CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Ashley Moore was a 19-year-old Portland native working in a bar in Austin in 2010 when she heard about a way to make some extra cash.
"All the girls were doing it," she said, "So if you referred somebody, you would get an extra $200, because they do pay you."
"They" were The Jerry Springer Show, hosted by the former mayor of Cincinnati, known for its hair-pulling fights and off-color guests and topics: "My 9th Kid is Your Brother's" and "Babymamas Bumped" are just two of the show's 5,000 episode titles.
The show ran from 1991-2018. In its infancy, it focused on current affairs and politics, but quickly switched to more salacious topics when its more serious content wasn't pulling in viewers.
The show had been on TV for more than 20 years when Moore said she was on.
"A lot of people do think it's real," she said. "It's fake."
A paid gig
Moore said the job lasted about a week and paid about $1,000, and an additional $400 or $500 in "Jerry money," vouchers the show's guests could use at restaurants and stores affiliated with the show.
They even had to show up to the studio early for rehearsals, and there was hair, makeup, wardrobe and even a script, she said.
"You do sign a contract," Moore said. "You have to, you know. . . stating that you're not going to tell people. But I told people."
The premise of her episode was online bad girls. Her role was to be the "other woman."
"Apparently I was supposed to be having an affair with a married man or boyfriend that met me online," she said. "And so his wife confronted me."
The scene, of course, devolved into a fight, Moore said.
"They do tell us when to stop fighting," she said. "It doesn't look like it, but the bouncers do tell us."
And after, she said they would have to answer audience questions as their characters.
The truth, though, was that Moore didn't know either of the people whose home she was supposedly wrecking. And they weren't even the couple she was originally paired up with.
"The couple I was supposed to go with cancelled and luckily, the people that I did the skit with, their person cancelled. So they called me, like, right away, and was like 'Can you get on the flight right now and make it, you know, to Connecticut? New York?"
A convincing role
She could, and she did. But when she eventually came home to Portland, she was reminded that people thought the show was truly "reality" TV.
"I remember one time I was at a restaurant and a group of girls I went to high school (with) left me a note on my table when I went to the (bathroom) and it said 'We know what you did last episode. Jump off a bridge you whore,' " she said. "I have that letter boxed up somewhere."
But more than 10 years later, she doesn't regret the experience, calling it one of the best experiences of her life.
"I loved it," she said. "I got talked down to a lot by, like, the town I lived in. They would be, like -- people would talk badly about me, but I'm like, 'Y'all are stuck doing this cashier job. I'm over here traveling. I'm having the time of my life as a young 19 year old. So, like, y'all can make fun of me all you want, but I had a blast. So much fun.' "
She said she even still keeps up with that real-life couple.
"I know today, they're still married," she said. "I still have a lot of them on Facebook as my Facebook friends."
And did she get to work with the man himself?
"I did meet Jerry before the show," she said. "He was really, really kind of sweet."