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Connie Chung Offers Personal View of Maury Povich

Sep 30, 2007  •  Post A Comment

Maury Povich is a popular guy with viewers of TV talk shows. That popularity is clearly apparent as the “Maury” show celebrates its 10th year on the air, on the heels of Mr. Povich’s previous syndicated success with “A Current Affair” and “The Maury Povich Show.” Mr. Povich is the only person in the history of syndicated television to have back-to-back-to-back successes. But if you ask his wife, network news reporter and anchor Connie Chung, Maury is annoying — in a good way.
“Maury is a very funny guy to me because he’s such a quick study. It’s very, very annoying,” Ms. Chung said. “I observe him up close, at home, and then I watch his program, and I don’t really know how he does it. It comes so easily to him. He sits there, he reads his material, he doesn’t take any notes. … He has the TV on with the remote surgically attached to his hand; he’s jumping around from station to station watching several shows simultaneously. He reads voraciously. Then he gets up every morning, goes off to work, tapes several segments of his show — and he works very hard, but it doesn’t look like he’s working very hard.
“I can’t stand him for it, because I have always, over the years, worked so hard — hours and hours — and I take notes, I underline and I think about what I’m doing, and he doesn’t have to do that. And I really get annoyed!”
In 2006 the couple shared the spotlight on MSNBC’s “Weekends With Maury and Connie.” “It was loads of fun, but we only had a six-month agreement and we did it,” said Ms. Chung. “But we also have such a good life and we go off for the summer. So the six-month run ended in June and we were ready to come back and do the show in September, but they said, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ Also, they were changing all kinds of things. So they said, ‘It was very nice, but goodbye.’ We had a lot of fun because we always wanted to work together and try it out.”
The duo, who married in 1984, met years earlier while working in the news department at WTTG-TV in Washington. “I was in college and he was the anchorman. I was working two nights a week at a station where he was already the star,” Ms. Chung said. “He’s not that much older than I am; just seven years. He was already a big, hot-shot local news star. I used to bring him wire copy because I was a copy person. I would hand him the copy off the wire and say, ‘Here, Mr. Povich’ and he’d be like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah …’ while he was going rat-a-tat-tat on the typewriter.”
Ms. Chung keeps up with her husband’s TV talk show, and she has her favorites. “I always cry over the reunion shows, when they bring people together who haven’t seen each other in a long time, or families that are reunited. I love those shows,” she said. “His signature shows, the paternity shows, actually make me laugh. They’ve become so campy because they’re kind of predictable if one thing happens or if the other thing happens.
“I get a kick out of the ‘Is he a man or is he a woman?’ episodes. Those are always hysterical. Maury has told me that he can always tell because he looks at these people’s feet. He says it’s always a man when they have big feet.”
Although Ms. Chung enjoys “Maury,” that doesn’t mean she hasn’t urged her husband to consider other kinds of shows. “I’ve always said to him, ‘Why don’t you do a nice, quiet interview show, because you are so well read, you’re a history buff, you’re into politics, you have such a bank of knowledge, you’re a good writer. You’re doing stuff that’s easy for you. Why don’t you do something more mind-bendingly challenging?'” she said. “And he said to me, when I was really leaning on him one day about that — and I wish I was like this — he said, ‘As long as you know it, that’s fine.’ I want to reach that level of maturity or confidence or whatever all that is. I want to be there, too. I can’t wait till I grow up and get there.”

5 Comments

  1. HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY CONDONE HIS SHOW????????????? THIS IS THE WORST PIECE OF GARBAGE ALONG WITH SPRINGER. HE BRINGS ON 12 AND 13 YEAR OLD GIRLS TO HAVE BABIES. HE DEGRADES THEM EVEN MORE. I WOULD BE ASHAMED TO SAY HE IS MY HUSBAND. WHAT A SICK SOCIETY WE LIVE IN THANKS TO POVICH AND OTHERS LIKE HIM. THIS IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT. I HOPE THE NETWORKS GET RID OF THIS GUY FOR GOOD. HE IS PUKE.

  2. to the comment up above. He doesn’t bring those girls on there to degrade them further. He brings them on there to try and get them to change their way of thinking that it is okay to get pregnant at a young age. Maury I commend what you do. I personally love the shows where you send the kids to boot camp or jail for disrespecting their parents the way they do. I would be 6 feet under if I ever thought of doing something like that to one of my parents. I give you all my respect for all the shows you have put out. Keep doing what your doing.. You need to make more shows like your wife said ( is it a woman or a man) those are the best ones I love trying to figure them out. Peace and Love Christie.. I have watched your show since the very beginning and will continue to watch till the end.

  3. Maury Povich may be a well versed, intelligent individual but you could never tell it from watching his show. I feel that this show is well beneath his talents. Especially having a wife like Connie Chung, who has a lot of class. She is right, he should try something else before eventually he is cancelled. The show is not that good.

  4. I think his shows are great especially the paternity ones, some really bad mothers out there but even worse the fathers who walk away and don’t pay for the mistake or worse yet don’t know they have a child he allows the parents to sort this out and we need to know who our familys are how would you like to fall in love and find out down the road that you are related, GROSS so go Maury job well done.

  5. I think you have a wonderful show, some are little more entertaing then others,but i enjoy them.I feel maury and his wife have a big heart,and he does this for the love of people and the children.I like when he talks to the couple About not being the bialogical parent,and how you still can be agood father and you could still have a wonderful loving caring life, that can be filled. and live your life with a full heart.

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