The Jerry Springer Show's future is in doubt

For 27 years it has been one of the most provocative shows on American television. But now The Jerry Springer Show's era of chair-throwing and on-air paternity tests could finally be coming to an end.

The show was not renewed in April, and its staff are reportedly looking for new jobs. US network The CW has bought the rights to air re-runs of the show, but its current broadcaster NBC has not commissioned any new episodes, leaving the programme "in limbo" according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Springer, a newsreader and former mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, launched the programme in 1991 as a serious forum for political debate. But it soon abandoned politics for on-air brawls between dysfunctional families and jealous love-rivals.

Typical episode titles included "I'm Here to Marry My Stepmom", "My Baby Dady Has 12 Other Kids" and "I Had a Threesome with My Sister".

At the height of its Nineties notoriety, the programme had almost 10 million viewers, but its audience had shrunk to less than a fifth of that size by 2009.

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It was memorably spoofed in Jerry Springer: The Opera, a controversial 2001 musical by comedian Stewart Lee and composer Richard Thomas. Springer attended the West End production, but said he "felt a little bit awkward" about seeing it.

Springer, 74, has previously criticised his own programme, saying he thinks it has "no redeeming social value". He told reporters in 2000: "I would never watch my show. I'm not interested in it."

News that The Jerry Springer Show had gone out of production was first reported by industry journal Broadcasting & Cable.