The spouse pulled up a documentary on The Jerry Springer Show. The show fairly quickly morphed from your typical Oprah/Donahue type talk show with extremely low ratings to Supermarket Tabloid TV to one that featured full out brawls on a regular basis.
Much like talk radio from balanced issues to Rush to talk show hosts emulating morning zoos featuring right wing propaganda (moderate and liberal talk doesn't sell automobiles). I hate to say it but even sports talk went in pretty much the same direction. Serious discussion couldn't get the ratings, schlock and bits sold.
Fox News began the same way, getting killed by CNN on straight news, the only way to make $$$ was to emulate AM talk radio.
The whole has trickled down to the point no one is happy unless they complain that the world isn't going their way.