Maury Povich booking

Controversial talk show host Maury Povich made no apologies for the sensationalistic, tabloid-style journalism of A Current Affair, the program that made him famous and his name practically a household word. After a lengthy stint with A Current Affair, Povich moved on to host The Maury Povich Show, and most recently to Maury.

Povich brought to A Current Affair, a half-hour sensationalistic journalism program created by Rupert Murdoch, the experience of his many years in news reporting and anchoring. He brought another interesting addition as well–the trademark Povich smirk. The facial expression was used to underscore the sensationalistic stories covered on the show. “I don’t believe a lot of the silly stories,” Povich told Playboy, “and that can be anything from UFOs to dogs that talk to some of the wet-T-shirt stuff–and I use the smirk then. The smirk happens with serious stories, too. If I just don’t believe it, I don’t think the viewers believe it and I want them to have a stake in this.” The show covered many shocking stories–from a scandal with actor Rob Lowe when a sex video was discovered that featured him and multiple partners, to a video featuring Robert Chambers (“The Preppie Murderer”) at a party strangling a doll. The latter video helped to catapult the show into fame. A few months after it was aired the show went from being carried by 20 stations to well over 100.

Povich began his broadcast journalism career in as a news reporter and sportscaster at Metromedia’s WTTG-TV in Washington D.C. The following year, he became the host of a new midday talk show called Panorama. He immediately loved the format that combined news, politics and celebrities and the show won many awards Next he anchored the news in many big cities across the country including Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Philadelphia. A Current Affair on WNYW-TV in New York, as a local show and as its popularity grew, so did its reach. It became the first syndicated newsmagazine show and its enterprising reporting and no-holds-barred attitude became the talk of television. The show was groundbreaking and led to a slew of imitators. It paved the way for the newsmagazine shows on all the networks.

In 1991 Povich left A Current Affair after five years and more than 1,300 shows. He decided to jump into the daytime talk show arena, sharing the airwaves with the likes of Montel Williams, Oprah Winfrey, Jenny Jones, and Phil Donahue. With such competition, Povich had a tough job ahead, distinguishing his show from the rest of the pack. The Maury Povich Show ran for seven seasons. In 1998, he partnered with Studios USA to create Maury, a brand new hour of exciting talk, with a fresh new look and attitude, dealing with compelling and sometimes controversial issues that impact teens and their parents.