Talk shows ruled 90's daytime TV. Amid a huge spike in so-called tabloid talk shows, others
kept it a little classier, but all the biggies had one thing in common, an instantly recognizable
host. Let's answer the question on everyone's mind: whatever happened to these 90s talk
show hosts?
When daytime talk show Geraldo ended in 1998, host Geraldo Rivera moved back into journalism.
The former Eyewitness News reporter became a war correspondent for Fox News in 2001,
joining the network a few months after the 9/11 attacks. He was sent both to Afghanistan
and Iraq, and he was kicked out of the latter country following an embarrassing and dangerous
gaffe.
In a now infamous report, Rivera drew a map in the sand and proceeded to explain exactly
how the unit he was with planned to proceed. Pentagon officials stated that Rivera gave
out sensitive information live on television, and he would be escorted to the Kuwaiti border.
His fame has been diminishing ever since, and today he's better known for his intermittent
blunders than anything else. Most recently, Rivera attracted negative attention for his
reporting on the coronavirus. On a March 2020 episode of Fox & Friends, Rivera stated that
if you were able to hold your breath for 10 seconds, then you didn't have COVID-19, which
had already been debunked by experts.
Sally Jessy Raphael and her signature red spectacles were a staple of daytime TV for
almost two decades. Her talk show didn't cover tabloid-style stories in the early days, but
that all changed in the '90s. When her rowdy rivals started to run away with the ratings,
producers pushed Raphael to pivot into more sensational territory.
"Maury Povich, Jerry Springer shows, I hated them. I was betrayed by some of the producers
into doing that."
This desperate shift in style and content was the beginning of the end, but what really
killed Raphael's talk show was her cancer diagnosis. In 2019, she claimed that producers
decided to throw in the towel when she told them about her treatment.
Raphael lost her TV career, but she beat cancer. Today, she lives in New York with her husband
of over 50 years, Karl Soderlund. While there's clearly still some ill-feeling about how she
was dumped, this '90s star remembers her glory days, proud of the number of people she was
able to help.
The Montel Williams Show ceased production in 2008 after 17 years on the air, but the
former host has never stopped trying to help people. The former military man is nowhere
near as prominent today as he was in the '90s, though he's been working just as hard behind
the scenes, becoming an advocate for a number of causes close to his heart.
At a brunch held during the Republican National Convention in 2016, he reportedly railed against
discriminatory measures like the so-called "bathroom bills" that dictate which restrooms
transgender individuals are permitted to use.
Williams is also a strong proponent of the legalization of medical marijuana, which he's
used himself since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999. In 2016, he announced that
he was creating his own line of cannabis specifically for those who use it for pain management.
In 2020, Williams launched a new venture called My MS: Second Act, an initiative aimed at
educating the MS community on the disease.
The Jenny Jones Show was a trailblazer, in that it was the first daytime talk show to
feature musical guests. Usher, Ludacris, and Nelly all made their first nationally televised
appearances on the show, and host Jenny Jones also gave airtime to smaller, local bands
from the Chicago area. Sadly, most people remember Jones' show for a terrible tragedy.
In 1995, a man named Jonathan Schmitz was invited to attend a taping of The Jenny Jones
Show. Producers informed him that he had a secret admirer who would be revealed to him
on camera. Schmitz assumed his admirer was female, but it turned out to be a man named
Scott Amedure, an acquaintance of his. Schmitz was clearly very embarrassed, but seemed happy
to laugh the whole thing off.
"Well, guess what, it's Scott that has the crush on you."
"You lied to me!"
"Did you have any idea he liked you this much?"
"Ummmm, no, no."
A few days later, he purchased a 12-gauge shotgun and murdered Amedure in cold blood.
Jones was heavily criticized for her part in the tragedy. Many felt that she exploited
both men, but the host stood firm and refused to ditch her secret admirer segments. The
show was initially ordered to pay a sum of $25 million to Amedure's family, but the Michigan
Court of Appeals overturned that decision in 2002. Jones' show was canned the following
year. Loyal Jenny fans can still occasionally catch her on YouTube, where she has over 800,000
subscribers on her cutesy cooking channel.
The Arsenio Hall Show was second only to The Tonight Show in ratings during the early '90s,
scooping up the 18-to-30-something crowd. Hall's interviews weren't particularly hard-hitting,
but the energy on his show was electric, with audiences encouraged to pump their fists and
whoop in unison instead of clapping. The gesture became so well-known that it was even referenced
in Disney's Aladdin.
"All right! Yo-yo! Woo-woo!"
Hall has been in and out of the public eye since his show was cancelled in 1994. He bounced
back into the spotlight in 2012 when he won the fifth season of Celebrity Apprentice,
and the following year The Arsenio Hall Show was resurrected. Viewers just weren't turning
in for the show, however, and execs pulled the plug after a single season.
The swift cancellation was a blow for Hall, and things haven't really gone his way since.
He was involved in a legal dispute with Sinead O'Connor in 2016, over claims surrounding
Prince's death, and the response to his 2019 Netflix special Smart & Classy was lukewarm
at best.
It's hard to believe today, but back in the 1990s, Jerry Springer had higher ratings than
The Oprah Winfrey Show for a spell. The former mayor of Cincinnati debuted The Jerry Springer
Show in 1991, intending to talk about real issues and keep things sensible. That all
went out of the window when producers realized more people tuned in when the drama was dialed
up to ridiculous.
What people seemed to love the most about The Jerry Springer Show were the fights. Speaking
with the Columbia Journalism Review, Springer said:
"We did a show on the Ku Klux Klan, and literally a riot broke out. Some people from the audience
charged the stage, and for about 15 minutes people were fighting."
Springer has been on numerous other TV shows over the years since his show ended after
27 seasons. He's a Dancing With the Stars alum and hosted two seasons of America's Got
Talent. Now that his talk show is history, he's adjusting to life in the courtroom, Springer's
latest show, Judge Jerry, is being shown in every syndication market in America.
Ricki Lake was an actress before she became a staple of 90s daytime TV, best known as
the star of John Waters' cult classic, Hairspray. She's returned to acting on a handful of occasions
since her long-running talk show, Ricki Lake, ended in 2004, but nowadays she's less about
entertaining people and more about empowering them.
After giving birth on camera for her acclaimed documentary, The Business of Being Born, Lake
decided to make raising awareness of women's issues her priority. She released a book entitled
Your Best Birth and produced another documentary, this one examining the risks and rewards of
breastfeeding. Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, Lake said:
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Nicki Swift videos about your
favorite stars are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so
you don't miss a single one.