Bend Weekly - Bend, OR, USA - "I don't have any talent, and I'm not being modest - I don't sing, I don't dance - so I think many of the contestants on 'America's Got Talent' can relate to me," laughed
Jerry Springer, smooth and comfortable in Hollywood.
His strengths as the host of the three-ring circus known as "America's Got Talent" were refined during his 17 years (and counting) in syndication with "The
Jerry Springer Show" by instructing security guards to break up the fisticuffs of love triangles composed of obese, tattooed and toothless individuals of all genders.
"The judges (cheeseburger lover
David Hasselhoff, professional English rocker wife
Sharon Osbourne and an obnoxious Brit known as
Piers Morgan) will be tough on them, so I'm there to make everyone really feel good, like a confidence builder," he explained. "I like to think I'm nice guy and fairly bright with a sense of humor; never an elitist, I'm always known as
Jerry, not
Mr. Springer."
And the 63-year-old gazillionaire is there primarily because he's having fun introducing incredibly good singers, dancers, plate spinners, jugglers, left-handed Volvo mechanics, arc welders and badly trained seals. The "professional" judges on the "Talent" panel weed out the bottom feeders until the semifinal episodes when TV viewers take over the voting to determine who stumbles away with the $1 million grand prize.
