When my friend told me she’d gotten tickets to The Steve Wilkos Show, I jumped at the opportunity to go. I love drama, I love daytime television, and I love new experiences. This was all three in one, as I’d never been part of a live studio audience for a television show — let alone a show that is directly descended from The Jerry Springer Show.
I’d also never been to Stamford. Although we drove from the highway almost right into a parking garage next to the studio, it looked like a beautiful city from the small amount I saw. By the time we arrived, the line was already snaking out of the building. It was the beginning of production for the show’s 17th season, and everyone had arrived early to be part of the television-making magic.
When I say The Steve Wilkos Show is directly descended from The Jerry Springer Show, I mean that pretty literally. Wilkos was the head of security for Springer’s show for over a decade. Wilkos got his hosting debut on Springer’s show, filling in for Springer during his stint on Dancing With the Stars. The DNA of the Springer formula is still present in Wilkos’s show, but the bawdiness is toned way down.
To answer the question you’re all wondering, yes, the show is real, or at least as far as I can tell. The audience reactions are real, if heightened for dramatic effect. The guests are real people, their stories are real, and the stakes are real. Accusations of infidelity and child molestation are serious. They destroy real families every day. That reality can get lost when the studio audience is raucously chanting “STEEEEEEEEEVE!”
That’s Steve Wilkos’s greatest strength as a host, though. He has the nuance and compassion to treat his guests’ stories with the care and concern they deserve, and the showmanship and sense of humor to keep the mood from getting too heavy. And there was real potential for things to get heavy in the morning recording session. One guest was a woman who was afraid that the father of her child, a compulsive liar, was cheating on her with one of his coworkers. Another was a man accused by his longtime girlfriend’s daughter of touching her inappropriately. A couple with six children accused each other of being serial cheaters.
Each of these stories were resolved with a lie detector test, and the results were surprising (no spoilers here though!). Wilkos was funny, open-minded and offered genuine advice.
Before going to the taping, I wondered why people would, from my perspective, embarrass themselves by airing all of their dirty laundry for the world to see. So I listened carefully when one of the guests said she went to Steve because he was her idol, and that she and her boyfriend watched him together every day. I could understand why she sought him out for help and guidance. Yes, his job is to make a television show, and yeah, maybe the guests were seeking their 15 minutes of fame. But I could also see that Wilkos wanted to help, and the guests wanted him to.
Wilkos asked another of the guests why she continued to stay with her philandering boyfriend. “Because when things are good, Steve, they’re great. And I think that we can have more good times if we can get through this,” she explained. It was another clarifying moment for me. Aren’t a few moments of potential national embarrassment worth it if a lie detector test will save these relationships and families?
Not only did I have an absolute blast hooting and gasping in the audience, I left Stamford with a newfound respect for what Steve Wilkos does, and what his guests are seeking. It’s not simply fame or notoriety they’re looking for, but love. Learning the truth could lead to rebirth for the guests of the show, either as a stronger couple going forward, or as stronger individuals moving on.
NEXT: The Steve Wilkos Show will premiere its 17th season on Sept. 25. Check local listings for air times. Jamil is headed to Buckland Hills Mall to have a good laugh at The Funny Bone Comedy Club.
