"The Steve Wilkos Show" (2007)TV series 2007-????

Director:

Richard Dominick

Writer:

Richard Dominick (writer)

Seasons:

1 | 2

Release Date:

10 September 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Talk-Show

US TV Schedule:

Mon. Sept. 1	12:00 PM	CW
Tue. Sept. 2	2:00 AM	WGNSAT

Cast

Steve Wilkos

...

Himself (1 episode, 2007)

Also Known As:

Steve Wilkos (USA) (short title)

Runtime:

USA:60 min (including commercials)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company:

NBC Universal Television

Quotes:

Steve wilkos: Get the hell off my stage!

Movie Connections:

Spin off from "The Jerry Springer Show" (1991)

Entertaining, but not what it pretends to be.

The Steve Wilkos Show is a show featuring former Marine and police officer Steve Wilkos, an intimidating, muscular brute of a man who once served as a bodyguard on the Jerry Springer Show and, thanks to that, got a show of his own. The show features Wilkos inviting a variety of disgusting human beings, mostly child molesters and drug addicts, giving them lie detector tests, and then yelling at them for 45 minutes, stomping around like some kind of savage beast, throwing chairs and the like, while the guest stands woodenly there with his or her arms crossed, fervently denying Wilkos's allegations and occasionally breaking down into tears while the studio audience cheers and claps.

I'm an avid watcher of this show because I find it entertaining to see such events take place. Call me a moron or a product of Hollywood's violent, sensationalistic movies, but it entertains me. However, I find it very disturbing that Mr. Wilkos holds the firm belief that he's actually helping people. When he wore the badge and gun and worked to keep the streets of Chicago safe, then he was helping people, but spending an hour yelling and bullying people is not helping them. Perhaps it does make the victims of such atrocities feel good to see their abusers be terrorized by some seven foot wall of muscle, but I think that such problems could be worked out much better in a room with a qualified psychiatric professional, not on national television with the entire world watching.

I do think that the scum that Mr. Wilkos brings to his stage deserve the harshest punishment available, and I like seeing them quiver as he cuts them down to size, but I do not think that Steve is doing anything helpful. He's fighting violence with violence, and two wrongs do not make a right.

The Steve Wilkos Show is a very entertaining show, but it is definitely not the helpful talk show that it masquerades as.

Unrated: Contains censored profanity and intensity.

-Evan Raufbold