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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask what made Jeremy Kyle qualified…

369 replies

ClandestineAdulation · 13/03/2022 21:09

… 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!

OP posts:
PutinIsAWarCriminal · 14/03/2022 10:58

Why would you assume that everyone commenting loved the show?! I found it depressing and would always turn it over if it came on. you misunderstood @chimchiminie, I was referencing another pp.

SuitcaseOfWhine · 14/03/2022 11:03

@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
I've seen a couple of acquaintances on there and a family member went on as they were bullied into by their partner.

You get offered 1k, night in a hotel/expenses and promised that your situation would be resolved. I think that can be attractive to some people, especially if they don't have much money and are in a miserable situation that they want resolved, or are pressurised by someone who is accusing them of something.

They were totally exploited. It was horrid to watch, especially as JK is far from morally perfect himself. He had affairs and gambling problems before he became famous.

alltheapples · 14/03/2022 11:05

£1k is a LOT of money to some people. Imagine yourself in debt and struggling to put on the heating and buying food. A night in a hotel and that amount of money for one day's "work" can seem like easy money.

Motnight · 14/03/2022 11:14

It was horrendous and indicative of our society. Because it was popular, and people did choose to go on it.

I am sure that I read that Graham had no formal qualifications whatsoever as well.

I don't think that there's a way back from this for JK.

mummabubs · 14/03/2022 11:20

@WouldIwasShookspeared

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.

There used to be small print along the bottom of the screen saying lie detectors we're estimated at being between 96-99% accurate (disputable in itself). I remember my mum and I commented once that obviously meant there'd be people on the show whose 'results' didn't reflect the truth and were therefore incorrectly labelled as liars, cheats etc. Jeremy was very good at spouting the 96-99% accuracy line just before he opened those envelopes but then 100% of the time treated whatever that card said as indisputable gospel truth.
Staryflight445 · 14/03/2022 11:22

The documentary last night was just absolutely awful.
One of the directors committed suicide a few months after the show was axed too.

Just so sad and unnecessary, they could’ve done the show so differently and actually helped people, which would’ve in turn potentially helped the viewers watching. But no, people back stage ramping up the anger to get vulnerable adults to fight each other.
The way one of the girls involved in this spoke on that documentary was disgusting, she found it hilarious that she spent her days working there making people more angry with their ‘opponent’.

longwayoff · 14/03/2022 11:26

Vile man, vile programme exploiting some of the most vulnerable people. I'm very glad to see it's unlikely he'll ever work in tv again although I'm not sure I believe that. There's always someone glad to make money out of other people's misery.

EeeICouldRipATissue · 14/03/2022 11:27

The way one of the girls involved in this spoke on that documentary was disgusting, she found it hilarious that she spent her days working there making people more angry with their ‘opponent

It said at the beginning and the end that the show workers were actors speaking the words of people who work there as they didn't want their faces shown.

x2boys · 14/03/2022 11:28

I have watched both parts now
How it was allowed to go on so long is anyone's guess ,but it was popular and people did watch it ,I can well believe most people were exploited ,some people can back time and time again ,£1000,is interesting did every guest get it ,?

CecilyP · 14/03/2022 12:15

WouldIwasShookspeared

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

Yes, the program went into that. Guests were told they were 96-99% accurate or something similar. Last nights program mooted that it was something more like 66%.

CecilyP · 14/03/2022 12:18

The way one of the girls involved in this spoke on that documentary was disgusting, she found it hilarious that she spent her days working there making people more angry with their ‘opponent

It said at the beginning and the end that the show workers were actors speaking the words of people who work there as they didn't want their faces shown.

That’s true, but I also didn’t get the impression that the girl found it hilarious. I felt that they were quite ashamed but did it because they were fairly young and it was their first break into working in TV.

Xpologog · 14/03/2022 12:31

I never watched the daytime show. Did watch C4 programme last night and was horrified at how he spoke to people. And that seemed to bits they broadcast so God knows what was cut.
The poor mum whose daughter was an addict, she saw this as her only chance to get fast rehab for her daughter but the indignities they went through to get it.

GrandTheftWalrus · 14/03/2022 12:37

I'm really surprised the ex fiancee got JK signature tattooed after he died!

CecilyP · 14/03/2022 12:37

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.

Can’t say I ever loved watching the show! I watched in the early days as DS’s girlfriend lived with us for a time and she enjoyed it. Her possible excuse was that she was a teenager!

Later, if I was running late, I sometimes caught a bit of it after GMB and got drawn in. It definitely got worse as it went on with JK shouting in people’s faces and not letting them get a word in. I remember one where a guest who seemed much more articulate than usual managed to say his piece in contradiction to Kyle; he wasn’t violent or aggressive but Kyle got security to haul him off, proving he was a coward as well as a bully.

I could never understand who qualified psychologists could be involved with such a disgusting show but last night’s program cleared that up by explaining that they weren’t.

Later I couldn’t turn off fast enough so not having seen it since 2012, was surprised it was still going in 2019

CatsArePeople · 14/03/2022 12:41

I miss his show. JK is a man i would love to get drunk with Grin

WallaceinAnderland · 14/03/2022 13:08

Is it just me - I don't understand how changing the voices of the staff keeps them anonymous when they are being filmed. Are they actors?

Also that cameraman who didn't want his face shown, they showed his profile and his whole body from behind, you would totally recognise that man if you knew him.

ClandestineAdulation · 14/03/2022 13:22

@TomBradysLeftKneecap

So, a reporter from the DAILY MAIL is condemning the Jeremy Kyle show. I’ve seen everything now.
Oh this is so exciting! Years on Mumsnet and my first time being accused of working for the Daily Fail!!

Clearly not the case, just wanted to learn a bit more about the origin of the show with JK presenting it and hearing other people’s opinions has been interesting, so thanks!

OP posts:
ENoeuf · 14/03/2022 13:26

@WallaceinAnderland they are actors reading the words of actual former staff. So the people on screen are actors.

ENoeuf · 14/03/2022 13:27

ClandestineAdulation

TomBradysLeftKneecap
So, a reporter from the DAILY MAIL is condemning the Jeremy Kyle show. I’ve seen everything now.
Oh this is so exciting! Years on Mumsnet and my first time being accused of working for the Daily Fail!!

Clearly not the case, just wanted to learn a bit more about the origin of the show with JK presenting it and hearing other people’s opinions has been interesting, so thanks!

didn’t they mean a commentator in the documentary was from the Mail?

EeeICouldRipATissue · 14/03/2022 13:34

@wallaceinanderland
They hadn't changed voices - the people on screen were actors.
Speaking the words of people who had worked there.

WallaceinAnderland · 14/03/2022 13:38

[quote ENoeuf]@WallaceinAnderland they are actors reading the words of actual former staff. So the people on screen are actors.[/quote]
Thanks. I was confused to start with as they said they had changed their voices. Why didn't they just say actors would replace them to protect their identity.

browneyes77 · 14/03/2022 14:23

@ClandestineAdulation They weren’t suggesting that you worked for the Daily Mail?

They were referring to the Daily Mail reporter in the documentary that condemned the show.

WrongWayApricot · 14/03/2022 14:28

Why didn't they just say actors would replace them to protect their identity.

They did... Over and over and over again. At the start, after ad breaks and at the end...

LoisGriffinskitchen · 14/03/2022 14:38

Saddest aspect of the documentary is that Steve Dymont doesn't even have a headstone.

The very least ITV could do is pay for one.

As for JK, odious little man who despite all his bluff did not have the courage to stand up in front of the inquiry when asked to. Wanker.

HollowedOut · 14/03/2022 14:38

@HerbertChops it was well known that it was pretty much all students making up ridiculous stories to get on his radio show. I think one of my housemates was on there half a dozen times pretending to not know who got her pregnant, asking whether she should move to Australia with a man she’d just met etc. If you were bored, stoned and had no money it was a great way to kill an evening.