Jerry Springer marks his 15th year as host of one of America's most popular talk shows this season on UPN20.

Now seen in 180 U.S. markets - and such international territories as England, the Netherlands, Canada, Ireland, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Poland and Greece - the Jerry Springer Show is the nation's top daytime talk shows.

Springer was born in London in 1944 just after his family fled from the Holocaust. He emigrated at age 5 to New York City with his family, where he can still recall the sense of awe and anticipation he felt when he first saw the Statue of Liberty and passed through the gates of freedom on Ellis Island. In America, they could live without persecution. Springer is dedicated to upholding the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. His family saw firsthand what happens when those freedoms are denied.

After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Tulane University, Springer received his law degree from Northwestern University in 1968. His first job after law school was working as one of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign aides. After Kennedy's assassination, Springer joined a law firm and moved into the political arena himself. He spearheaded the effort to lower the voting age from 21 to 18, which culminated with his Senate Judiciary Committee testimony supporting ratification of the 26th Amendment to the Constitution. He was elected to Cincinnati's Council-at-Large in 1971, serving five successive terms. In 1977, Springer was elected Mayor of Cincinnati by the largest plurality in the city's history. At age 33, he was one of the country's youngest mayors.

Five years later, Springer launched his career in broadcasting as a political reporter and commentator on Cincinnati's WLWT-TV. He became anchor and managing editor in 1984 and was Cincinnati's top-rated news anchor until he relinquished the post in January 1993. During his tenure, Springer received seven Emmy Awards for his nightly commentaries, the forerunner to his "Final Thought," and was voted television's best anchor for five consecutive years by readers of Cincinnati Magazine. Of his professional achievements, Springer is most proud of his involvement with Cincinnati Reaches Out, contributing on-site reporting from Ethiopia and Sudan, where he documented the effort to provide assistance to famine-stricken Africans.

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