Steve Wilkos didn’t come out of the “The Jerry Springer Show” unscathed.
In the final part of ABC News Studios’ three-part docuseries “Dirty Talk: When Daytime Talk Shows Ruled TV” that aired Wednesday, Wilkos, 61, looked back on his dangerous job as the security guard for the iconic daytime talk show.
“The producers, they wanted fights,” Wilkos claimed. “There was times, if we didn’t have a fight, everybody was disappointed.”
Wilkos got injured when he had to intervene in the fights between angry guests.
“I suffered a concussion, two back surgeries, torn groin,” he recalled. “We had women ripping pounds of hair out of each other’s head.”
But the former Chicago Police Department officer still called his 12-year job on Springer’s show “the greatest side gig in the world.”
“I was nobody, nobody knew who the hell I was,” he said. “And when the show started taking off, I was on stage so much that I really felt embedded into the show.”
Wilkos worked on “The Jerry Springer Show” from 1994 to 2006. The show, which taped in Chicago and then Connecticut, ended in 2018 after 27 years on the air.
As the the show’s security guard, Wilkos always knew when a brawl was about to ensue.
“You’re watching people’s body language. You’re seeing them tense up. You know the spring is coming,” he said in the docuseries. “To be quite honest, there’s a delicate balance because you don’t want anybody hurt, but you want some action. So, you don’t wanna break it up too quick.”
“We would have some really violent confrontations,” Wilkos added. “You find something that your audience likes, they want it, and you stick with it.”
Wilkos also occasionally subbed in for Springer as host during his time on the show.
Since 2007, Wilkos has been hosting “The Steve Wilkos Show,” which is currently in its 19th season.
When the show reached 1,000 episodes over a decade ago, Wilkos told The Post, “It feels great on so many levels. When my show was announced seven years ago, I don’t think people gave it much of a chance. It was like, ‘Jerry Springer’s bodyguard is getting a show,’ and people were laughing [and saying] ‘that’s not going to last.’”
“So it’s a testament to myself and the people that work on my show,” he added.
“Dirty Talk: When Daytime Talk Shows Ruled TV,” per ABC News, “examines the rise, fall and lasting impact of the most sensational era in television talk show history.”
Hosts Maury Povich, Montel Williams, Sally Jessy Raphael and Leeza Gibbons also appear in the docuseries to reflect on their respective shows.
