the 'guests' on Jerry Springer were actors

Gonnagetgoing · 13/03/2022 21:53

@ClandestineAdulation

For anyone saying the blame doesn’t solely lie with Jeremy Kyle - I agree, there’s a whole team behind it but there still has to be a certain level of accountability.

If not JK, I’m sure they’d have found someone else to host the show, but morally, so much of it is wrong and it’s about haranguing the guests and humiliating them, and I don’t know how anyone could go along with that and have the repercussions on their conscience.

To my initial question though, what made Jeremy Kyle any different to anyone else? As far as I can see, he didn’t have any counselling experience or any great authority to be in the position of ‘power’ as his audience saw him.

@ClandestineAdulation - but everyone saw him as some god like character rooting out the ne’er do wells.

Most people like me thought he was a bullying idiot but a certain sector of society thought he was dealing with cheaters, drug addicts etc and that he said it like it was.

ldontWanna · 13/03/2022 21:53

@ClandestineAdulation

For anyone saying the blame doesn’t solely lie with Jeremy Kyle - I agree, there’s a whole team behind it but there still has to be a certain level of accountability.

If not JK, I’m sure they’d have found someone else to host the show, but morally, so much of it is wrong and it’s about haranguing the guests and humiliating them, and I don’t know how anyone could go along with that and have the repercussions on their conscience.

To my initial question though, what made Jeremy Kyle any different to anyone else? As far as I can see, he didn’t have any counselling experience or any great authority to be in the position of ‘power’ as his audience saw him.

You answered your own question.

Nothing special, just that he could "handle" the job without a conscience crisis,give the producers what they wanted and also suited the brief of white,middle aged (or thereabouts), presentable male.

Clarabe1 · 13/03/2022 21:55

I think that Dr Phil is a massive cunt. I cannot stand him. Sitting there all morally superior. I hope we have seen the last of this sort of tv. It’s the equivalent of the Victorian freak shows. What is entertaining about exploiting vulnerable people? And we reach our kids not to bully… !

MoltenLasagne · 13/03/2022 21:55

My cousin very nearly went on the show - thank god her mum and sister managed to talk her out of it. She's almost certainly got undiagnosed learning difficulties which is apparent pretty fast when you meet her. Didn't stop the JK team calling her incessantly and telling her she'd get the chance to "tell her side", "speak her truth" once she'd said no. Absolutely appalling behaviour and it is on everyone who worked on the show - they all knew what they were doing.

ThePrincessSleptFor100Years · 13/03/2022 21:57

I got the same uncomfortable feeling watching the X Factor auditions. Let’s all point and laugh at the poor soul who thinks he can sing. Obvious learning difficulties you say? who cares? That’s entertainment!

mumda · 13/03/2022 22:01

Are some mumsnet threads a bit J-Kyle?

ldontWanna · 13/03/2022 22:03

@Clarabe1

I can’t believe anyone watched it! I remember when it first came on the telly and I said to DH ‘who is that gobshite, he is just a bully’ Horrid man and vile programme. There was an American version - Jerry Springer. That was far less harmful, at least Jerry didn’t lay into his guests and it was very tongue in cheek. I am glad Kyle is getting his comeuppance- see how he likes having his life ripped apart. The prick.

You were saying?

The Jerry Springer Show has suffered similar controversies.
In 2002, a female contributor was murdered just hours after the episode she featured on aired, which revealed she was sleeping with her violent ex-husband, unbeknown to his new wife.
The couple were found guilty of her murder.
Last year, a young man whose fiancee took him on the show to tell him she was sleeping with his best friend took his own life.

ldontWanna · 13/03/2022 22:04

@mumda

Are some mumsnet threads a bit J-Kyle?

The pile on is.

"And you had kids with this man,why?" Is the MN equivalent of "you should've put something at the end of it".

Nightlystroll · 13/03/2022 22:06

I used to watch it but I find it puzzling to see people being surprised. You could tell there was someone in the audience who used to cue clap. Usually it was when JK had said something. One person would clap and then everyone would join in. And the fact that peoole would come on the stage, screaming and shouting, it was obvious they'd been wound up. And honestly, I agreed with some stuff that JK said, but he was very manipulative to make him look like he was a saviour to these people. I remember there was a woman who kicked her son out for violence and theft and JK dressed her son down and then tried to tie the segment up neatly by getting the mother to take him back. St Jeremy has put back together another family. But she wasn't having it. You could see he was mad that she wasn't following his script.

I think he just got caught up in it. The more he felt people liked what he did, the more for the jugular he went. That's human. You see it on MN. One poster comments. Others agree and then someone else wants to be praised so they get more cutting and before you know it, it's a pile on.

Honestly, JK put his name on the programme and made out he was paying for all the tests and treatment out of his own pocket. So he was making these decisions and is responsible. But I think Graham is equally responsible here because he was seeing first hand what was happening, knowing psychologically the harm it might do. He should have stopped a lot of the excesses of what was happening. Having said that, he always spoke in a kind and supportive way to the guests and stood up for them so maybe he did moderate the tone if the show. Lord, maybe it would have been even worse without him.

jc12689 · 13/03/2022 22:07

to host a talk show, give ‘advice’ and judge people the way he did?

Well it was never about advising people. It was about exploiting people and anyone who watched that program on a regular basis is as culpable as JK.

bonfireheart · 13/03/2022 22:09

Haven't watched the documentary, but didn't he host a show on BRMB radio as Jezza? Was always surprised he got picked up for TV.

Girkkuli · 13/03/2022 22:09

My friend went to JK once. That was before I met her. She has serious mental health issues and is an alcoholic. Never worked and four dc with two different men. I haven't really asked why she was there but knowing her I am sure audience got what they wanted.

Groovee · 13/03/2022 22:10

I remember a colleague expressing surprise that a family she had been working with for months going on "holiday". Money was an issue for this family. They came back broken and wouldn't speak about it. Weeks later another colleague was off sick and watching JK and saw said family on the show. It all made sense. They told us that they were persuaded with a "holiday". They got to the hotel and we're split up. The chaperones spent the time winding them up. They then exploded on the show.

That was months and months of work down the drain and years of fall out. It was then someone's job to check the show for families we worked with. 2 more were discovered in the time I worked there.

Wonnle · 13/03/2022 22:11

@Georgeskitchen

Watching it now. I used to watch the show sometimes when I wasn't working. I can't imagine why anyone would want to appear on the show and be publicly humiliated but it seems there was no shortage of people wanting to appear

There's a lot of idiots out there craving a tiny little bit of fame

CeleriacOfTheNight · 13/03/2022 22:12

I stopped watching it when I found myself siding with an alcoholic wife beater, just because JK was such a smug, odious cunt.