I don't doubt freak of the weeks did happen before Jerry Springer. I wonder if it started with the 60's revival of Dragnet and its focus on hippies. Those crazy kids with their long uncut hair, and drugs and free love and talks about dismantling capitalism and living indepently from mainstream society.
I imagine they did pop up more and more over the years. With talk shows giving ample opportunity to indulge in this and later cop shows. For our freaks, the comic book fans, the Gamers, the Tabletop RPG players, the LARPers, the occultists and wiccans, the eco people, or the people with weird sexual interests. The people who are into BDSM, the adult babies, the polygamous couples, swingers, Furries or something we're familar with here in these circles, the fat fetishists and feeders. How weird is it that a man can love plump women? How can he find fatness sexy? Or the idea that he wants to fatten up his partner with food and massage her fat?
I saw that Jerry Springer came out in 91 and Bey was 93, so the latter was riding in the fame of talk shows with weird people with weird lifestyles.