“Jerry Springer Show” Insiders on How the Talk Show Host's Famous Chant Came to Be — and How It 'Made Him a Little More Fly'

The Jerry Springer Show, faced with cancellation, took some bold risks.

In 1991, the storied talk show's reputation was a far cry from what it's known for today. The show, competing with tons of other talk shows in the daytime space, was facing cancellation when a new executive producer was brought in to shake things up.

Richard Dominick wasn't much impressed by the show when he first joined the team, as he reveals in his appearance in Netflix's new two-part docuseries Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action, streaming now.

"I thought the show was terrible. It was just boring. You had a terrible host, a terrible show; the audience is 90," Dominick recalled.

"So when I took over the show and became the executive producer, the vision that I had that I wanted everyone to fall into was, ‘Let’s take a talk show and turn it upside down. Let’s turn it upside down. Let’s make it wild. Let’s make it sexy,' because that’s what I was known for."

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Related: Jerry Springer Once Called the TV Show That Made Him Famous 'Stupid': 'I've Ruined the Culture'

While other members of the production team saw the vision, Dominick had to get Jerry Springerhimself on board, which was harder than it seemed.

"Jerry felt, ‘That’s kind of risky,' so I said to him, ‘You’re a funny guy, you’re a laid back guy. Let’s bring it out instead of trying to hide it,' " Dominick says.

"He eventually saw this had potential, and yeah, he went along with me. Let’s give it a shot and see what happens.”

Dominick's rule for staffers became, "Do not bring anything to me unless it’s interesting with the sound off.”

Dominick sealed the deal by making sure the audience was hyping Springer up.

"I told the stage manager, ‘When he comes out, I want everybody on their feet, and I want them to chant 'Jer-ry, Jer-ry, Jer-ry,' " he said.

"He was like, ‘Really?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s what I want because people at home, they’re going to think he’s famous.' ”

Producer Annette Grundy added, "That was kind of, I think, the beginning, maybe, of the metamorphosis of the show, was the fact that we made him a little more fly.”

Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action is now streaming on Netflix.

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