Steve Harvey to air show despite 'disrespectful' audience at Chicago taping
Steve Harvey is photographed in November 2013 at The Steve Harvey Mentoring Program for Young Men at Chicago State University. Harvey's show tapes in Chicago.
(John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
By Tracy SwartzChicago Tribunecontact the reporter
Steve Harvey will air a two-part season premiere of his show next month focused on "What Men Think," despite complaints the Chicago audience was disrespectful to the women on stage.
Harvey, whose "Steve Harvey Show" tapes in Chicago, gathered 2,000 men and 150 women Sunday at the Oriental Theatre in the Loop for the day-long discussion about life and relationships. WWE star David Otunga, longtime talk show host Geraldo Rivera, Chicago entrepreneur Bill Rancic and reality star Todd Chrisley served as guest panelists.
A few audience members told the Tribune that some of the men in the audience catcalled and shouted at the women. A Steve Harvey spokeswoman said the daytime NBC show is still scheduled to air the episode in two parts Sept. 8 and 9 for the series' Season 4 premiere.
"The nature of the topic alone can elicit strong opinions from both men and women. While we always encourage a healthy debate, we do not condone or tolerate rude or disrespectful behavior towards our audience or any of our guests. We are very proud of the episodes that we produced and are confident that our national audience will find the conversation both insightful and entertaining," a representative for the show said in a statement to the Tribune.
Tyler Samples, of Andersonville, described the energy in the room Sunday as "caustic." He said some of the men in the audience jeered at the women and Harvey, a comedian who wrote the relationship book "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man," was permissive of the attitude.
"It served a really great lesson about what women have to go through on an everyday basis," said Samples, 31.
Jermaine Terry, 24, said it was a "big opportunity" to be at the taping because he finds Harvey to be inspirational, but he found members of the audience Sunday to be rude.
"The majority of the time there I had a major migraine from people in my ear yelling at Steve and at the women," said Terry, who lives in the south Austin neighborhood. "I could see from the women's faces that they felt disrespected."
Terry said Harvey didn't take sides between the male and female guests but he said Harvey said he understood why some of the men were acting in that fashion. Samples said Harvey used a "misguided metaphor" to describe women as prey and men as hunters.
"If they air (the show) the way I assume they will, heavily edited ... it would be disingenuous," Samples said.
Dan Johnson, who said he attended the taping in the morning, said he didn't hear any disrespectful words amid the noise of the audience.
"Men were excited and yelling but there wasn't any particular catcalling to any women. It was just a lot of noise from people being in a studio audience," said Johnson, 40, of Wilmette. "It was a blast."
Copyright © 2015, Chicago Tribune
@Tassos You are right Tassos.I overlooked that part. I like him as a comic but I do not agree with his views.on relationships and how men think
DD9247
AT 10:59 AM AUGUST 22, 2015
Stay classy Chicago.
FILTHYLEG
AT 10:20 AM AUGUST 22, 2015
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