How a Sex Scandal Sparked Jerry Springer's 'Obsession' with Overcoming Shame — and Shaped His TV Career

"Be it as an anchor, a mayor or a commentator ... I was determined to have you know that I was more than a check and a hooker on a one-night stand," said Springer, who died Thursday at age 79

Before Jerry Springer's TV career, he worked in politics, serving on the Cincinnati city council before being elected the city's mayor.

Springer, then 30, resigned from his city council position in April 1974 when it came out that he had paid for sex at a brothel using checks. Without using Springer's name, an Enquirer article named a "well-known Cincinnati political family" who was the subject of an investigation in Ohio and Kentucky. Springer, who died Thursday at age 79, took responsibility for his actions in a press conference and resigned.

"When I resigned yesterday, I did so because I believed then as I believe now that there are some problems which are better faced as a private citizen," Springer told reporters at the time.

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Springer felt disappointed that the council voted unanimously to accept his resignation.

"I'm not going to beg," Springer said in 1977, according to Cincinnati's WCPO. "What I did was wrong, but I still have a certain amount of pride and self-respect left. I loved my work. It was my life. But I committed a serious indiscretion, to my way of thinking, and I guess I must pay for it now dearly."

He then testified at the trial of three men accused of operating a Kentucky "health club" where Springer admitted to going twice for sex. On the stand, Springer said he wrote two checks, in the amounts of $25 and $50, in exchange for sex.

Springer never faced charges and continued his political career, being reelected him to his city council seat in 1975 and then running for Cincinnati mayor. In a commercial for his mayoral campaign, Springer owned up to paying for sex years earlier.

"Nine years ago I spent time with a woman I shouldn't have. And I paid her with a check. I wish I hadn't done that," Springer said in the ad, per The New York Times. "And the truth is, I wish no one would ever know. But in the rough world of politics, opponents are not about to let personal embarrassments lay to rest."

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Springer's honesty paid off. In 1977, he took office as Cincinnati's mayor.

"When I think of being flat on my back three years ago, having this happen is almost unbelievable," Springer, a former campaign adviser to Robert Kennedy, said in 1977. "This is the best feeling I've ever had in my political life."

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After serving as mayor, Springer made an unsuccessful bid for Ohio governor as the Democratic candidate in 1982. From there, Springer got a job as a political reporter and commentator at NBC's Cincinnati affiliate, WLWT, thanks to well-received commentaries he did during his mayoral term called "The Springer Memorandum" on radio station WEBN-FM.

Springer turned around the news station's ratings and won 10 local Emmys for his work. In 1991, Cincinnati-based Multimedia Entertainment announced daytime program The Jerry Springer Show. It began as a hard news show, with Springer tackling subjects like AIDS, homelessness and domestic violence.

"When we started, we were a serious show," Springer told the Today show in 2017. "But then all of a sudden, it started going crazy. And when universal bought us, they said, 'From now on, only crazy.'

When The Jerry Springer Show entered its second season and moved filming to Chicago, Springer continued anchoring the news in Cincinnati. By 1993, as the ratings of his news broadcast dipped, Springer decided to leave to purse The Jerry Springer Show full time.

Springer reflected on his career in Cincinnati during his final broadcast.

"In political terms as well as human here in Cincinnati, I was dead. But then, in probably the luckiest decision I ever made, I decided, no, I'm staying put," he told the audience. "You see, I selfishly did not want there to be any place in America where I couldn't go — where I couldn't one day with children or grandchildren return, barred by some shame and scandal. No, if I were going to beat it, I would beat it where it happened — right here in River City. And so it became an obsession."

Springer said he decided to withstand "all of the jokes, all the ridicule, and I would pretend it didn't hurt" in order to "give every ounce of my being to Cincinnati."

"Why in time, I was thinking, you'd have to like me. Or if not like me, at least respect me," he continued. "And I'd run for council, even un-endorsed. I'd prove to you that I could be the best public servant you'd ever had … or I'd die trying. Be it as an anchor, a mayor or a commentator – whatever it took – I was determined to have you know that I was more than a check and a hooker on a one-night stand."

After things turned, Springer thought, "Maybe it's God's way of teaching us."

Springer concluded by saying he "had fallen in love with" Cincinnati, "which is part of the reason I have been so sad this week."

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The Jerry Springer Show went on to run for 27 seasons until 2018.

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