Judge Makes ‘Bear-Baiting’ Case Against TV Show Producers

A British judge castigated the producers of the nation's most popular daytime talk show yesterday as he imposed a hefty fine on a participant who reportedly was provoked into a physical attack, in front of a studio audience, on his wife's lover.

The producers of the Jeremy Kyle Show—which, as the London Times puts it, "specializes in confrontations between love rivals and warring families," deserved prosecution along with security guard David Staniforth, 45, said Alan Berg, a Manchester district judge.

“It seems to me that the whole purpose of the show is to effect a morbid and depressing display of dysfunctional people who are in some kind of turmoil. It is for no more and no less than titillating members of the public who have nothing better to do with their mornings than sit and watch this show, which is a human form of bear-baiting under the guise of entertainment," said Berg. "The people responsible for this, namely the producers, should in my opinion be in the dock with you, Mr Staniforth.”

The attack was edited out of the show before it aired.