Steve Wilkos, the beloved security guard on The Jerry Springer Show, opened up about his most dangerous moments on the daytime talk show where he was meant to be the enforcer.
Wilkos, who worked with Jerry Springer from 1994 until 2006, was a huge part of setting the tone of the series, which often found its guests jumping to physical violence rather than talking through the issues presented on screen. After leaving the series, Wilkos went on to develop his own talk show, The Steve Wilkos Show, which has run since 2007.
Sharing that he felt "embedded" into the DNA of the series, Wilkos said that the fights on screen were part of what production was looking for, but they were far from staged. "I suffered a concussion, two back surgeries, [a] torn groin...we had women ripping pounds of hair out of each other's heads," Wilkos shared on ABC News Studios' recent 3-part docuseries on the heyday of daytime talk TV (via People).
While Wilkos was injured countless times in his efforts to ensure that the guests weren't genuinely hurting one another, he's always been positive about his time on The Jerry Springer Show.
"It was the greatest side gig in the world," he explained, revealing he was strategic about his role in keeping people apart. "There's a delicate balance," Wilkos shared. "You don't want anybody hurt, but...you don't wanna break it up too quick."
Though Wilkos went on to develop his own talk series, his time on The Jerry Springer Show clearly remains a bright spot in his career. Explaining that he was a "nobody" at the start, Wilkos has fond memories of becoming a major piece of the cultural phenomenon, which brought him closer to the late Springer and gave him the tools to move into the next chapter of his own career.