Jenny Jones

I was a fan of her talk show for a long time, since it started in 1991 and was cancelled in 2003. I was ten years old and a fifth grader in grade school, when her talk show started. I was twenty-two years old, when it was cancelled. I remember the show made headlines in March 6, 1995, I was fourteen and an eighth grader in junior high school, when 32-year-old Scott Amedure, a gay man from Lake Orion, Michigan, who appeared on the taped infamous segment about secret crushes with his mutual friend, Donna Riley, who accompanied Amedure on a plane to Chicago for the taping. Amedure confessed that he had a crush on then 24-year-old Jonathan Schmitz, a straight man. Schmitz was expecting he would meet a woman. Schmitz was later humiliated on national television. Three days after the taping, he found a suggestive note written from Amedure on his doorsteps. He withdrew money from the bank, and purchased a 12 gauge shotgun. He left his apartment, as if he was saying goodbye. He drove to Amedure's trailer home and shot him twice in the chest, that killed him. Amedure's roommate, Gary Brady called 911 at the time. Schmitz fled the scene. Schmitz went to the gas station and called 911, saying that he killed Amedure for that reason, because it was "The Jenny Jones Show" that humiliated him on national television. The producers decided not to air the episode after the murder made headlines. Schmitz was tried for first degree murder in October 1996, he was sentenced to 25-50 years in prison in December 1996, but the case was overturned due to a technical error in the jury selection. In August 1999, he was tried for Second-degree murder and the same sentence was handed down again. In May of that year, a jury in the civil trial found "The Jenny Jones Show", their production company, Telepictures, and their distributor, Warner Brothers Television to have been negligent, because they failed to know that Schmitz had a history of mental illness, drug/alcohol abuse, several suicide attempts, depression, and a thyroid condition. Not to mention homophobia. Jenny Jones, the talk-show host testified in the civil trial, saying that Schmitz was told his secret admirer could be a man or a woman. In interviews, she said she did not want Schmitz to know the outcome of his secret admirer. The show was then ordered to pay Amedure's family $25 million for funeral expenses and pain and suffering for each family member. The award was overturned by the Michigan court of appeals in a 2-1 decision in October 2002. However, William Murphy, a dissenting judge, did say that the producers should have known better that Schmitz had a history of alcohol and drug abuse and mental illness and that if they wanted to produce "ambush" shows, "they should bear the risk if a guest is psychologically unstable or criminally dangerous". The producers decided to no longer do shows about secret crushes involving gay/lesbian, transvestite, and transgender people. This case is now studied in law school tort classes, because of the legal significance of saying the producers were not responsible for guests' environment after they had left the studio. The show went on after the case. Due to low ratings, the show was cancelled in 2003. Jenny Jones recently wrote a cookbook, which was released in April 2006.moreless

next to sally jesse this is the worst day time talk show to ever be produced. and the fact that her greed for ratings led to the death of a young man just made it worse. why any one ever watched this show on a regular basis i will never understand.