The Steve Wilkos Show is a syndicated American tabloid talk show hosted by Steve Wilkos. The series is a spin-off of the Jerry Springer show, where Wilkos was employed as head of security. The Steve Wilkos Show debuted on September 10, 2007, two months after Wilkos' departure as director of security on Jerry Springer. As of May 2024, the show is in its eighteenth season.
Description
The Steve Wilkos show is a spin-off from the Steve to the Rescue segments on Jerry Springer.[1][2][3] Some of the topics he covers include adultery, domestic abuse, child molestation, child abuse, paternity, disrespectful children, teenage pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, rape, theft, phobia, murder, kidnapping, and missing person reports.
Wilkos has appeared twice on Maury; first in 2008,[8] and then on its 2,500th episode in 2013.[9]
On November 22, 2013, The Steve Wilkos Show celebrated its 1000th episode, along with Jerry Springer and Rachelle Wilkos as special guests. The episode looked back on its first seven seasons.[10]
The Steve Wilkos Show celebrated its tenth anniversary in September 2016. Steve and Rachelle Wilkos, as well as the producers, hosted a series of tributes entitled "A Decade of Steve", looking back on the first nine seasons.
In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the show was recorded without studio audience involvement due to social distancing regulations, with only a certain number of in-person guests allowed in-studio and others joined virtually (via video chat). On November 9, 2021, Wilkos announced on social media that his show would once again allow in-studio live audiences. As of 2022, the show has returned with an in-person studio audience and a newly-renovated set.
In the second season, Wilkos began dividing some episodes into two segments, each one dealing with different guests and issues. In rare cases, there can be three segments in one episode. Additionally, paternity tests and infidelity were added as topics to the show.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, executive producer Richard Dominick was forced from the program by Jerry Springer and NBC Universal Domestic Television after encouraging Wilkos to become extremely physical with a guest. Rachelle Wilkos, Wilkos's wife, and a long-time Jerry Springer crew member, became the program's executive producer.[11][12] Steve Wilkos admitted to being dissatisfied with the show's first season, saying "All I did was yell at everybody and throw people off the stage. There was no level of emotion -- just hardcore yelling." Upon his wife taking over, she encouraged him to be himself and go with his "gut."[13]
Some episodes of the show have led to guests being arrested or convicted of crimes:
in November 2011, Norwich, Connecticut police arrested Burke Bergman after he failed a lie detector test about molesting his son, in the episode "Three Possible Dads, One Possible Molester" aired on September 19, 2011.[14]
Five months following the October 3, 2012 episode "Did You Rape My Daughter?", guest Shaun Whitt was arrested in Flagler County, Florida on charges of molesting his then-11-year-old step-daughter beginning in 2010. In September 2014, Whitt was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on count one and to thirty years in prison on count two.[15]
The May 6, 2015 episode "Did You Violate Our Trust...and Our Children?"[16] led to the arrest of 22-year-old Dameion McBride in Kansas City, Missouri for molesting three children.[17] McBride was convicted in late 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.[18]
Nearly a week after the May 15, 2017 broadcast of the episode "Horrific Child Abuse Caught on Video",[19] police in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania arrested 21-year-old Jessica Lynn Samick on 2 charges of 1st degree murder. She was suspected of murdering and killing a one-year-old boy whom she was babysitting.[20][21]
Broadcast history and release
Wilkos' third season premiered on September 14, 2009, originating from the Stamford Media Center in Stamford, Connecticut. Production of the show had relocated from Chicago to Stamford earlier that year, complete with a new studio.[22] Fellow NBC-Universal talkers Maury and Jerry Springer made the move, as well.[23]
In May 2022, it was announced that The Steve Wilkos Show had been renewed for a sixteenth season.[24] On March 21, 2023, the show was renewed for a seventeenth season.[25] The show was renewed for an eighteenth season on March 27, 2024.[26]
Reception
Critical reception
After attending tapings of the show in August 2007, Chicago Sun-Times TV critic Mike Thomas said of Wilkos: "...his toughness is tempered by tenderness".[27]
Brian Lowry of Variety had a negative review of the first week of shows, calling them "tawdry" and adding: "If Wilkos and company really cared, one suspects they'd bypass the televised morality plays, spare tearful teenagers from watching their father humiliated and go straight to the cops for restraining orders, but that's not nearly as cathartic as getting in people's grills and yelling at them."[28]
Television viewership and ratings
The show's first season had the highest-rated premiere of fall 2007, with a Nielsen rating of 1.1.[29] From 2007 to 2014, the show had the highest rating growth out of any syndicated talk show, especially among households and women aged 25 to 54.[30] In November 2014, the show had a Nielsen rating of 1.5,[31] with an estimated 1.8 million daily viewers.[32] As of March 2020, the show averaged a 1.0 Nielsen rating, with 1.4 million daily viewers according to NBCU.[33]
^Feder, Robert (September 3, 2008). "Fall from 'Springer'". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on September 6, 2008. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
