Jerry Springer on his daytime TV exit: ‘I was competing against myself’

nypost.com:

“Judge Jerry” after three seasons leaves Springer without a small-screen home for the first time since “The Jerry Springer Show” launched in 1991 — its host “The Ringmaster” of his raucous daytime circus for the next 27 years.“Right now I’m just taking a little bit of time to try out this retirement thing,” Springer told The Post. “I’m 78 and NBC/Universal has been so great to me.

I’ve been on TV for 40 years now, 10 [years] in news and then 31 years with our shows.“It would be embarrassing for me to say, ‘Why can’t I do another year or two?’ I’ll see how much I adjust [to retirement] and, if not, I’ll do other projects … I keep getting calls, ‘Would you consider doing this?’ But, right now, I’m really take a time out for the next month.”Springer continues to host “The Jerry Springer Podcast” — his commentary runs as a column in the Cincinnati Enquirer (he was the city’s mayor from 1977-78 and a news anchor on its NBC affiliate, WLWT, for 10 years) — and, starting next month, he will contribute to “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” Morgan’s new streaming talk show.“I may expand the podcast, because that’s clearly something I have to do every week,” he said. “I just don’t know, at this point, that I want to start a full-time job.

I’m not saying I won’t — if some wonderful offer comes along I might say, ‘Gosh, this would be great’ — but right now I’m spending as much time as possible with my grandson, Richard.

He’s down here [in Florida] for two weeks and then he goes to IMG, the baseball camp [in Bradenton]. He’s 13 going on 20. He’s already 6 feet tall and he’s an exceptional baseball player, so he’s going to pursue that as long as he wants to and we’ll obviously be backing him up.”He said he family has been waiting for him to.