Jeremy Kyle Show bosses ‘rated episodes on how likely guests were to kick off’ before it was axed by ITV
JEREMY Kyle Show bosses would rate episodes from A to D based on how likely guests were to kick off, according to reports.
The show was axed and heavily criticised in May 2019 following the death of Steve Dymond a week after he appeared on the programme as a guest.
Now former producers on the show have told how they feared for their jobs if they didn't help create explosive episodes.
One said: “An ‘A’ show would be a high conflict show – not physical, but something where it goes off, there’s lots of storming around the studio, lots of heightened emotions, lots of shouting… when they come on and they are immediately kicking off.
“A ‘D’ would be low energy, low conflict, poor talkers who couldn’t really express what they were trying to say.”
Another employee said the grading system extended to staff, with As getting perks such as champagne and job security.
The Sun has contacted ITV for comment.
Last year it was revealed host Jeremy branded Mr Dymond a “serial liar”.
The TV host said he "would not trust him with a chocolate button" while making a series of comments about him in an the unaired episode of The Jeremy Kyle Show.
The guest was told to take to a lie detector test to prove he did not cheat on his girlfriend.
When he failed, Kyle told the dad, 63, he “would not trust him with a chocolate button”.
Kyle then asked the jeering audience: “Has anyone got a shovel?’’
Mr Dymond’s body was found a week later in Portsmouth, Hants, after he died from a morphine overdose.
The episode never aired on television, but coroner Jason Pegg has seen it.
He said the firebrand host’s actions “may have caused or contributed” to Mr Dymond’s death.
Mr Pegg, who has seen the episode, said: “Jeremy Kyle adopted an approach where he called the deceased a ‘serial liar’, that he ‘would not trust him with a chocolate button’ and made a comment, ‘has anyone got a shovel?’.”
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He said that Mr Dymond’s son Carl Woolley said his dad told him “he had been humiliated, taken for a mug and pounced on by the presenter”.
Mr Pegg said it was also “apparent” Kyle knew Steve had “previously been diagnosed with depression” and had been taking medication.”
He added: “Accordingly, I deem Jeremy Kyle to be an interested person in this case.’’
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In 2019 MPs published damning evidence about Kyle.
Unedited clips released by ITV to a Commons committee that was investigating into the programme, showed the presenter calling one guest a “gob-sh***”, and “slouching little idiot”.