Copyright Parade
Thirty seven years ago today, Geraldo Rivera had his nose broken on live television, marking one of the most infamous moments in daytime talk show history. Even 37 years later, that moment is impossible to forget (and has even become a viral meme). On Nov. 3, 1988, Rivera was filming an explosive Geraldo episode titled “Young Hatemongers.” His guest, Civil rights activist Roy Innis, was brought face-to-face with white supremacist John Metzger. Their heated debate quickly spiraled out of control and turned into an all-out brawl. Innis lunged at Metzger with fists and chairs flying. Rivera, now 82, was caught in the chaos. He was struck by a metal chair, which broke his nose and left him bleeding on stage. The chaos didn’t end there. Members of the audience rushed the stage and security scrambled to restore order, but cameras continued to roll. True to form, Rivera refused medical treatment on set. He also refused to press charges and later told The New York Times: “These racist thugs are like roaches who scurry in the light of exposure. I do not want to be tied up with the roaches.” The incident instantly became TV legend and cemented Rivera as a fearless journalist and the face of sensational daytime talk shows. It also sparked debate about how far shows were willing to go for ratings during an era when “trash TV” was born. Decades later, the clip continues to circulate online as a lasting reminder of the moment one flying chair turned a journalist into an icon of TV mayhem. “That … was legend back in the day,” one Redditor recalled. “It was almost mythical. My neighbor had it recorded and all the neighborhood kids went over to his house to see it.” “There was an billboard on Hollywood Boulevard advertising his show around the time this happened,” someone commented on Instagram. “I remember that someone had climbed up and painted a bandaid across his nose.” This was the meme before the meme, which has since become part of the zeitgeist that is Internet culture. Geraldo Rivera Meets Violence Again Remarkably, the 1988 melee wouldn’t be the last time Rivera’s face met violence. In 1992, while covering a Ku Klux Klan rally in Wisconsin, he got into another on-air altercation that left several people bloodied and arrested. Once again in 1995, during an episode about domestic violence, Rivera ended up with another broken nose. Rivera left his position at Fox News in 2023. Today, Rivera continues to report as a correspondent for NewsNation.
