New Jerry Springer producer and show format announced

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: No more hotbed of hillbillies : 'Springer Show' casts characters aside to tap deeper into host's rehabilitated image : By Mary Ellen Podmolik | Chicago Tribune reporter : September 6, 2008 : It's hard to say when "The Jerry Springer Show" crossed a line, going from merely mouth-gapingly shocking to somewhere beyond the bounds of comprehension. : It probably wasn't the Nazi mom episode or the battling hillbillies. : But maybe it was the transvestite dolls. : After a season in which Springer's long-running Chicago-based talk show seemed to become more carnival freak show than talkfest, "The Jerry Springer Show" has decided to dial it down a notch. : No, it won't be an entirely kinder, gentler Springer when the new season makes its Sept. 15 debut. : There still will be shouting matches aplenty and bodyguards separating guests looking to rumble on national television. : Missing, though, will be last season's regular reliance on a colorful cast of characters that included a man with no legs and the occasionally cross-dressing puppet. : That experiment in pelting viewers with characters and distractions failed to reverse falling ratings, apparently proving that even Springer's signature brand of entertainment can go too far. The larger question is whether audience tastes are shifting, or was Springer's show simply trying too hard to win back its viewership. : Now the show, with a new executive producer, has decided to rely more on Springer and his new image as a more legitimate, prime-time entertainer to sell the program to viewers and advertisers. : Moving into mainstream : Springer may be more mainstream now than at any time since he was the mayor of Cincinnati. The transformation began two years ago when he was a contestant on " Dancing With the Stars." His reason for being on the show�so he could properly waltz with his daughter at her wedding�charmed viewers. : He's also in his second season as host of "America's Got Talent" on NBC, which was last week's top-rated program, and he recently co-hosted the 2008 Miss Universe Pageant. This spring, he gave the commencement address at Northwestern University's law school. : But after almost two decades of playing the role of referee, focusing on this new dimension to his persona just might work to entice a bigger audience and more advertisers, according to advertising executives. : Staffers at the show, which is produced at Chicago's NBC Tower, on Friday were told that supervising producer Rachelle Consiglio, who has been with the show for the past 14 years, would become executive producer. She is the wife of Steve Wilkos, a former security guard on the Springer show who now has his own talk show. : Consiglio replaces Richard Dominick, who held the position for 18 years and said he is leaving for new opportunities outside of Chicago. : Consiglio said changes to the program, which were in the works before Dominick's departure, will be noticeable because the "circus atmosphere" will be gone. : "We're just kind of getting back to focusing on Jerry," she said. "Jerry has never been more popular. We were making the show visual but we decided it took the focus off what was important. What drives the show is Jerry Springer and the stories of the guests." : Repeated efforts to reach Springer were unsuccessful. The show is seen locally on WPWR-Ch. 50 at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. weekdays. : Last season's changes tried to freshen the show, now entering its 18th season, and deal with an increasingly crowded landscape of programs battling for eyeballs. But the ploy failed to attract more viewers, and Springer's audience continued to erode. : Programs of Springer's ilk are off-limits for some advertisers, but marketers acknowledge the show can be credited for helping create the reality-TV format. : "The appetite for Jerry Springer has probably been anorexic," said Shari Anne Brill, a vice president at media agency Carat. "Any mainstream advertiser who wants mainstream America would not associate with it." : Instead, top-tier packaged-goods companies opt for tamer chatfests like those hosted by Oprah Winfrey, Tyra Banks and even Maury Povich. : But some advertising executives think Springer extending his brand to prime time may cause second-tier brands to take a look at his show. : "It's no secret that whatever is the shiniest coin in the pond is what people are looking at," said Tom Weeks, senior vice president, director of media agency Starcom Entertainment. "He's on the No. 1 show on prime time." : : Curtains for puppets? : Victoria Michaels' puppets, which include transvestite Dr. Bill, are likely victims of the program's shifted focus. : The puppeteer, based in the Peoria area, was a regular on the show last season and was told she'd be part of the coming season too. But she has yet to hear from the producers and worries the show will lose some of the frivolity of what she called "dragging hillbillies out of their trailers and dragging them Chicago. : "With Jerry, you knew you were going to get hillbillies beating up on each other," Michaels said. "[Fans] watch it for the zaniness, watch it for the craziness, watch it to see a grown man running around in a diaper. It's fun to turn on the TV and watch something that is totally out of hand." : : *** : ------ : I don't think this is going to help at all. What they should have done is completely reformatted it and scrapped the old sideshow days as history.

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