They were, Jerry Springer was to my knowledge all scripted.

Jeremy Kyle actually got real morons to show up and try and sort out their fucked up problems on national television which naturally resulted in disasters like people killing themselves when it turns out the show was much more concerned with manufacturing drama for the episode than actually helping anybody.

Not that the show would have been fine without the suicides and scripted results of lie detectors etc.

It was from its very inception poverty porn designed to give housewives something to sneer at and feel better about themselves during the weekdays when nothing else was going on.