DC ExtraTime: Before They Were MTV Stars - When Nelly Met Jerry

Following is an excerpt from a DCBLOG Pulse diary during The Challenge: Invasion from earlier this year, reposted in the interest of readers who don't want to scroll down, and in relation to our subject being a key figure on this week's episode of Dirty 30, which we will cover on here this weekend.

BY DC CUEVA                     

■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

Back in January, we looked back at the time when two fairly recent MTV alums: Trey from Real World St. Thomas and two Challenges, and Ryan from Are You The One? Season 1, tried their hand at winning themselves some more money after winning some money on MTV when the two went on CBS game shows The Price is Right and Let's Make A Deal. There, Trey went to TPIR under his actual name of Walter and won a surfboard, and Ryan went to LMAD wearing the same, signature Aladdin outfit he wore to one of the matchup ceremonies from that original AYTO season.
   Well, you can add a third person from the Trifecta to that list, which also brings us to a piece of 90's nostalgia that's still with us today, and worthy for us to share with you in this first piece of ExtraTime this weekend and this latest edition of Before They Were MTV Stars. And if you're into daytime television, then you know that there are a lot of talk shows that air each and every day, and one of them is our co-subject.

Jerry Springer may have been born in London to two Jewish refugees who escaped from Poland to Germany, but it's safe to say he is one of America's greatest treasures. After serving as a campaign adviser to Robert Kennedy before his assassination and being a lawyer, Jerry turned to politics and in 1971 was elected to Cincinnati's city council. He was forced out three years later when he admitted to have hired a prostitute, but won back his seat the following year, which then turned into him becoming mayor in 1977, then running for governor of Ohio and two times for a U.S. Senate seat.
   In the '80s, local NBC affiliate WLWT hired Springer as first a political reporter and commentator, but then became its main news anchor. During his tenure, he occupied a spot once held by Cincinnati's best-known newscaster Al Schottelkotte and then by George Clooney's dad Nick: #1 in the ratings. Much in the same manner as it is today, the final segment in each newscast gave Jerry a chance to do commentary which would morph into his "Final Thought." And it ended with the same phrase at the end of each newscast and show since: "Take care of yourself, and each other."
   In 1991 came another bold venture: The Jerry Springer Show. WLWT developed the show and format to match that of the iconic talk show Donahue...both of which were produced by the station's then-parent company, Multimedia, Inc.  It began in much the same manner as the show of the longtime talk veteran in being more focused on politics and current issues, playing off the subject matter of Jerry's commentaries... and where Jesse Jackson, gun politics and family reunions were the norm. They even shared both the hair style and glasses, too.
   A year after Springer left the anchor desk to focus on his talk show, in 1994 new executive producer Richard Dominick shifted the format to more tabloid topics and sensationalism. Out went serious topics and highbrow issues... in came controversial subjects like prostitution, adultery, homosexuality, being a cross-dresser and being part of a hate group, all featuring everyday people like you and I. Being a '90s guy, I remember watching Jerry's show every day during those summer school breaks off and seeing highlights of it on E!'s Talk Soup, and couldn't get enough watching all this unfold.
   Also in were the kind of stuff that's par for the course in reality TV nowadays: plenty of screaming and on-stage violence, plus sights of the bald head of security guard Steve Wilkos, and the audience chanting "Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!" The result: enormous viewership that rivaled (and in some cities, out-rated) Oprah, and substantial attention that even led to a short-lived commentary gig in Chicago. There was even a musical on London and the U.K. based on the talk show itself, with Jerry's role played by Harvey Keitel.
   Around doing a show still around some 26 years and 3,900 episodes later and as he's into his 70's, Jerry also served as one of the many who have hosted the summer sensation America's Got Talent over the course of that NBC show's past decade on-air. He's also done some talk show work for the jolly old folks over in Britain, and yes, he's also one of the hundreds who have also competed on one of that country's great TV exports: Dancing with the Stars when he appeared in 2006. He even hosts a show on WWE Network, and even recorded an album of country covers (if you can believe that).

IG/@MTV_NellyT

This brings us to why we brought up Jerry in this bit: for five years, Jerry hosted a show on the Game Show Network called Baggage. Like AYTO, it was a dating game show and was one the highest-rated original show in its five seasons on the air on a niche network that has shown just about every TV game show since it went on the air more than two decades ago. Baggage gave three contestants an opportunity to win a date, much like the show that gave the world these romantic game shows, The Dating Game. There was a catch to all this: the contestants brought on set three suitcases: small, medium and large cases with a proposition that is either unique, weird, gross or embarrassing depending upon the story. This necessary piece of travel gear came to represent the "baggage" they had to confess and to defend, and the bigger the case was meant the bigger of these secrets, and likely the most hilarious or shocking the revelation. The three players were then played down to a single one, and the date would then have to reveal something if they wanted the date.

IG/@MTV_NellyT

   For one of those five seasons Baggage was on GSN, the show went on the road to colleges across the U.S., and in one of those episodes of Baggage on the Road it went to Austin, Texas. It also happened to be home base for Nelson, and he auditioned to be one of those contestants to try their luck on going on a date, just as it was for fellow AYTO alums Brittany and Scali on The Choice.

   In another Instagram post, Nelly captioned, "Everybody tune in to the show called "Baggage on the Road", featuring Jerry Springer as the Host and me as one of the contestants. It's a Blessing and I thank him everyday for each opportunity that I have received to reach my Dreams🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏✈️✈️✈️🎬🎬🎬🎬🎥🎥🎥🎥🎥📺📺📺 #GGG #Family #PhotoOfTheDay #Dreams #Love #Selfie"  This also happened to be one of his few TV appearances before he made it onto Are You The One: years before that, he also appeared on a drama called The Lying Game, and took a selfie from the set of ABC's American Crime.
   We do not have a video of Nelson's actual appearance on the show, but embedded below is one of those promos for Baggage on the Road, which still airs on Game Show Network in reruns (the channel is, by the way, a favorite of my younger brother), and beneath that is a screen cap from the show's Twitter account which shows the actual answer inside his suitcase in which he admits that, "I'm a sex addict." Quite fitting for someone we saw in Hawaii and then here on Invasion seeing him go under covers with Latoya in the Shelter.

- I AM DC