The Steve Wilkos Show

A good way to describe the Steve Wilko show is if you take the Jerry Springer show and turn Jerry into a tall bald former police officer who looks like a bully. The show does try to keep the fights to a minimum, and instead fill it up with Steve burning the guests with his hard lectures.

Another big difference, is how extremely grotesque the stories are. For example, there is one episode about an old woman who admits that she murdered a baby 15 years ago, one episode of a man who had sex with a 12 year old girl and more.

Many people debate that the stories are real and that they're just scripted. I don't know how to tell whether it's real or not, however I wouldn't be surprised if it was fake. It doesn't really matter though, as long as it's entertaining and enjoyable to watch.

Steve's show really does have some strong willed messages, and does open people's eyes to the horrors of this world. The only problem is, he does NOTHING whatsoever to solve these problems half the time. That is where Steve often misses the mark. Half the time, Steve handles the stories in the right manner, showing the audience something relevant and gives us a reason to listen. These are usually morals about family, being there for your child, keeping a child and so and so.

The major problem with the show is it's much too repetitive. Half the time Steve looses his cool and walks around the guest screaming in there face. This is fine, as I can understand him being angry with stupid people, but it just goes ON and ON and ON! If Steve is going to do nothing but yell at people, what good is he doing? Nothing. It's okay to be harsh, but you need to have an understanding of humanity.

For example, there's one episode where a woman wants to see her daughter, after allowing her to be raped 7 times. In that episode, Steve literally says "our show isn't about getting into the mind of a monster! Our show doesn't have couches where I try to understand you! And it's not about forgiveness or being kind! It's about showing something how it is!" That Steve has described there, is IGNORANCE! The reason why we hate evil so much in this world, is because we don't understand it. There's no use in shoving hate into someone's face if you're not going to tell them there's a solution. The past is the past, you can't change it! What you can do, is make an effort to fix the present. What good is it to see you express the same anger that the viewer already feels? You have show some moral, reason and lesson, rather then just needless anger.

Another problem is there is a poor lack of forgiveness. I don't care how terrible someone is, or what evil they have done. They are still humans, they still have minds of redemption. Why does Steve seem to think that no one can change? Why does he act like if someone is horrible in the past that they deserve no forgiveness? Forgive and forget is exactly what a lot of these nasty people need.

Ironically, sometimes Steve is too soft. Think about this, if you have someone with a history of abusing their children and they're sorry about it and are regretting it in tears, do they deserve to be torn apart or forgiven? Now, what if you have someone with a history of abusing their children and they deny it and claim to have done nothing wrong? that type of person deserves the Steve burn, 'cause the Steve burn helps open a person's ignorant mind up. Oddly enough, he doesn't loose his cool and talk in people's faces when it's the right time.

One last foot note, what is with Steve and throwing chairs?! It's...very random, and is in almost every episode.

Similar to other confrontation shows (Jerry Springer, Bill Cunningham), the show is entirely scripted, and is a hoax. While working as the "Director of Security" for Jerry Springer, he was introduced as a Chicago police officer. He oversaw wild brawls, and never made an attempt to stop the altercation. Even back then, people wondered: "If he's a real police officer, and the brawl is real, why doesn't he intercede?" Exactly. Now, he has his own show, of bumbling, clumsy "actors", and outrageous plots and complaints. If any of this was real, state officials would arrest these people for prostitution, murder, assault, illicit drug sales, rape, and child endangerment. Watching this nonsense you're reminded that, no matter how bad your life is, you don't accept minimum wage to make an a$$ of yourself on TV.

When "The Steve Wilkos Show" started, I approached it with an open mind, despite the fact it was a spin-off of "Jerry Springer", a show that I loathe because of its blatant fakeness. But after watching a number of episodes of this show, I have come to the conclusion that at least SOME of the stories on this show are fake. Here's some of the evidence:

(1) There was an episode where Steve confronted a mother hooked on crack, who was homeless. Yet when Steve confronted her, she was living in a hotel (and a pretty decent-looking hotel). If the mother had money to stay in a hotel, she would have the money to rent a decent apartment.

(2) There was another episode where Steve confronted another crack mother, who had her own home, the inside of which looked pretty decent despite her life completely revolving around crack. Not only that, when the filming moved to the bathroom, it kept editing from two camera angles. Each angle should have shown the other cameraman shooting the action from the other end of the room, but they weren't visible! Obviously, the scene was shot more than once and the footage edited together.

(3) There have been several times when a guest has left the stage and gone backstage... and a camera (or more than one camera) is ready backstage to film him or her! At least on "Maury", the cameramen are shown to have to follow the guests backstage.

While "The Steve Wilkos Show" is nowhere as annoying as "Jerry Springer", I still feel somewhat insulted by the fakery, even though the show tries to push positive values and good behavior. Steve, if you're reading this, stop the fakery and show REAL guests with REAL problems. I am sure that with a little work, you could find enough such guests to showcase.

Ever notice when you watch a show like Dr. Phil, he's always saying what's blatantly obvious, but slower so he sounds smarter? Steve Wilkos is like that too, except the blatantly obvious is that guys shouldn't abuse their girlfriends (and Vice Versa) and that if you make a baby you take care of it and don't dump the mother.

I enjoy that trashy afternoon TV with all those commercials for community colleges, lawyers, and structured settlement people in between. Some people can call Steve a bully and say his show is trash, and to a degree it is. It's Jerry Springer but with a drill sergeant as an alternative to a coddling politician. And the subjects on the show are cut and paste.

You have to remember that some people enjoy drama and others enjoy seeing how much better they live their lives than others. Shows like Steve Wilkos give that pleasure.

does he really have to yell at everyone on his show i mean sheesh! he always thinks he is so tough when he stands saying things like "Hit me since your so tough." who is going to hit you on live television with the possibility of being arrested. this is really a dumb show. im not saying that the what the people are doing is wrong but why cant he take a kind of maury approach instead of yelling at everyone like he runs stuff. I do watch the show a lot and i do like some of the episodes but i don't like when he believes the "victim". how do you know that the "victim" isn't lying. and who would take a lie detector test knowing there going to fail? i do think some of the episodes are real but some of them look acted out. ahh OK show i guess