Trash TV

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see also tabloid talk show

Trash TV is a form of television programming that was popularized by a wide variety of daytime television talk show hosts in the 1990s. Some of the programs listed here have proudly accepted the "trash" label, such as The Jerry Springer Show, while others like Jenny Jones resent the statement.

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[edit] History

The Trash TV format originated in 1970 with Phil Donahue, as host of The Phil Donahue Show. Although Donahue's show originally started off as a show similar to the others of its day, he soon began to push the envelope with the discussion of topics deemed to be taboo. In the 1980s, other talk shows began to follow a format similar to Donahue's. Examples of these shows include Sally Jessy Raphael with her show of the same name; and Geraldo Rivera with his show, Geraldo. Oprah's show became wildly successful, and more imitators soon appeared. In 1991, Jerry Springer debuted The Jerry Springer Show, Jenny Jones debuted The Jenny Jones Show, Maury Povich debuted Maury, and Montel Williams debuted The Montel Williams Show. In 1993, Ricki Lake debuted her own show.

In 1986, on an episode dealing with transvestism, Donahue briefly wore a dress over his suit as a joke, establishing a trash TV concept of the host being dismissive towards, or at least bemused by his guests and panelists.

Former singer and radio talk host Morton Downey, Jr. would take Donahue's casual dismissiveness and transform it to open hostility directed towards his guests in the form of blowing cigarette smoke in their faces, shouting his catch phrase "Zip it!" at them, and occasionally ejecting them from the set. Though it was aired at night, and ostensibly dealt with serious political and social issues, The Morton Downey, Jr. Show was a pioneer in the Trash TV subgenre; and its foul language, violent in-studio fights, and extremely dysfunctional guests lead to it becoming one of the most successful television talk shows of its time.

The hostility brewing between host and guest, and guests with each other boiled over with Geraldo Rivera, an Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist with a stint at ABC's news magazine 20/20. By the 1980s, Rivera had a syndicated daytime talkshow. Rivera also had a penchant for flamboyance and sensationalistic tabloid-style reporting on such subjects as Satanic ritual abuse and 1986's notorious dud The Secret of Al Capone's Vault. While civil rights activist Roy Innis got into a shoving match with Rev. Al Sharpton on Downey's show, on Geraldo he would actually come to blows with white supremacists Tom and John Metzger. Other panelists and audience members quickly joined in the fracas, and in the insuing brawl, Rivera's nose was broken when he was struck in the face with a chair. The show became one of the most talked about episodes of Rivera's career.

Like Downey and Rivera, former Cincinnati mayor Jerry Springer's eponymous talkshow initially dealt with sociopolitical issues when it debuted in 1991 before going the same route blazed by Rivera, but The Jerry Springer Show would push the envelope even further with stories of lurid sexual trysts - often between family members - and stripping guests and audience members. By this point, the hostility and simmering violence had been turned into a ritual. Fueding family members would come out on stage and a boxing ring bell would chime to commence the brawling. Wigs invariably got knocked loose, clothing got torn, but stage security guard Steve would separate the combatants before the action got too violent.

With the abundance of these new shows, each of them was forced to compete with each other for higher ratings and higher ad revenues.

By the early 2000s, the genre began to decline in popularity with viewing audiences as certain hosts either saw their shows canceled due to low ratings (i.e. Jenny Jones and Sally Jesse Raphaël) or voluntarily ended their shows to pursue other interests such as Ricki Lake. Many media analysts have attributed the decline in popularity of "Trash TV" and daytime talk in general to competition from cable as well as the presumption that viewers were tiring of the constant recycling of subjects that are often shown on such programs. Another explanation would be that the same audience shifted directly over to the new "Reality" TV genre that rose to prominence at around the same time. As early as the late 1990s, certain hosts such as Montel Williams began to distance their programs from the trend by refocusing them from sensational fare to more serious subject matter. Another example of this trend was Geraldo Rivera ending his show in 1998 to focus on his CNBC News program full time. Still despite a decline in popularity, shows such as The Jerry Springer Show and Maury remain popular with their loyal fanbases.

Ironically, The Phil Donahue Show, which essentially originated the subgenre, was cancelled in 1996 when it could not compete with the new crop of trashier and more vulgar shows. Donahue and Rivera would later attempt to re-establish their journalistic credentials on cable television: Donahue with a short lived talk show on MSNBC, and Rivera filing reports on CNBC, NBC, and later Fox News Channel. Maury Povich also attempted to do this recently hosting a weekend news show in 2006 with wife Connie Chung on MSNBC while still hosting his daytime show. The show, Weekends with Maury and Connie was canceled after six months due to low ratings and panned by many of the same critics who also have criticized his daytime talk show. Even Jerry Springer, while continuing to host his televised "freak show", also hosts a more serious talk show on Air America Radio.

[edit] Characteristics

The wave of trash TV shows from the 1990s brought many new characteristics to the subgenre. These characteristics include frequent obscenities, controversial guests, and in-studio fighting. Topics are always more provocative, disgusting, and offensive than those of typical talk shows. For example, most trash TV shows include a wide variety of topics, including extramarital affairs, paternity test results, rebellious teenagers who are then sent off to boot camp, bestiality, incest, strange fetishes, the Ku Klux Klan, racism, marital jealousy, sexism, lesbianism, and adult movie stars. The Jerry Springer Show is noted for being one of the trashiest shows of the genre and epitomizing the trash TV show, and indeed proudly proclaims itself as the worst television show in history, quoting a TV Guide review of the show. Morning radio personality Howard Stern, while rejecting the often applied label of "shock jock", also incorporates many of these aspects in the televised versions of his daily radio show.

The label of "trash" has also been applied to various reality television series that featured sexual encounters between participants (i.e. Big Brother) and contest shows like Fear Factor that included contestants consuming or immersed in disgusting substances (insects, animal parts, etc.).

[edit] Trash television in Europe

While American talk shows like Jerry Springer (as well as homegrown European imitations) are widely syndicated and popular throughout Europe, the daytime television initially labeled as "Trash TV" often featured an erotic element not seen on American television, such as Germany's RTL Network, which became well-known in the 1990s for such fare as the game show Tutti Frutti with its topless female chorus and stripping contestants, and Peep!, an erotic anthology series.

[edit] List of shows considered to be Trash TV

[edit] See also

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