Maury Povich, 83, is gearing up to end his popular NBCUniversal talk show, Maury, of 31 years. The iconic host will say goodbye to his time talking with memorable and sometimes wild guests on the syndicated series at the end of this season, as he then welcomes his retirement, Deadline reported. Original episodes are set to air until Sept. 2022 and after that, there will be repeats.
Find out everything you should know about Maury and his beloved talk show below!
Maury started his broadcasting career in 1962.
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Maury was hired right away at a Washington D.C. radio station and worked there until switching to television around 1966. His first talk show, Panorama, which he co-hosted, happened in 1967 and it got him noticed nationally, eventually leading him to getting one of the most memorable talk shows in history. The Maury Povich Show, in which he talked about a range of topics, aired from 1991 until 1998 before he went , which on to Maury, which focused mainly on guests wanting to take paternity tests to find out who the father of their children were or cheating scandals with lie detector tests. His phrases, “You ARE the father” and “You ARE NOT the father” became popular in social culture due to these segments.
He’s married to Connie Chung.
Maury and Connie, who is a journalist, got married in 1984 and are considered one of Hollywood’s most inspiring couples. They share an adopted son, Matthew Jay Povich. Before Connie, Maury was married to Phyllis Minkoff from 1962 until 1979 and they have two daughters, Susan Anne and Amy Joyce Povich, together.
Maury doesn’t know the paternity test results on his show ahead of time.
He explained that it as by choice that he doesn’t know the results until he reads them on air because he wants his reaction to be genuine and feel what the audience is feeling.
“I said, ‘I don’t wanna know the result (beforehand). I don’t wanna know anything more than my guests. I don’t wanna think anything more than my audience. My live audience, my audience at home. If I know the answer, I will skew my questions,'” he told Entertainment Tonight in 2019. “And that was the key… because I’m as surprised as they are!”
He covered the assassinations of JFK & MLK.
When Maury was only in his 20s and working in D.C., he was able to report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
Maury teamed up with Lil Nas X for a collaboration in 2021.
The host and rapper got together to create a fake full length episode of Maury, which can be seen above. Lil Nas played his Montero character as a guest on the show and acted like he was in a love triangle with his football playing teammate lover and his wife.