The Jeremy Kyle Show has been axed following the death of former guest Steve Dymond.
Since the permanent cancellation, former employees have come forward to talk about their time on the popular TV chat show.
Simone O’Kane, who was studying Broadcast Journalism at the University of Salford at the time, became a runner for The Jeremy Kyle Show in 2005.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Star Online, Simone claimed the producers would meddle with contestants prior to putting them in front of a studio audience.
She said: “The whole show was antagonising for the guests; the producers would go into the green room and basically wind them up before they went on stage.”
Discussing the guests, Simone revealed: “There was a specific demographic that went on the show – they’re working class, and half of them have got problems with either drink or drugs – they should be seeing social workers.”
Simone agreed with the pulling of the show, telling us: “Granted, Jeremy did do some nice things when he had to but all in all it was just wrong, completely wrong. And he got away with it for far too long.
“When he started screaming and shouting at people on the stage, especially those with mental health problems, they’re vulnerable. And they go home – imagine how they would be feeling when Jeremy Kyle told them they are a complete waste of space.”
Simone went on to detail the role the audience played with undermining guests.
She alleged: “The audience is as much to blame – it’s turned into a freak show, a circus – when the audience started laughing at other people.
“It’s upsetting to think that these people, they have no money, no nothing, and they have nothing going on in their lives, and people are looking at them through a fish bowl, and it has just completed ruined lives.
“It became a pantomime with people gawping into a fish bowl.”
In a last ditch attempt to prove to his fiancée he hadn’t cheated, Steve Dymond contacted the show to take a lie detector test.
However, the show’s lie detector suggested he had strayed, which friends say left Steve distraught.
After travelling back from the TV studio in Manchester to Gosport, Hants, he allegedly told pals he was feeling suicidal and was found dead at his bedsit several days later, with family fearing he took his own life.
Jeremy Kyle has since broken his silence sounded Steve’s untimely death and revealed to The Sun he’s “devastated”.
He said: “Myself and the production team I have worked with for the last 14 years are all utterly devastated by the recent events.”
On Wednesday, ITV released a statement saying: “In the case of The Jeremy Kyle Show, the programme has significant and detailed duty of care processes in place for contributors pre, during and post show which have been built up over 14 years, and there have been numerous positive outcomes from this, including people who have resolved complex and long-standing personal problems.
“Everyone at ITV and The Jeremy Kyle Show is shocked and saddened at the news of the death of a participant in the show a week after the recording of the episode they featured in and our thoughts are with their family and friends. “
Daily Star Online have contacted an ITV representative for comment.
