For my money I'd say Richard Bey, it was always tasteless but I don't remember the fist fights and cussing like on Springer. I have fond memories poor trailer trash and him offering them like 20 bucks to do stupid shit or eat disgusting things. There's nothing quite like when he'd offer a redneck who needed rent money 20 bucks to eat a tin of cat food. Only to have the dude make his wife eat it lol. I saw exactly that happen at least twice, and I always wondered to myself what the fuck kind of husband would force his wife to eat cat food like that. I wonder what happened to him, it was really a fun show to watch.
He was the original blueprint for Springer imho.