While daytime talk shows brought to television issues that were often silenced in societal discourse, the exploitative aspects highly outweighed the educational benefits they claimed to provide. Quite often the recruiting practices of these shows bordered on the deceptive, and many guests left feeling they had been set up for humiliation. One talk show producer told TV Guide, "When you're booking guests, you're thinking, 'How much confrontation can this person provide me?' The more confrontation, the better. You want people just this side of a fistfight." Ambushing guests was a typical tactic. One guest invited to the Jerry Springer Show found out, in front of the studio and TV audience, that her husband was still involved with his former girlfriend and that he also had a male lover. She had to encounter them both on camera, and the former girlfriend even...