Steve Wilkos Show

A few months ago, we here at Be likened ex-Chicago policeman and daytime talk show host Steve Wilkos to mythical tough guys like Chuck Norris and Jack Bauer. His prior work in law enforcement and his job as bodyguard on “The Jerry Springer Show” seemed to be good enough reasons to liken him to such supermen.

Wilkos enjoyed the article so much he managed to take a break from dealing with troubled teens and drug addicts on his show to talk to Michael Staton about the ins and outs of being a talk show host in today’s television world.

Michael Staton: Out of all the guests to ever come on your show, which one made you the angriest?

Steve Wilkos: We did a show in Detroit about a mother that was going to sell her child to a man for sex. She was sentenced to nine years in prison and I was doing the interview in the cell with her. I kind of went nuts because she didn’t show any remorse and she blamed everybody and the police for what she did. She actually thought it wasn’t her fault that she was about to put her daughter through hell.

MS: Are your experiences on the show similar to the police work you did in Chicago?

SW: I was a policeman for 12 years and a lot of the show translates into what a policeman comes across during an eight-hour shift. We deal with domestic violence, child abuse, drug addiction and runaways and that’s what I dealt with as a policeman every day.

MS: Was it hard to transition from “The Jerry Springer Show” to your own show?

SW: It was a lengthy process getting it on the air. People thought I was a nobody and just some cop, but people really like a regular guy on the beat; they like a guy-next-door type. I’m not a celebrity that was given a show and when people meet me they feel comfortable with me. I’m the biggest underdog when it comes to talk show hosts and I think people like cheering for the underdog. Springer was an hour of fun and escapism; my show is much grittier and it deals with some serious problems. For all the bad people we have on the show we have some courageous people, some of them young children, that are so brave you can’t help but cheer for them.

MS: Why do you make guests stand up on stage?

SW: If you’re going to spend your life abusing people and doing terrible things, you’re not going to get to sit down and be comfortable on my show. Whenever I had to go into a person’s house as a cop I didn’t do a lot of interviews sitting down.

MS: Is the talk show market oversaturated in your opinion?

SW: I think it’s oversaturated because a lot of hosts leave sitcoms or modeling careers and they just get handed a show. Many of these shows don’t get off the ground or they don’t last three weeks. There’s no basis for a lot of them.

When I was on Springer, I broke up fights and people liked me, but things changed when I filled in for him while he was doing “Dancing with the Stars.” When I filled in I moved the Springer show into the direction my show is going now and people really responded to it. People like seeing the bad guy confronted, so I don’t allow them to spin themselves around as a victim. I think the fact that I started as a cop and now have my own television show in the midst of a successful second season is proof of how good it is.

MS: Do you ever hear back from any guests that have turned their lives around?

SW: We do update shows often and we hear back from people. Some people can’t seem to get their act together, but we do hear good things from people that have changed their lives.