The Steve Wilkos Show is a syndicated American tabloid talk show hosted by Steve Wilkos. The show debuted on September 10, 2007, two months after Wilkos' departure as director of security on The Jerry Springer Show. The show has Wilkos expanding on his successful "Steve to the Rescue" shows that he did while serving as a cohost for Jerry Springer whenever Springer took breaks or was doing other projects, such as Dancing with the Stars.[1] The idea of Wilkos having his own show came as a result of this approach, which proved to be so popular with viewers that the producers of Springer pitched the idea of giving Wilkos his own show to NBCUniversal, which proved successful.[2] On his show, each episode of the show focuses on the topics usually addressed by this type of talk show, mainly involving adultery, domestic abuse, paternity, disrespectful children and teenage pregnancy, with other topics of the same genre also covered often. As noted, Wilkos' show deals with more serious topics than Springer usually covers, most involving criminal justice issues. Wilkos will often refuse to allow guests accused of misbehavior, convicted of certain crimes (especially sex offences and spousal/child abuse) to sit down in the chairs on his soundstage. Wilkos will sometimes toss these chairs aside when he is angry and for dramatic effect. (At times he has also thrown the chairs, thereby breaking them.)[3] He often notes in his show that the reason he does so is because when the accused committed the crime against the victim, they weren't making them "comfortable" and as such, they don't deserve to be "comfortable" while on his show.[4] Irrespective of any heinous behavior, Steve typically lets pregnant women[5] and teenagers[6] sit on his stage. Wilkos often gets into close confrontations with guests by not letting them have a seat and raising his voice, but avoids physical contact with them unless necessary to defend himself or other guests.[7] When a guest begins to explain their actions in greater detail, Steve will often ignore and shout over the top of them.[8] When guests get aggressive, Wilkos has threatened them with arrest.[9] When guests flee backstage to try to get away from Wilkos, he often follows them and continues the confrontations.[10] Almost always, when Steve has had enough of a particular guest, he will throw the guest off the stage, yelling "Get the hell off my stage!", and with increasing frequency, will have them forcibly removed from the studio as well. On rare occasions, Wilkos would even throw guests out of the building.[11] Polygraph exams are commonly used on the show, as means for resolving issues. Often guests are polygraphed in regards to cases of physical abuse, child molestation, rape and murder. When the results of a polygraph are disputed by an accused guest, Steve brings out the show's polygraph expert, Daniel Ribacoff to explicate the results and clarify how a polygraph works. Guests usually take the polygraph exam three times or more to ensure accuracy of the results.[12] The show was parodied on The Boondocks episode "The Story of Lando Freeman". On November 22, 2013, The Steve Wilkos Show celebrated their 1000th episode.

• published: 07 Dec 2013
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