Nearly six years on since the curtain finally came down on controversial ITV talk show The Jeremy Kyle Show, the series’ host appears on Kate Garraway’s Life Stories this evening (Tuesday April 1).
Jeremy, 59, told interviewer Kate during the TV chat there can’t be any way back for the daytime series, which was described by a judge in 2007 as “human bear-baiting” as he passed sentence on a guest who headbutted another in front of the cameras.
Talk presenter Jeremy reflected: “It was a juggernaut. You’d look now and think that was a bygone era. We launched in 2005, just before the advent of social media.”
He added: “I think that changed everything. People would watch it because it would help them, they’d feel better about their own lives. Many people were invested in it. The world has changed dramatically.
“You can’t say boo to a goose now, can you? But I’m immensely proud of those numbers of episodes, taking it to America, and the people that we genuinely helped.”
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The Jeremy Kyle Show’s downfall – a timeline
Ploughing a well-worn TV furrow established by Jerry Springer, The Jeremy Kyle Show began airing in July 2005. It replaced Trisha in the schedules, and platformed conflicts between guests which often resulted in dramatic confrontations.
Slammed as “trash” in court, the programme was also described as “a plain disgrace which goes under the guise of entertainment”. Jeremy, meanwhile, insisted in an interview in 2007 with the Daily Mirror that he was “proud” of the show. He maintained that guests were assisted, not exploited. Jeremy claimed: “Sometimes people need to be stripped bare before they can be helped.”
However, in July 2009, a male former guest – in a separate case – was sentenced to two years after admitting GBH. He’d been in a couple with a female guest who had also appeared on the show regarding an alleged infidelity. She was left with a shattered eye socket and cheekbone, and bite marks.
There were further allegations another guest, a recovering alcoholic, was given beer by producers, which was denied by the show. And, in 2015, the show came under fire after the studio audience laughed at a male domestic abuse victim.
Amid these controversies, and throughout its run, The Jeremy Kyle Show was held in contempt by TV and cultural critics.
Death of Steve Dymond
The Jeremy Kyle Show was axed in May 2019, one day after former guest Steve Dymond passed away. He took his own life a week after failing a lie detector test about his faithfulness to his partner on the programme. The episode Steve was part of has never aired on TV.
A few days later ITV’s chief executive Carolyn McCall announced the show would be permanently axed “given the gravity of recent events”.
A DCMS select committee launched an inquiry into the treatment of vulnerable people on reality TV. It also took evidence from two former Jeremy Kyle guests.
MP Damian Collins said in October 2019: “It is clear that once the cameras started rolling on The Jeremy Kyle Show there was no safe space for anyone in a highly distressed state, verified by the behind the scenes footage passed to the committee by a whistleblower.
“What we’ve seen demonstrates a failure on the part of ITV studios in its responsibility towards contributors and makes a mockery of the ‘aftercare’ it has claimed to provide.”
The Jeremy Kyle Show inquest
An inquest between in September 2024 concluded it was “speculative” to suggest The Jeremy Kyle Show had a role in his death.
The coroner decided there was “insufficient evidence” comments by Jeremy Kyle contributed to Steve’s distress.
My conscience is clear.
Jeremy stated in September 2024: “My conscience is clear. The coroner was right in that there was nothing I did or could have done to stop this tragedy. I was presenting a show. Steve had been cleared to appear by both ITV’s aftercare ream and his own GP.”
However, the backlash has led to increased safeguarding measures for those taking part in TV shows following an Ofcom review.
And according to The Guardian in May 2021, at least five other Jeremy Kyle guests came forward to say they attempted suicide after appearing on the show. Additionally, Natasha Reddican, a producer on the show who was not linked to the episode concerning Steve, took her own life in February 2020.
Show ‘grading’
The same report in The Guardian quoted insiders as claiming each episode was graded A to D by show bosses. One was said to say: “An A show would be a high conflict show. Not physical, but something where it goes off. There’s lots of storming around the studio. Lots of heightened emotions, lots of shouting, lots of what they called ‘really good entrances’. When they come on and they are immediately kicking off, nine times out of 10 you’re going to get an A show for that.
“A D show would be low energy, low conflict, poor talkers who couldn’t really express what they were trying to say properly or were too nervous. Or their story didn’t stand up under scrutiny from Jeremy.”
The former show staff member also noted how potential guests would not be cast if they “were on any kind of antipsychotic”. They explained: “It was an immediate no. If people were taking particularly high doses of medication for depression, it would be a no. If they were taking anything that might affect them physically, like they had a heart defect, it could be a no.”
At the time, ITV reportedly said it did “not propose to comment” on the “unsubstantiated allegations”.
Kate Garraway’s Life Stories: Jeremy Kyle is on ITV tonight, Tuesday April 1, at 9pm.
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