A Netflix documentary reveals the true story behind the hottest show of the 90s

Pa Jonathan Klotz
| Published 1 second ago

Reality TV used to mean shows like this A bachelor, Jersey Shoreand Real Housewivesit was used to describe the wild west of daytime television in the 90s, where it seemed like every show had to try to outdo the other in the battle for ratings. Moors became a hit with episodes about fatherhood, Lake Ricky fueled the tabloids with scandalous episodes of relationships, but no one could compare to the king, The Jerry Springer Show. Netflix’s most popular new release of 2025 Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action, a behind-the-scenes documentary about the men and women who helped organize the three-band circus that remains part of pop culture today.

Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

Jerry Springer: Action, Camera, Action short for a Netflix a documentary as it is not a TV series Cheer up or The king of tigersand instead is as short, raucous and controversial as the daytime show itself. initially, The Jerry Springer Show matched the real personality of the man behind the mic, and it was a low-key look at everyday issues and family ties, but it didn’t bring in the ratings. The documentary follows the fateful decision to go gold, abandoning any pretense that the show would help people heal and make the world a better place, as explained by the men and women who changed television forever.

Producer Richard Dominique is nominated in the Jerry Springer: Action, Camera, Action like a mad genius who is decades in the making streaming services like Netflix and the push for “prestige TV” have found the crudest, crudest, and most lewd people in America. Confirming old Internet legends, Dominic’s team revealed that 75 percent of the guests were from the Springer Triangle, the area that stretches from Ohio to Tennessee and Georgia, where the film crew found most of the guests. That and the producers admit that the guests were deliberately angered to provoke the famous fights, although even in the documentary they defend that the stories were real.

Tobias Yoshimura, one of the “Hunters” responsible for finding people willing to go on national television and tell their amazing stories for nothing but a hotel night and free transportation, left the show at one point due to a moral crisis. Affairs were commonplace and taboo relationships were in the spotlight, but The Jerry Springer Show the documentary examines the lowest point when Pixel the horse and the man who officially married her are discussed in gruesome detail. A man leaving his family for a horse and then playing with it on national television sounds fictional, but it happened, and it is talented researchers like Yoshimura who have found an endless supply of people to tell the story.

The show that changed everything

The only person not featured Jerry Springer: Action, Camera, Action Steve Wilkos, a longtime security executive who later earned his own TV series, didn’t take part in the advice of Netflix naysayers. The Steve Wilkos Show. It’s a glaring omission, but it’s notable that Wilkos often avoided discussing his team on the popular ’90s show while talking to fans, preferring to focus on his own work. In fact, the documentary doesn’t cover much, mostly focusing on the show’s heyday in the 90s, even though it aired until 2018.

Jerry Springer: Action, Camera, Action isn’t Netflix’s best documentary, but as a streamer doing a a fatal blow to the cableit’s a fascinating look at what television was like before the advent of streaming services. Jerry Springer may have once been the respected mayor of Cincinnati, but he was also the most powerful TV host of all time, either the boss or the Devil, depending on who you ask. For those who lived through the rise of Springermania, the documentary is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at what really happened, and for those who missed the madness, it’s a great look at the show that changed television history.

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