To ask what made Jeremy Kyle qualified…

[ClandestineAdulation]

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

The Channel 4 programme about the show is on and it’s just made me think about it all again!

@Federal

I actually knew JK when he was working on a local radio station before he got his ‘big break’ on TV. He was pretty much the same then. Everything you think about how he is, is true. Odious man.

Did you work with him at BRMB?!

@Merryoldgoat

I always thought it was vile and exploitative. I’ll watch on catch up but I never watched the program - just the odd clips I saw. It seemed like poor and vulnerable people being harangued by a more ‘intelligent’ man using sophistry and money to subdue and embarrass. Vile.

Word for word.

Never watched it but definitely saw a few clips and thought him and whole show was just so awful.

Hard to believe no one ever called a halt to it for so many years.

I watched it whilst on maternity leave years and years ago and thought he was a nasty prick. The aim of the show was clearly not to help anyone but to provide entertainment in the form of unintelligent, vulnerable people. And it was successful. 🤷‍♀️

Before the TV show he used to do a late night radio version on Capital that was actually pretty good, he seemed really sympathetic and gave good advice. Was mostly relationship stuff from what I remember, completely different vibe to the TV show after which was awful. I guess they made it more edgy for ratings.

@Curlywurlyontoast

My sister works in pastoral support at a Primary school and she said that a couple whose children attended the school went on the JK show. She said it had an horrendous effect on the family, who were effectively shunned by the local community and the children suffered horrendous bullying as a result. It's hard to believed that this type of shit was allowed to be broadcast.

Very worrying that people who are parents to young children, therefore supposedly responsible, would want to put themselves on that show. A couple of viewings of the show would make most people run in the opposite direction. I saw it off and on, it certainly became less supportive and more sensationalist as time went on.

I used to work in the public sector, some clients were vulnerable, and genuinely needed support to live any sort of life. However others had a poor lifestyle because in some ways it was easy. Easier than working, easier than supporting their children (particularly non resident), easier than taking care of their home (which they didn’t pay for) to an acceptable standard. I don’t believe the JK show did any good, but how should society view/help those who are not vulnerable, but just choose to live live off everyone else?

Haven't rtft, but I used to listen to jezzas late night confessions or whatever it was called. It was alright and a bit refreshing at the time to hear a 'no nonsense' agony aunt style. He's also been quite open about his gambling addiction. So I guess those are his 'qualifications'. I'm not sure that a host of a TV show needs anything more than similar experiences. But JK was an absolute prick on that show, there's no excuse for that, he could have been more like the old jezza and it would have still been a good show.

I miss Jeremy Kyle there were some great episodes and lots of good done such as free dna tests and rehab facilities. Always entertaining when I had a day off work

This thread and all the outrage here smells of hypocrisy because everyone commenting loved watching the show and many others like it. And now are being all virtuous slagging it off. No one forced people to appear on the show and no one forced you to watch it.
Maybe we just know better now. I enjoyed watching it when I was on maternity leave, but completely bought into the after care, for your own good, St Graham narrative. I thought people were going in with their eyes open and trusted ITV. I'm far from stupid, but the program last night shocked me.

@Tombero

Jennifer Saunders did a show called The life and times of Vivienne Vyle.

It never gets mentioned, but if I remember rightly, she nailed what was going on in this industry years before it was properly exposed.

I’ve been watching the documentary, it’s unrelentingly depressing watching the exploitation of some very disadvantaged people.

@Tombero - Oh I saw that! Obviously a comedy take off of Kyle but pretty close to the bone.

I recall one of my exes - his ex-GF went on the show as an audience member and was very pleased having her photo taken there - like a badge of honour.

Her situation was kids by 2 men, didn't work or if she did work it was sporadically, drug taking etc.

I used to work with a woman who didn't work on Fridays, church goer, used to be involved in safeguarding with church groups, large family, ex-nurse. Every Friday she told me she'd watch JK but was similar to me - she felt guilty watching it. It made you feel better about yourself if you did watch it. But most people I knew who were in similar social categories would sometimes watch it - but feel the same guilt - no one I knew would ever go on the show, and they felt disgust/shame/pity/happiness for some of his guests.

Whenever I watched - the guests were always from a particular social background, never or rarely middle or upper class, definitely lower class, working class but more benefit class. Definitely picking on people who they thought were stupid and easily encouraged by free alcohol/money/hotel stays etc. That's a really disgusting thing to do, target a certain sector of society and then wind them up for TV viewing.

JK was known as the maternity leave show, once baby was born the screaming was no longer suitable even for newborns.

@PutinIsAWarCriminal

This thread and all the outrage here smells of hypocrisy because everyone commenting loved watching the show and many others like it. And now are being all virtuous slagging it off. No one forced people to appear on the show and no one forced you to watch it. Maybe we just know better now. I enjoyed watching it when I was on maternity leave, but completely bought into the after care, for your own good, St Graham narrative. I thought people were going in with their eyes open and trusted ITV. I'm far from stupid, but the program last night shocked me.

@PutinIsAWarCriminal - sometimes I actually believed the St Graham spiel - that they were helping people. Then it became obvious they weren't helping people beyond a few counselling sessions and they bog off back to your council estate.

If you're anything like me - I'd only watch it if I was off work - so on holiday/sick/between jobs. And even then, I'd switch on, then switch off. It's appalling how compelling it it and as PP have said a lot of MN is like this with the pile on threads (have experienced this here). Loads of people like to kick people when they're down.

You did watch the show to make you feel better about yourself.

The thing is, people were not so much forced on the show, but definitely sold a different story and lies about what would happen.

You only have to look at the stories (my friend for one) of people staying in hotels where the guests stayed.

Did you work with him at BRMB?!

I sure did, @Chimchiminie! Bad days and even worse nights.
Jezza was full of his own importance then and you should have heard the things he said about callers off-air.
However, I also think Graeme has got off extremely lightly from this. I can’t believe it all abides by his professional code of conduct.

You only have to look at his own sketchy personal life to realise he has no right to judge anyone else. He cheated on his wife with his much younger nanny who he’s now married to. Nice.

I seem to remember a lady with rather unfortunate teeth who appeared on the show. Predictably she was widely ridiculed by the public. The Jeremy Kyle show paid for her to have extensive dental work which improved her self esteem and her appearance a thousand fold. So perhaps it wasn't all bad

The people who went on that show knew what they were getting into. We all watched it. It was on air for 14 years for goodness' sake ! JK was the frontman only and not the organ grinder. Don't blame him, blame the production company and the TV station. If it was not him it would have been someone else fronting the show.
I watched that programme last night and though it was all very conveniently one sided.
The camera man who asked not to have his face shown - he didn't have to work on the show did he? But he did. What does that tell you about him ?

@Gonnagetgoing it says a lot about us, and what we will believe out of convenience. I love watching old Judge Rinders, Judge Judys, MAFS, but its all the same isn't it. We like to sit in on our safe little sofas and judge.

I used to watch it back in the beginning and it was okay then. But as it went on he got worse and began thinking he was better than God.

He was all nicey with someone when they 1st came on stage but then the minute someone else came out he'd start shouting at them for no need. It was like a switch was flipped.

Tbh most of the time Mumsnet offers the same style of "entertainment". You all keep coming back to see posters with the same qualifications (ie none) as JK, offering their "advice" and judgement.

There's a lot of hypocrisy on here.

@Gonnagetgoing, I have a half sibling, so my Mother has two children by two different father's. What makes that ok or wrong? Income, education level etc? Interesting that you demonise a single Mum for only working sporadically, do you reference men in the same way?

@Bunty55

The people who went on that show knew what they were getting into. We all watched it. It was on air for 14 years for goodness' sake ! JK was the frontman only and not the organ grinder. Don't blame him, blame the production company and the TV station. If it was not him it would have been someone else fronting the show. I watched that programme last night and though it was all very conveniently one sided. The camera man who asked not to have his face shown - he didn't have to work on the show did he? But he did. What does that tell you about him ?

Yeah people with learning difficulties, mental illness, etc on a freak show. Because lets face it, it was no different to Victorian freakshows taking advantage of people who often had few options.

I have seen a fair bit of it. I used to watch it a lot when I had a period of depression/anxiety and wasn’t working. Needless to say I don’t think it was healthy for me to watch it so I stopped.

I will say though, it’s not just JK who is culpable. People knew what the show was about and it was still incredibly popular. I imagine most people in the UK have seen at least one episode. Really it’s a culture problem.

alltheapples

To go on the show you had to make the call. Nobody forced anyone to go on there.

Did the programme talk about the lie detector tests and whether they were genuine or the results just made up?

I know lie detector tests are notoriously unreliable anyway.

@Bunty55 I don't think you understand the concept of exploitation.

@PutinIsAWarCriminal

This thread and all the outrage here smells of hypocrisy because everyone commenting loved watching the show and many others like it. And now are being all virtuous slagging it off. No one forced people to appear on the show and no one forced you to watch it. Maybe we just know better now. I enjoyed watching it when I was on maternity leave, but completely bought into the after care, for your own good, St Graham narrative. I thought people were going in with their eyes open and trusted ITV. I'm far from stupid, but the program last night shocked me.

Why would you assume that everyone commenting loved the show?! I found it depressing and would always turn it over if it came on.