So Jerry Springer's ex-security chief Steve got his own talk show, which debuted today. He seems to be going for a mix of Maury's lie detector/cheater drama and Springer antics with a dash of tough guy thrown in. Case in point: today's show featured a stalker ex-boyfriend who Steve called out to a fight and an accused child molester who failed a lie detector test to prove his innocence.

My question is: how long before chairs go a-flying?

This show is a waste of time. It's Springer light or Dr. Phil for the lower class yahoo set.

I listened to it for 5 minutes yesterday and today. It appears that Steve Wilko's brand of helping consists of continuously yelling "what is wrong with you?" at the offender . This guy hardly ever stops with the yelling - it's like he thinks ...loud means I care.

It works for Bill O'Reilly.

I must have gotten lucky, I don't think this airs in my area. If it does it must air when I'm asleep, thank goodness.

I never cared for him when he was chief of security of the Springer Show. And then over the last two seasons when they let him host (usually on Friday) but more this past season when Jerry was Dancing With the Stars, he was obnoxious. "I was a Chicago cop and I know what goes on in the streets. I had guys twice as big as you for breakfast! Yada, yada yada" When he subbed for JS there were a few guys who wanted to take him on and Steve would dare them. There were a number of them who I believed could HAVE taken him on and won if it had been one-on-one, but the guests knew Steve had the bodyguards as backup.

They had 2 episodes on WGN today, because of a Cubs make-up game Monday. I could only take 2 minutes of him. Got getiing up in peoples faces and shouting so that the veins pop out on his forehead. Springer may be phony as all hell, but I'd much rather watch him than this crap! At least JS makes me laugh. I bet this show doesn't have to use the pixilation machine as much as Jerry.

It's like they send the Springer guests the have a good story- and can speak clearly- over to Steve.

These episodes are way too deep for daytime TV. I know I can just 'change the chanel'- I don't know if they're being for real but I'd really not even want to think about these. They don't offer a help line at the end or anything we just hear some SICK story, hear Steve GO OFF on them and then the show's finished. I'm confused...

Didn't Springer get mad at Wilkos one time on his show? I remember one of JS shows were a fight broke out and after things had settled down JS jumped on security for not acting fast enough. Was that Wilkos he got mad at?

I didn't get the episode with Ray who may or may not have made an advance toward his stepdaughter. We got the "I'll break your damn legs" pimp/boyfriend/baby-daddy. Did anyone see Ray? Did he do it?

Both Ray and David, the biological dad, took polygraphs, and David failed his while Ray passed his. David's results were inconclusive, but he did admit that he'd heard so many versions of the rape/molestation from Kirjah over the years that he didn't know what to believe and had some doubts about what really happened. There was also a question that David either failed or admitted was true, that he had physically abused his own kids the way his ex-wife and Ray had accused him of earlier.

Thanks. I don't know why they didn't show the episode here.

Did anyone see Fridays episode? I saw previews on Thursday but wasn't home- I know it was about a girl who has babys but gives them away... I really wanted to watch lol... who does she give the babys to and how many kids does she have?

Oh my gosh -- I tried to give this show the benefit of the doubt, but, I just can't take it anymore!

It screams scripted to me. These people cannot be real! Each and every single one of them are so one-note, there are no layers, they're like badly-written characters ... including Steve!

This is a shame. I liked him on Jerry, but, maybe that's because he was a feature of the show and not the focus. This show, though, it's like he yells at people until they say what he wants them to say, and then he's all, "oh, well, don't you just suck as a person? Look at me! I'm good. I'm great! These people in my audience are great!"

And, furthermore as to why I think it's scripted -- there are plot holes. Yes, plot holes.

The other day there was a woman on there who was raising her teen daughter's baby as her own and telling the baby his mother was his sister. At first, she's all, "I won't stop doing it, the baby is mine! She can come home as his sister or stay gone! I don't care if she wants to raise him!"

Then, by the end of the episode -- after a lot of yelling from Steve about what a bad mother she is -- the yelling shifts to the daughter about what a bad daughter she is, and the story is now, "look at what your mom has done for you, raising your baby --- and you told her to raise him as your brother! You have no shame, you should be a mother to this baby, not his sister! It was all your idea!"

As if, I don't know, he twisted the story just so he could make sure to yell at them both.

I don't know -- I'm soapboxing now, so, I'm going to stop.

Just wanted to say he needs some variety, quick, 'cause this "Steve Saves The World!" crap is getting old quick.

Soapbox time..... I noticed that SW's show is following the disturbing trend that's been a staple of many daytime talk shows.

The majority of these shows put down women for being sexual. Yesterdays show (10/10/07) had Steve yelling at a 16 year old female who supposedly had slept with 30+ men. (I say supposedly cause half of me thinks this show is scripted just to amp up the drama factor. Without the drama, how would Steve's audience be able to hoot and catcall every few minutes?)

Anyway, Steve yelled at the girl and at her mother, saying that she
1) should not be having sex at all, 2) having sex with so many men. I would love to see Steve, or any other show (Maury!) bring on a 16 year old male and his father, and yell at him for this same behavior.

I'm just using SW's show as an example of this pet peeve of mine, cause he went there. This is just another in a long list who are continuing the double standard in society that sexual females are "dirty and shameful" sluts, but men can have multiple conquests without as much condemnation.

I generally enjoyed the Springer eps where Steve hosted, but now that he's got his own show, he seems a lot meaner, not funny, and less understanding. He does his bad cop schtick on almost every guest whom he's decided is the bad guy, so when he's actually yelling at someone who deserves it, like a wife-beater, it seems meaningless and has lost all impact. It's really annoying and frustrating how he only takes the side of one guest and then villifies the other person, as though only the supposed victim is telling the truth and like there are no valid understandable reasons for someone who obviously hasn't had a lot of opportunity and support in life to have done some of these bad things, like becoming addicted to drugs. That's not to excuse these guests for doing these things, but when you're from a lower socioeconomic bracket, it is more understandable.

I had to laugh when one of the adverts for future guests yesterday was "Do you have a story that will make Steve explode with anger?" What story hasn't made him explode with anger so far?

I think he should change the name of his show to "You have a baby growing inside of you!"

Seriously, I think he said it on every show this week, except for Friday, and he appears to be making up for that by going right back to "You have a baby growing inside of you!" on Monday.

He's only been on for...what? A month? And he's already stale and predictable. You don't even have to watch his show to know what's going to happen.

Another thing I have an issue with is that he keeps telling people to hit him and following it up most of the time with "I'm going to kick your ass!" I'm no cop and know nothing of Chicago law, but, isn't that communicating a threat? I know that if *I* walked up to someone and said, "hey, hit me, fight me ... I'm going to lay your sorry ass out" that I'd probably be in lock-up right now.

Then again, I'm still of the mind that this whole thing is scripted. There simply can't be THAT many pregnant crackheads and abusive druggies willing to come on TV and say, "I'm a pregnant crackhead" or "I'm an abusive druggie" as have been on that show over the past month.


ETA: Perhaps Steve's "Steve Saves The World" theme would be better served if he came out in a cape and tights?

Eww. OK...nix the tights.

That "Devil Mom" that was on today...needs to die. She had already damaged her kid by performing oral sex on her two years before she pimped her out to what, thankfully, turned out to be an undercover cop. She didn't have a clue and kept referring to the cop as a "homewrecker."

Steve Drinking Game:
Take a drink whenever Steve:

1. Won't let a woman beater have a chair.
2. Threatens the dude in #1.
3. Cites his military and/or cop experience.
4. Refers to baby "growing inside you."
5. Refers to the fact that he's a father and what a wonderful father he is.
6. Has a punk hauled off stage.

Feel free to add more.

Hey - I just watched a 1/2 hour of this program and all six items happened! Ta-da - I'm drunk! Today it was a pregnant ho (with two kids) and her pimp. Steve also had a fellow Marine in the audience who said, 'We eat guys like you for breakfast!' a couple times for good measure. Is it just me do the guests just say what he wants to hear to appease him so they can get the hell off the stage?

Also I imagine that he probably has stale, smelly breath.

7. Refers to someone as one of the biggest pieces of garbage to ever cross his stage.
8. Goes from zero to sixty in a flash.
9. Turns red in anger.
10. Gets right in someone's face.
11. Immediately makes up his mind who the victim and the villain of the story are, and subsequently refuses to let the villain tell his or her side of the story.
12. Literally throws or kicks a chair aside when a guest tries to sit down.
13. Reduces complex longterm problems to smug simplistic judgmental platitudes about how the guest is just an irresponsible loser to have gotten into something like drug use or having unplanned children.

Y'all, I think we've got this show figured out. All one has to do is watch the preview or first couple of minutes to see who the players are, then the rest is listed in our above drinking game.

Did anyone see the bastard who squeezed his baby's head, shook him, and choked his mother until she wet herself? He kept talking about how the baby should never have been born since she was "supposed to get an abortion." Why can't they do something with the tape and have that creep put away?

Did anyone watch today? With the pedophile? Steve was calm the whole time the guy was telling his story and then when they come back from commercial he starts his normal routine ( which for a pedophile I really don't mind) of screaming and such. I kind fo felt bad for the guy (although I definatly feel he should be put away for what he did) he was obviously not right in his head/ slow. I've heard that many of these kind of people have problems with relating to other people or feeling remorse or emotions.
There's no way this can be fake? Could you imagine seeing that guy in the store and being like Oh you're the pedophile and he says oh no it was all just for tv...
It annoying when he keeps calling people on and off his stage... the fat girl yesterday got called on and off the stage like 3 times.

I'm sick of this guy- yes I should just change the channel but I didn't feel like it- I was watching this show for 45 minutes before I realized that the entire show was spent yelling at the guy who broke the babys leg- yes that is sick and disgusting and all that but Steve kept turning everything the guy said back on him just repeating and yelling it back at him ex: guest- I'm done steve-(shouting) was your daughter done was your daughter done when you twisted her leg did your daughter say she was done when you broke her leg... and so on......... this show sucks. It's worse then jerry springer.

What I can't stand is that he *always* seems to have someone in his audience who can back up his soapbox-sermon-of-the-day.

Guest is a woman who sold her baby for crack? Well, lo and behold! There's someone in the audience whose mama sold them for crack!

Guest is a man who abused a child? Lo and behold! There's someone in the audience who was abused as a child!

Guest is someone who had a turkey on wheat for lunch? Lo and behold! There's someone in the audience who had a turkey on wheat for lunch!

I envy the people who can turn this show off. My mother - I love the woman, she gave birth to me, have no problems with her - insists on watching it every. single. day. Our house is small. There's no escaping the screaming.

Finally, to conclude my disjointed complaining -- Steve's past as a cop is supposed to be one of the crutches on which he leans to support all his posturing, right? I mean, he keeps reminding us he used to be a cop. "I buried guys like you when I was a cop!"

So, yesterday on "I Traded My Daughter For A Bird," Mom's defending her choice of sending her 16-year-old daughter to live with a 43-year-old man in exchange for a bird by saying the cops told her 16 is the age of consent (or something).

Steve comes back with, "Do you believe everything the cops tell you?"

Um...yes, Steve. Because, they're cops.

Fortunately, I don't believe cops who become moronic talk show hosts so, all is well.

In reference to the thread title, I vote for one-trick pony. On today's show, (I only watched about 5 minutes of it) there is a man who molested his children.  It turns out that he had been molested when he was young.  While I know I shouldn't look at these shows with any sort of psychological interest, I would've liked more information about the father before throwing him to the audience lions.  Not that what he went through excuses what he did, but it does add an aspect that, unfortunately, One-Trick-Yeller never got to. (I'm assuming he never got to it--I didn't stick around for it.)

It also makes me wonder just how real these shows are--I know I wouldn't be yelling at him if I were the kids.  It's a talk show! Bash him in the head with a chair! Pretend it's the Morton Downey Jr. Show and come out, puffing away, ready to start a fight. (Ahhh...the "good ol' days" of trashy talk shows...)

I actually saw him this morning bitching out the woman who eventually took her stepdaughter's daughter away for abuse because she and her husband didn't beat the shit out of the stepdaughter when they first noticed it.

Closing: "Rent-A-Center! Where you can get cheap shit for three times the price and kick it out from under woman beaters and deadbeat dads!"

I watched this show for like a few minutes and I had to turn it off. I have a hard time seeing this show as the real thing. Should'nt all the guests be in rehab/jail/mental insitution instead of this asshole's show if any of their problems are real? If Steve was a real badass like he's pretending to be then why does'nt he beat up the child molestors and crappy parents on his show then? Seems to me that Steve is just a blowhard cop with all bark and no bite.

I've lost just about all of my respect for Steve since this show began. When he was hosting Springer episodes last season, and on the earlier "Steve to the Rescue" episodes, he seemed kinder, more understanding, even funny. Either he did a very good job at hiding his true self all those years, or his bad cop/tough love style just got out of control once he had his own show and was able to do and say whatever he wanted to.

On today's show, at the end - after Steve had spent the hour yelling and screaming and threatening to kill Abusive Parent #43,659 - a woman in the audience stood up and asked Steve how he could preach that we need to stop the violence when the only tactic he ever uses IS violence.

I'm sure she was promptly dragged downstairs to the brainwashing chamber immediately following his riveting response of, essentially, "If they do it to others, it's OK if I do it to them."

All I had to say was "Word to you, lady. Word."

Also, I know I asked this question before about him communicating threats of violence and if that's against the law or not, but, today I noted that he physically shoved someone after threatening to "tear up" their wife.

My question is: ASSUMING this show isn't scripted, can these people not press charges against him? He's blatantly provoking them (something the lady in the audience mentioned). Today, when guy got pushed, Steve had some sort of papers of his and told him to come get them then, when guy came over, Steve stood on the papers and shoved guy.

I've seen people arrested for breaking someone's fingernail. Surely shoving is worth Steve spending a few seasons behind bars? You know, where there are no cameras? And, his show is forced to go on permanent hiatus?

I have a message for Steve: Yes, that mother was wrong for leaving rehab, BUT -- she was damn right in sending her daughter to live with a friend while she prepares to go to rehab (which she told you 18,000 times, she's scheduled to do on Thursday!) What more of an answer did you want? "I'm going Thursday. I do my intake tomorrow." She knows she made a mistake. All that yelling is just going to make her not go to rehab, especially when you tell her how useless she is.

I'm hardly ever on the crackhead side of an argument, but Steve was so unreasonable. She DOES have to get better for herself before she can be a good mother to her kids. That's the truth, you big, bald bully.

My guess is that the guests must sign a lengthy waiver saying basically that they cannot take legal actions for anything said or done while appearing on the show. I'm sure he has a big ole legal crew working behind the scenes.

Also, did anyone else notice at the end of the show when they asked for "People who have a story to tell that will make Steve fly into a rage" - or something of the sort. Me thinks someone has decided that his schtick will be screaming in scumbags faces. Not much of a premise, and likely the reason this show will be cancelled soon...

That's been the running "call-in" tag for over a month. Seriously.

I thought I'd look it up and see how this travesty is doing in the ratings. Here's what I found:



These are for the week ending on Nov. 4, 2007.

I'm not sure what all these little numbers mean but, surely a .9 can't be good? Especially if a 1.0 is an "all-time" high?

*continues grasping at straws in hopes of cancellation*

I'm there with you. I assume because it's daytime those rating might be ok, but I pray not because this show sucks SOOOOO hard.

At this point I'm just waiting for one of the guests to take the shot Steve is always begging for. I thought it might be the guy on Friday's show who did actually push him a couple of times. I don't think I'd care what the story was. Just seeng Steve get up in someone's face, demand that they take a swing, and then that person actually does swing? Would be awesome. Careful what you wish for and all.

Also, has anyone noticed that none of the people Steve bellows at are near his height and tend to be a lot skinnier/less muscular? I wonder if he would be so brave with someone his height/build?

He has a lot of guys on who suffer from "little man syndrome" and tend to take things out on women and children. I don't think he got as rough on that one big guy, though, who hit his mother.

Here's a sucky way to start off Thanksgiving:



Source

And, just in case that wasn't gross enough, his ratings are up.



Enjoy your turkey!

Ugh, the only thing I can say is that if a 1.0 is an "all-time high" then he won't get very far. Maybe a season or 2 later he'll get cancelled or pushed to an obsucre time slot. His shtick has worn thin already.

Speaking of which I tried to watch his show again today. He had on a guy that was accused of molesting his 4yr old stepson. This guy also admitted to previous sexual molestation against another child "to avoid going to jail". My question is this: If a guy admitted to molesting a child already then should'nt he be in jail already? Anyway the guy takes a lie-dector test and fails and everyone his pissed and Steve is angry of course. Oh yeah there was also a lady in the audience who -guess what- was molested by a family member in the audience. How lucky is that?

Seriously I think this show is doomed to fail because it's trying to make crackwhores, wife-beaters, and child-molesters into some kind of entertainment. IN reality these kinds of criminals should be put into jail and/or rehab and not on TV at all. Mr Wilkos is a very shitty cop and a shittier TV host.

I'm done with this garbage talk show.

If people would stop watching this show would be cancelled. I think people like him cause he was on Jerry Springer for so long and are hoping to see fighting like on Jerry's show. That won't happen.

Does he even let his guest speak? He had a mother on the show today who took crack and now her 14 y/o is doing the same thing. I think this woman had a great background story but Steve wouldn't let her talk.

Steve needs to take a psych class this woman obviously was not smoking crack for attention she has a deep-seeded problem but us as the audience will never know.

Ah, this week's ratings news makes me feel slightly better:



Come on! You KNOW you want to un-renew this, Powers That Be!

More ratings info for this week:

A while back, I e-mailed the show from Steve's site to praise him for something I do like (his handling of pedophiles). Today, my husband opened my mail and told me I had an autographed picture of Steve but that "it has a form letter and it's probably not even his real signature." Sure it was a form letter but Steve's not Oprah, maybe he does scribble his own signature and "Best Wishs" (I'm serious) on the photo.

OK, this is my guilty pleasure. I work nights so I get a healthy (over)dose of daytime talk shows, usually just background noise. Anyway the SWS has caught my attention more than Springer, Maury, or Cheaters. I think part of the fun of the show for me is Steve's stilted way of talking. He is by no means a natural showman, he is all rough cut and ragged edges. Tough love with a speech impediment. What can I say? I know the show is pure trash and will probably be canceled in a year--two tops but I am loving it 'til then.

And you have to admit Steve Wilcos is a Cindarella story CPD->security on a tv show->fan favorite with his on introduction->guest hosting said tv show->star of his own tv show. I mean how serendipitous is that?! I wish the man luck!

I don't know about anybody else, but this show irritates me. He doesn't let any of his guests speak, and he's trying to hard to be, well "hard". He comes off as very arrogant and annoying. Nobody is going to want to be on this show just because of the way he treats half the people on it. The whole entire show is him sitting their and screaming in people's faces. I would back talk to if I were them. I am a guest and that's how your treating me? Whether they are in the righ or the wrong doesn't matter. I just think he should calm down some and just take a chill pill, screaming isn't what its all about. Hopefully he gets his act together, because guarentee his show will be canceled in a year.

Yeah, with all of that screaming, it's a wonder Steve hasn't collapsed of a rage-enduced heart attack or stroke or something onstage yet. People who are as messed up, hurting, disturbed, etc., as his typical guests (assuming they're not actors) do not need to be "broken down." He's so out of his league with the majority of these stories.

My stomach turned when I saw that this piece of crap has been renewed. I sometimes catch it if nothing else is on and I'm so glad to see that everyone thinks the same things I do. Steve is a crazed, psychotic bully.

I'm not sure if anyone saw it, but a few weeks ago they had a mother on who had Munchausen-by-Proxy syndrome and he refused to let her husband talk. There was this whole thing about the baby having a needle stuck under its tongue and in it's ear and I wanted to know if it was a sewing needle or a medical needle. Well, the husband is about to say what kind and that idiot Steve screams, "Who cares what kind of needle it is?" I DID! I cared! Jerk.

I hate the audience as well because they keep encouraging him. Stop cheering him on! UGH. What a horrible show.

I don't know if anybody is catching the episode that's on now, but this is one that I can stand to watch. It's a show about a little boy who died and his mother is in jail for it. He had a raw chest from being beat so bad, burn marks on his penis, etc. Steve is talkinng to the mother and asking her if she noticed any of this, and she's like no, no, no. Steve is actually making good points in saying how a boy this young (he was 4) and you wouldn't know or see any of these injuries? The lady doesn't even remotely look sad and all she keeps saying is she doesn't know how he got all these injuries and that it was the boyfriend who was abusing him and she has no reason to be behind bars.

I saw the beginning of an episode called "I Killed My Baby" recently. Based on the title, I obviously assumed this woman, a former drug addict, had actually killed her baby. I was surprised to hear later, from people who had watched the entire show, that this woman had had a miscarriage due to her drug use. They weren't even sure it were ever stated how far along in the pregnancy she were and if the baby would have even been viable had it been born ahead of time. Yeah, you shouldn't be abusing drugs when you're pregnant, but who really thinks a miscarriage caused even by irresponsible behavior is the same thing as torturing and killing a live baby?!

I just hate that it's the same. thing. every. single. day.

Steve + Bad Guy Guest + Screaming Audience + Wilting Victim Who Needs Steve's Protection - Any Shred of Creativity = Normal Episode

I mean, it works for Maury because his guests are all kinds of nuts. But, the monotony doesn't work for Mr. Screamy McScreamsalot.

Maybe he should get Sylvia Browne on his show. Then, she could predict people are going to beat their children. OR, she could communicate with the spirits of abused children and have Steve yell at the ghosts of their parents. Or, at the people who currently reside in the homes they haunt for not properly laying salt to protect them from the evil ghost!parents.

In other news, apparently the writers' strike left people desperate enough to start tuning back into the Garbage Hour:

I've recently had the pleasure of discovering who we in Baltimore used to call an "Older, Fatter, Cal Ripken".
I have only watched it a couple of times, both times in clips because it's exhausting to watch. Since the person he's yelling at is usually shorter than him, like it's been said, I feel like I'm the one staring up at him catching spittle on my face. Seriously, I feel tired and stressed out within a few seconds. It's too bad because it could be good mindless t.v. but it's too high energy for me.

I think this show is a) disgusting and b) really, really wrong headed. As an ex-cop, this ass should know better than to list the litany of abuses that kids who have been molested go through.

News flash, dummy: When you detail precisely what has been done to a kid, you are providing fantasy material for sickos to get off to. I just can't believe this crap is on the air.