THE Jerry Springer Show is into its 23rd season, but while its host is happy to joke about its infamous outrageousness factor, he also has sharp words for critics who suggest it has played a role in dumbing down television culture.

“This idea that we are better than the people we see on television. We should get over it. We may dress better and have got luckier in the gene pool of parents, but life is primarily luck,” he told the audience at the MIPDoc conference in Cannes on Sunday.

“The Jerry Springer Show is now in its 23rd season. I would like to formally apologise! I’m sorry, I’ve ruined the culture! But this concept that television has influenced human behaviour and the destruction of society is garbage. We had a holocaust before anyone had a television set.”

Springer was in town to promote Tabloid , a show he’s fronting for Discovery Networks that covers true-life crime and scandals. His on-stage interview mixed wisecracks — “I don’t know why they called me. Maybe they were drinking!” — with a spirited defence of the kind of television he’s most associated with.

“We as humans have always been storytellers. We are social beings. It’s what distinguishes us from animals. 5,000 years ago we would be talking about the same stuff. People would gather in the marketplace, in the town square or at the forum, and would talk about what’s happening,” he said.

“People are always talking about what is going on in their neighbourhood. The only thing that has changed is that with modern technology, our neighbourhood has now become global. People are obviously fascinated by human behaviour, and what we are doing here is just recognising that, and giving back a story that is outrageous in terms of how most of us behave.”

Springer happily admitted that he doesn’t watch shows like his own when he goes home, comparing that to the unlikelihood of a journalist spending the weekend writing stories for fun. “What I watch are sports and political news, because I’m a political junkie. I don’t watch my show: I’ve got some taste! I don’t even tell my family I’m Jerry Springer. They think I’m an insurance salesman! It’s horrible,” he joked.

Springer claimed that shows like The Jerry Springer Show and Tabloid have global appeal, suggesting that if he were able to gather twenty16-24 year-olds from every country in the world in a room, they’d find common ground. “Within 30 seconds the kids would be talking about who they’re dating, sports, what’s going on with school, did you watch this movie, did you listen to that song? We’re the same,” he said.

Springer also drew a parallel between his long-running chat-show and the growth of social media, as young people in particular take to services like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to express themselves. “What is happening in the social media was inevitable. The coming of my show 23 years ago was inevitable. What we are observing, witnessing is the democratisation of culture,” he said.

“For thousands of years it was people sitting in an audience watching something happen on a stage, on a screen, on a ball-field. It was the audience and then the performers, whether it be sports, theatre, music. What technology has done is increase the move towards the democratisation.”

Springer pointed to popular TV talent shows like Britain’s Got Talent and American Idol as the logical latest steps in a trend of audience-as-stars that started with talk-radio shows. “Literally the audience are the ones that are entertaining, and the audience decides who wins, who our next stars will be. It used to be a couple of people sitting in New York or Hollywood deciding who the next singing stars would be,” he said.

“Now the public decides: we entertain ourselves. Whether you’re going on your cellphone or tweeting or whatever, that is the democratisation of society, aided by technology.”

Springer said that at 70 years old, he has made enough money to not have to work, meaning he now chooses projects based on whether they are “important” — his political activities — or simply entertaining and fun. He stressed that the two don’t tend to cross over: politics won’t become a bigger factor in The Jerry Springer Show .

“The contract with the stations is very clear: the show is about outrageous dysfunctional behaviour. If you call us with a warm uplifting story, we are not allowed to run it! We have to send you to another show,” he said. “Would I like to do a political show, but sure, I can’t make The Jerry Springer Show that. Somebody would have to hire me to do a political show.”

—By arrangement with the Guardian