By Jonathan Klotz | Published
Reality TV used to mean shows like The Bachelor, Jersey ShoreAnd The Real Housewivesit was used to describe the Wild West of ’90s daytime television, where it seemed like each show had to try to outdo the other in the ratings race. Maury became a success with the paternity episodes, Ricki Lake fueled the tabloids with scandalous relationship episodes, but no one could compete with the king, The Jerry Springer Show. The hottest new Netflix release of 2025 was Jerry Springer: fights, camera, action, a behind-the-scenes documentary about the men and women who helped orchestrate the three-ring circus that is still part of pop culture today.
Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!
Jerry Springer: fights, camera, action is the abbreviation for a Netflix documentary since it is not a series like Acclamation Or Tiger Kingand instead it’s just as short, loud 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 problems and family ties, but it didn’t bring in an audience. The documentary looks back at the fateful decision to go for gold by abandoning any pretense that the series would help people heal and make the world a better place, as explained by the men and women who changed television forever.
Producer Richard Dominick is singled out in Jerry Springer: fights, camera, action as the mad genius who, decades before the rise of streaming services like Netflix and the push for “prestige television,” found the grossest, crudest, most obscene people in America. Confirming old Internet legends, Dominick’s team explained that 75 percent of the guests came from the Springer Triangle, a region stretching from Ohio to Tennessee and Georgia, where the crew found most of the guests. That and the producers admit that the guests were deliberately pissed off to start the famous fights, although even in the documentary they defend that the stories were actually real.
Tobias Yoshimura, one of the “Hunters” responsible for finding people willing to go on national television and tell their crazy stories for nothing but with a night’s hotel and free transportation, ended up leaving the show at cause of a moral crisis at a given moment. Affairs were common and taboo relationships were emphasized, but The Jerry Springer Show The lowest moment is covered in the documentary 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 kissing on national television seems made up, but it happened, and it was talented researchers like Yoshimura who discovered the endless parade of people with a story to tell.
The show that changed everything
The only person not in Jerry Springer: fights, camera, action What’s missing from Netflix’s parade of talking heads is Steve Wilkos, the longtime security chief who later earned his own series, The Steve Wilkos Show. It’s a glaring omission, but it’s notable that Wilkos often avoided talking about his team on the hit ’90s series when speaking to fans, instead choosing to focus on his own work. In fact, there’s a lot of ground not covered by the documentary, which primarily focuses on the show’s heyday in the ’90s, even though it aired until 2018.
Jerry Springer: fights, camera, action isn’t Netflix’s best documentary, but as the streamer deals cable a death blow, it’s a fascinating look at what television was like before the rise of streaming services. Jerry Springer may have once been the respected mayor of Cincinnati, but he was also the most influential television host of all time, either a ringmaster 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 was really going on, and for those who missed the madness, it’s a superb look at the series that changed history television.
Jerry Springer: fights, camera, action is now streaming on Netflix.
