I'm still waiting on the definitive study of the Daytime Talk Show Era. Well, for all I know it's already been written but I don't know of one. It was such a cultural phenomenon - it was so a product of its time as well as a huge influence of its time.
It was very much a democratization of television. Whereas experts and authorities can be seen throughout the history of television, daytime talk shows showed everyday people both in the guests of the show and especially in the studio audience's asking questions and making comments.
But it was also a democratization or crowdsourcing of morality. Is it right for a couple to have a threesome? Well, let's ask a group of people. If enough people yell or boo the person on stage, I guess it's a bad thing. If enough people applaud after "you need to get a real man!" it must be right. As politically incorrect as all the shows were, it was the very definition of political correctness - morality based on popular appeal.
It was also post-modernism. The guy on stage would say "I'll sleep with whoever I want!" and would say it with complete certainty but the girl in the crowd yelling "You can't cheat on your wife!" would be just as sure. It would take about one or two "Why?" questions to completely break either of their arguments but fortunately that never happened on these kinds of shows. Your argument has emotion, no need to bring thinking into this.
They could also be contrasted with today in the fact that people of that era still held debate and discussion dear. You have a point of view, I disagree, let's talk about it. People don't value discussion anymore, there is even a rising belief that discussion is counter-productive. The Jerry Springer Show's transition from people talking to people talking for a while and then fighting to people coming out of the green room and fighting immediately was prophetic in some ways of how society was progressing.
