“He was such a force of nature and now he's gone, without even a goodbye,” Rivera said of his friend.
Jerry Springer has passed away at 79 years old, a rep for the former talk show host confirmed Thursday.
Springer had died only months after getting a pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
Love him or hate him, there was no denying Jerry Springer changed the face of daytime television. He made paternity tests, infidelity, and wild family smackdowns part of popular culture.
A representative for Springer says: “The TV star died peacefully at his home in Chicago on Thursday morning following a brief illness.”
Springer was reportedly diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer just a few months ago, however, this week, his heath took a turn for the worse.
Gerlado Rivera, co-host of FOX News' "The Five," told Inside Edition that he didn’t know his old friend was sick.
“I didn’t know Jerry was sick. I did not know he was ill,” Rivera said.
“Jerry Springer particularly would push the envelope,” Rivera said of his late friend. “He went from outrageous to ridiculous to flamboyant and fun-filled. People watched because it was entertaining. He made a real mark. People will miss him.”
“Jerry really was one of a kind,” Rivera added.
Springer was best known for his outrageous "Jerry Springer Show,” and during its heyday in the 1990s, the show was notorious for fights and shocking reveals among guests.
There was even a brief period when the show's over-the-top antics rivaled “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in popularity but over time, the show was accused of staging the epic fights and rating dropped after the shock value wore off.
After 27 seasons on air, it came to an end in 2018. TV Guide once called it “the worst show in TV history” while Variety called it the “most controversial show of all time.”
“It was trash TV at its finest,” Michael Schneider of Variety told Inside Edition. “It was a lot of fun.”
Springer was never full of himself and always saw the humor in what he did. Before he found stardom as a talk show host, he served as mayor of Cincinnati in the late 1970s.
After his show was canceled, Springer became a well-liked TV personality by making appearances on “Dancing with the Stars,” and then hosted “America’s Got Talent” for two seasons. Last year, he appeared on “The Masked Singer.”
“He was such a force of nature and now he's gone, without even a goodbye,” Rivera said of his friend.
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