The show has Wilkos expanding on his Steve to the Rescue shows that he did while serving as a co-host for Jerry Springer whenever Springer took breaks or was doing other projects, such as Dancing with the Stars.[1][2] The idea of Wilkos having his own show came as a result of this approach, which proved to be so popular with viewers that the producers of Jerry Springer pitched the idea of giving Wilkos his own show to NBCUniversal, which proved successful.[3] On his show, each episode of the show focuses on the topics usually addressed by this type of talk show, mainly involving adultery, domestic abuse, paternity, disrespectful children and teenage pregnancy, with other topics of the same genre also covered often.

As noted, Wilkos' show takes a darker tone and deals with more serious topics than Springer's usually covered, most involving criminal justice issues. Wilkos will often refuse to allow guests accused of excessively heinous misbehavior, such as being convicted of certain crimes (especially sex offenses and spousal/child abuse) to sit down in the chairs on his soundstage. Wilkos will sometimes toss these chairs aside when he is angry (and at times he has also thrown the chairs, thereby breaking them). He often notes in his show that the reason he does so is that when the accused committed the crime against the victim, they weren't making them "comfortable" and as such, they don't deserve to be "comfortable" while on his show.[4] Irrespective of any heinous behavior, Wilkos typically lets pregnant women[5] and teenagers[6] sit on his stage.

A trademark of the show is Wilkos' chair-throwing. When angry, he often picks up and throws chairs, usually breaking them (in one notable instance during the first season, rather than breaking, a chair he threw got wedged into the wall that had the show's logo on it), and often stating that he would like to do the same to his guests.[7]

Despite lack of evidence of their efficacy,[8][9][10] polygraph exams are commonly used on the show as a means for resolving issues. Often guests are polygraphed in regards to cases of physical abuse, child molestation, rape, murder, and infidelity. When the results of a polygraph are disputed by an accused guest, Wilkos brings out the production's polygraph expert, Daniel Ribacoff (who has been on the show since the third season) to explicate the results. Guests usually take the polygraph exam three times or more.[11][12]

The show also focuses on clearing the names of those who are wrongfully accused and/or convicted of serious offenses such as rape, abuse, murder, and other offenses of that nature. If the accused passes their lie detector test, Steve often turns his anger towards the accusers the same way he expresses anger at those who are guilty of committing those offenses.

Wilkos has appeared twice on Maury; once in 2008,[13] and participated in the 2,500th episode in 2013.[14]

On November 22, 2013, The Steve Wilkos Show celebrated its 1000th episode, along with Jerry Springer and Rachelle Wilkos as special guests. The 1,000th episode took a look back on the first seven of the ten seasons of the show.[15]

The Steve Wilkos Show celebrated its tenth anniversary in September 2016. Steve Wilkos and Rachelle Wilkos, as well as the producers, hosted a series of tributes entitled "A Decade of Steve", looking back on the first nine seasons of the show.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Steve was doing his show without an audience involved in his studio due to social distancing regulations until further notice while only a certain number of guests were allowed to be at the studio in person and others talked to Steve virtually (via video chat).

In the second season, Wilkos began dividing some episodes into two segments, each one dealing with different guests and issues. In rare cases, there can be three segments on one episode. Additionally, paternity tests and infidelity were added as topics to the show. As time went on with the paternity and infidelity stories, Wilkos would often make jokes with guests just to get laughs from himself, his guests and the audience, since paternity and infidelity aren't as serious an offense as abuse of any kind.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, executive producer Richard Dominick was forced from the program by Jerry Springer and NBCU Domestic Television after encouraging Wilkos to become extremely physical with a guest. Rachelle Wilkos, Wilkos's wife and a long time Jerry Springer crew member, became the program's executive producer.[16][17]

Wilkos' third season premiered September 14, 2009, originating from the Stamford Media Center in Stamford, Connecticut complete with a new studio. Fellow NBC-Universal talkers Maury and Jerry Springer made the move, as well.[18]

In June 2018, it was announced that the show had been renewed through 2020.[19]

In March 2020, NBCUniversal Television Distribution announced that The Steve Wilkos Show had been renewed for two additional seasons.[20][21][22]

Some episodes of the show have led to guests being arrested or convicted of sexual crimes.

• In November 2011, Norwich, Connecticut police arrested Burke Bergman after he failed a lie detector test about sexually molesting his son, in the episode "Three Possible Dads, One Possible Molester" aired on September 19, 2011.[23]
• Five months following the October 3, 2012 episode "Did You Rape My Daughter?", guest Shaun Whitt was arrested in Flagler County, Florida on charges of raping his then-11-year-old step-daughter beginning in 2010. In September 2014, Whitt was convicted of two counts of sexual battery against a child and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years.[24]
• The May 6, 2015 episode "Did You Violate Our Trust...and Our Children?"[25] led to the arrest of 22-year-old Dameion McBride in Kansas City, Missouri for sexually abusing three children.[26] McBride was convicted in late 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.[27]
• Nearly a week after the May 15, 2017 broadcast of the episode "Horrific Child Abuse Caught on Video",[28] police in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania arrested 21-year-old Jessica Lynn Samick on two charges including felony endangering the welfare of a child. She is suspected of beating and burning a one-year-old boy whom she was babysitting.[29][30]

• Kenny Easterday
• Jerry Springer: The Opera
• The Jeremy Kyle Show (UK version)
• The Jeremy Kyle Show (U.S. TV series)
• Face to Face

• Official website
• The Steve Wilkos Show at IMDb