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Founder's Story
They Already Wrote My Obituary. I'm 87 and Not Done Yet | Ep. 395 with Maury Povich
00:39:12
Daniel Robbins sits down with television legend Maury Povich to go beyond the catchphrase and unpack what the Maury era actually built: the blueprint for modern reality TV and viral culture before the internet existed. Maury shares why “you are the father” became a badge of honor, how his team never got faked on air, why Rikki Lake forced daytime talk to evolve, and why AI is now creating content so real it fooled his own family. They also dive into love, aging, Montana solitude, comedians as cultural mirrors, and the unlimited possibility moment that launched his entire national career.
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- [00:00]
Maury Povich
There is no doubt that our shows in the 90s and early 2000s spawn all the Housewives shows, all the Kardashians, Any kind of reality show now on cable was all sparked by our shows. 31 years, we never got fake on the air. You are not. You are not.
- [00:19]
Daniel
You are not the father. Five words that turned daytime television into a cultural obsession with. He outlasted every trend, every network, every critic. Now, at 87, Maury Povich is doing it all over again.
- [00:34]
Maury Povich
The thread for my entire career was I was chasing other people's stories. I was never able to kind of reveal myself. And so with the podcast, I Feel Unchained.
- [00:46]
Daniel
Today, we find out what fuels him at 87 and why he's not done talking.
- [00:52]
Maury Povich
I want to do everything my brother did. I thought that was the nicest thing anybody has ever said to me, that my brother, who I looked up to all of my life, thought that I was his hero. I can even tear up about that. I've spent the last couple of years talking to the New York Times about my obituary, which is written. I don't think I've told anybody this.
- [01:14]
Daniel
Daniel. Foreign so, Maury Povich, the obvious thing is I'm gonna have to say the phrase that. That really puts you on the map, which I'm sure at this point you could be annoyed hearing this because you've probably heard it so many times, but there's a reason why I'm going to say it. So you are not the father is the phrase that everyone knows you by. Or it could be you are the father, depending on the episode. However, what I want to know, though, is what emotions, what feelings, what thoughts come to mind every time somebody says that to you?
- [02:00]
Maury Povich
Well, I consider it. It's a badge of honor to me. It means that if people say that to me, that means that I'm part of their culture. And so that means that the show had some penetration and. And that they either watch that show for entertainment or for information or for knowledge or for. As Shaquille o' Neal used to say, he and his buddies used to bet on whether the guy was the father or not.
- [02:33]
Daniel
So I'm curious about how it was at this time. I mean, I've seen documentaries about your friend Springer and about how things were during that time for them. How was it for you, though, behind the scenes of creating this machine?
- [02:50]
Maury Povich
I was very proud of the way we came up with our themes and the way we employed them. My. My show had a. We had production teams, and it was like being in A newsroom. They had to check out these people who wanted to come on. Obviously, the 800 number helped with whether it be DNA or lie detector test or out of control teenagers. And so these producing teams would check every story out. And I can say in 31 years, we never got faked on the air. Sometimes we got faked before the show ever started and we sent the guests home, but we never got faked on the air. And so I, I applaud the way we handled things. Jerry's show was different. Jerry kind of gave me the best compliment I ever had when he would publicly say, you know, Maury, your show's the real deal and my show is wrestling. And so that's how I differentiated it.
- [03:57]
Daniel
So how, how did that go? Because I've heard that you became friends at some point. I guess you were kind of like rivals, essentially.
- [04:05]
Maury Povich
Jerry and I restarted the same month in the same year, 1991. That's when he started his show. I started my show and, and we would. And both admitted back then, in the beginning, the shows were very kind of tame. I mean, they were just afternoon or morning versions of the Today show. We would do topics, we would. I mean, our, you know, if it, if there was an edginess to it, it would be, you know, I have a favorite crushes, things like that. I mean, that would be as far as we would push the envelope, pretty tame. Next to where we ended up.
- [04:48]
Daniel
At what point did you realize, like, in order for this to really take off like a rocket ship, we need to, you know, we need to move the needle over here?
- [04:58]
Maury Povich
I, I think one of the reasons we changed was the. Was when Ricky Lake, who, by the way, is our guest this week on the podcast, I hadn't seen Ricky. And yeah, and so Ricky, Ricky came in and she. First of all, most of us were in our 40s and 50s doing the show in the early 90s. Ricky was 24 years old when she started, and she was able to do something we couldn't do, and that was get a young audience to watch. You know, the average age of our audience was probably near 50, and she was getting kids to watch daytime talk. And so therefore we had to start doing some subject matter which would appeal to a younger group. And so I'd say about six or seven years into the show is when we started with the themes of paternity and lie detectors and out of control teenagers.
- [06:00]
Daniel
So it seems like basically it was the beginning phases of reality tv, which I know people have mentioned to you before, like you were the pioneer, one of the pioneers of reality TV. And it seems like whether it was reality TV then or how shows are now on YouTube, you always have to come up with something new. You always have to push the envelope. It's almost like you had to create virality on TV before, you know, virality now is more of an Internet thing. So what was the secret sauce behind like continuing to do this?
- [06:38]
Maury Povich
Well, first of all, there is no doubt that our shows in the 90s and early 2000 spawned all the Housewives shows, all the Kardashians. Any kind of reality show now on cable was all sparked by our shows. Our the first reality shows of the 90s and 2000s. That's. I mean you can just trace it. I mean, that's the thread now when it comes today. YouTube now, including AI it's one of these things where you never know. I saw the other day and this went viral. Millions of looks. There was an AI There was an AI Instagram of Mike Vrabel and Diana Rossini coming on my show and I was going to determine whether he was the father of one of her children. And it was all AI and they had my set.
- [07:51]
Daniel
A year and a half ago, I was going through one of the hardest periods of my life. I was dealing with anxiety, depression, brain fog, and a huge part of it was because I was not sleeping. My schedule was brutal. Late nights, early mornings, constantly pushing my body. I tried everything, but nothing really worked. Then someone introduced me to Magnesium Breakthrough by Bio Optimizer. Night one changed everything. I had the best sleep I had in years. I woke up feeling calmer, clear and more rested. I even started having these vivid dreams again, which made me feel like my body was finally getting real sleep. What I love about Magnesium Breakthrough is that it's not just one form of magnesium. It has seven forms designed as a multi delivery magnesium system to support absorption, tolerability and how magnesium is delivered in the body. I've taken it for the last year and a half and I was a fan long before they sponsored the show. So if sleep stress or recovery is something you're working on, I say check out Magnesium Breakthrough by Bioptimizer. You can get it@bioptimizers.com Huge thank you to Bio Optimizer for supporting the show.
- [08:59]
Maury Povich
They had everything. I mean, it was so real that my sister called me and said, did this happen? And I went, no, it didn't. Well, don't you think you should apologize? I said, I'm not apologizing, it's A.I. you know, that's what it is. And so therefore, when you go on YouTube today, you got to figure it out whether it's real or not.
- [09:23]
Daniel
It's almost scary, right? Like, it's entertaining. But it also is so scary because people have sent me many videos and I'm like, this is definitely AI and they're shocked. They're like, this is AI I'm like, you can't tell. This is. Yes, this is AI These are like very smart, digitally focused people. I'm like, can you imagine the people that aren't as smart or digitally focused? They don't know they could be easily manipulated. What do you think about that?
- [09:53]
Maury Povich
Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's going to. Cause it's a quandary with AI because it, it really does look real in a lot of ways. I mean, I know there are, there are great benefits to A.I. i mean, I, I know what doctors say that, that AI is going to make sure that we all live longer. Uh, in terms of medicine, it's going to be spectacular. Uh, it's going to make, it's got, it's going to give a lot of professions shortcuts to, to success and that's fine. But when it comes down to the Internet and so, you know, we all use it, we all look at it, you're going to have to decipher whether it's real or not.
- [10:37]
Daniel
I mean, you're like in your 60s, right? You, but you look like you're in your 40s. You could live through 100 if you might only be halfway done.
- [10:45]
Maury Povich
Oh, gosh, you might have eight. I'm at, I'm in my 88th year. I mean, I'm just.
- [10:52]
Daniel
Wow. I never would have. I hope I'm like you when I'm 88.
- [10:56]
Maury Povich
Well, I'm going to be 88. I'm 87. I'm going to be 88 in about six months.
- [11:01]
Daniel
What, what's been, is it Connie that's been like the rock? That's what. Why you look so good and why you have so much energy? Because my wife makes fun of me that I have like 80 year old knees and I'm in my 40s. But what is it for you that, I mean, I love your, you have this love for life. I can tell. And I love that you love. I could tell you really love your wife at the same time. And you're in your 80s.
- [11:26]
Maury Povich
Yeah, I, she. I've always said that if you ever looked at my career where, you know, I did television news in various cities over the years, local news and I, we didn't get, we got married in 1984, and right after that, Rupert Murdoch bought the local station I worked at in Washington and my whole national career from 1986 on, I, I firmly believe it's because I married my wife. I, I, There are many people, particularly in New York. I mean, I've, you know, I've been Mr. Chung for 40, almost 42 years. So I, I wear that proudly.
- [12:11]
Daniel
So obviously, she's an extremely celebrated journalist. Incredibly, like you said, honorary PhD. Always seemed very serious to me when I would watch her serious expose. You, on the other hand, seem always, I don't want to say comedic in a bad way, but you're humorous, you're fun. Like, what was it like sitting at that dinner table between the two of you?
- [12:38]
Maury Povich
Well, believe it or not, she is much funnier than I am. And that, I mean, she has one of the great sense senses of humor. She is, you never know what's going to come out of her mouth. I mean, I, I had her on my first podcast on par with Mario Povich. She was my first guest. I didn't know it was going to happen. I mean, she, you never know what's, what's happening with her. I mean, she can be with. When it comes to me, she, she can be very insulting and do it in a humorous way. And I, you know, I'm much more serious personally than she, we, she is. But we've always, I mean, our, our axiom has always been we always took our, our work seriously and never took ourselves seriously. And so we really don't take each other seriously.
- [13:37]
Daniel
I love that. Maybe that's why.
- [13:39]
Maury Povich
Oh, no, she just, you know, there, there is no way you can never have a full chest with each other. You just, you always got to be, you always got to be ready for the insult. A little cut here and a cut there.
- [13:55]
Daniel
I like that. My wife told me that she thought I was really weird when she first met me, but the weirdness was also funny. And she liked that part, I think. I think she was attracted to the humor, not to my fading hairline at that time. It kind of reminds me of, like, misconceptions. Do you think there's misconceptions about you?
- [14:17]
Maury Povich
Well, I'll tell you, there might have been, only because, I mean, the thread, Daniel, for the, for my entire career was, you know, I was chasing other people's stories. I was always looking at events. It was never about me when I did the talk show, it was about the guests. It's about their stories. I was never able to kind of reveal myself. And so with the podcast, it's great. I mean, I feel unchained. I can. If I talk to a guest, for instance, about them being fired at some point, I say, well, let me tell you about when I was fired. Let me tell you about the list of guys who I didn't get along with, who were my general managers at various stations. And I had a list, you know, of a revenge list and things like that. And. And so they said, well, did you ever get revenge? And I said, well, believe it or not, every single time, I had about five people on the list. I said, every single time, you know, I was looking for revenge at one point or another, they all got fired. And I felt sorry for them. I was so mad that I felt sorry for them instead of seeking revenge because I just, you know, I just know. I know what it's like to be fired. It's not pretty.
- [15:38]
Daniel
I've been fired. And, you know, the last time I got fired, my manager who fired me also got fired, like a day after I got fired. But it was the best thing ever. Honestly, it was. I was miserable anyways, so you obviously have a lot of wisdom, and I'm sure you've gotten to meet, and I've heard some. Some great stories about the people that you've met in your life. But is there anyone who you've met doing this podcast, or is there something that you're looking to take away or learn from these people?
- [16:06]
Maury Povich
Some of the most successful podcasts we've done are with comedians. And I'm just fascinated by comedians because I think. I think when you take a look at their work, you're taking a look at, at, at the present, around the. Around the world or in our country, what the present is like. I think comedians reflect that more than anything else. And what I'm so excited about is in my younger days, I was very lucky to have interviewed people like George Carlin and Richard Prior and Mel Brooks and Don Rickles. That was my generation of comedy. And now I have all these kind of youngish comics in their 30s and early 40s, like Josh Johnson and Adam Friedland and Dan Soder and Mark Norman. And next week I'm going to. I just interviewed him. He's very, very funny. Giannis Pappas. So I. I mean, all these young guys, young to me, 30s, Leanne Morgan, a little older. I think it's fascinating to kind of look at the world through their eyes and how they perform. We have A Josh Johnson who, who can go two minutes. I've compared him to George Carlin. He can go two minutes telling a story without a laugh, and he's fine with that. And yet a guy like Mark Norman, I mean, Machine Gun. And so I, I'm fascinated with the various ways they get their comedy across.
- [17:57]
Daniel
I mean, it almost saddens me that you said they're in their 30s and they're younger and they're in their 30s and they'RE also younger than me because I see myself as 20. I don't know. But when you. You talked about some legends. I've always been obsessed with comedy. It was really my way to escape reality. So all those people, I've loved all the things that they've done. Is there a time where you met one of them? Something interesting? I don't know. Maybe you learned something. You discussed.
- [18:28]
Maury Povich
Mel Brooks was great. I was doing a talk show in Philadelphia, local. I was anchoring and doing a talk show called People Are Talking. And so Mel, I think is coming. Maybe one of his movies or something. This is early 80s. So he comes on the show and he's so funny. He's so, so funny. And so I said, so. So what do you do, Mel? What do you do for. For your off time? What do you do? I play tennis. Well, you really play tennis? Oh, yeah. We. We go to Merv's house. Merv. Merv Griffin. We go to Merv's. We, the four of us. I said, well, who, who's there? He says, well, it's me and Corman and Don DeLuise and Merv. And we all play, and that's what we do. And I said, you play? Yeah, three times a week. I said, oh, I don't believe it. He says, let's get him on the phone. So now I got Deloise and Corman and Verve on the phone with Mel on my local talk show in Philadelphia. And it's hilarious.
- [19:33]
Daniel
I. Spaceballs was one of my favorite movies. Like, I can recite so many lines, but no one ever knows what I'm talking about. Sadly. Yeah, I heard they're going to make another one. I don't know if they ever will.
- [19:46]
Maury Povich
But one I remember more than any. Any is Blazing Saddles. Because I had this. We had. I had this. My. My son who is now 30 something. 30, whatever. And when he's 4 or 5 years old, I put Blazing Saddles on. And it's the first time he ever laughed at a movie. At the, at the fireside scene when everybody is farting my 4 year old starts laughing crazily because he's hearing all these farts at the campfire scene with the beans.
- [20:24]
Daniel
I, I remember that too, by the way. I, I love that movie. Why do you think farts are so funny? I don't know. What is it? Because it just seems like, like it doesn't matter. I think if you went back 200 years and you farted, people thought it was funny then.
- [20:38]
Maury Povich
Yeah, it is. And worse. The most amazing thing is you can be 80 or you could be 5 and it's the same reaction.
- [20:48]
Daniel
Like there could be a show of just people farting. Like the whole goal. Like you talk like we, we could have a serious conversation, but we're just like also passing gas but you can't laugh. That would be a good episode, by the way.
- [21:01]
Maury Povich
Yeah, that would.
- [21:02]
Daniel
Yeah, I'd like you could take that. And you don't have to give me credit. I heard that you love Montana and you love Montana, but you love golf. And then you also love your show on par. I went to Montana a few times. My sister went to college there. Where?
- [21:20]
Maury Povich
Missoula or Bozeman?
- [21:21]
Daniel
Bozeman. So we went out there. We took her there. Montana State. I was like, wow, this sky is so big. And then my wife and I went there during COVID on a few different road trips. What do you love about Montana?
- [21:34]
Maury Povich
Well, I have to differentiate myself and, and all the people, all the kind of rich people who moved to Montana during COVID wanted to get out of these cities. And they, they went down there near Bozeman and south central Montana and built these big homes, which I don't understand. In a gated community, you can't say gated community. And Montana, I mean, just can't do that. So this is what I'm proud of. We went to Montana 30 years ago and we've been there that long. And we went up, we went not down there, but our place is near Glacier national park, way up high and then almost, almost, you know, 50 minutes from Canada. And so. And we live on our own mountain. And it's my son, our son lives there. He owns a machine shop. And I, I, you know, I go miles before I see my neighbor. It's. If you want to, if you want to be very restive and you're craving for silence, that's the way to do
- [22:55]
Daniel
it, by the way. See, not only are you a pioneer in tv, you're also a pioneer of Montana. When you. What, do you love silence? You know, recharging? Or do you Love more, being around people, being more extroverted?
- [23:11]
Maury Povich
No. You know, one of the reasons why I like golf is that even though you're playing with people, there's a sense of solitude. First of all, you have nothing. You have no one to blame or, or praise than yourself when you're playing golf. I mean, I've always. One of the reasons why I like golf is if I'm playing with someone, I can tell you in 18 holes whether I want to be with this person again. Because every single morsel of your character will come out on a golf course. All the demons, all the niceness, all the good, all the bad, all the ugly will be reflected in 18 holes of golf. And I can tell you whether I want to be with these people again as to how they demonstrate themselves during that round.
- [24:09]
Daniel
Wow. I've never, I've only played, like, Happy Gilmore type golf. I've never done anything serious. But, yeah, I think I need to. Do you not to get too serious, but is there anything that scares you?
- [24:23]
Maury Povich
If I was broke, I'd be scared. My family grew up, we were, I guess we were called middle class, but there, there wasn't a lot of extra stuff going on in, in our lives. I mean, everything was done because every dime was, was. Everything that my father made was spent. It was, there wasn't much of a, of a cushion. And so I, I, I, believe it or not, when I first got my television jobs in like, the mid-1960s, I said to myself, if I could make $50,000 a year for the rest of my life, boy, would I be happy. I mean, how unrealistic did that become? And so, I mean, that's the way we thought back then, money, especially in the news business. We didn't make a lot of money. I mean, when I got married, my wife was making 10 times the amount of money I was.
- [25:23]
Daniel
Did this, did the feeling of not wanting to go back to that, or maybe not wanting to have that for your future family, did this inspire you?
- [25:33]
Maury Povich
Sure. Absolutely.
- [25:35]
Daniel
So I know you, you and your brother David, from what I've read, were inseparable. Sadly, you know, you lost him a few years ago. When you, what memories or what do you think about, like, what is, what's a special, special moment that comes to mind when you think about him?
- [25:51]
Maury Povich
Well, I saluted him this year because he died at 87, and I wanted to be able to reach his age. So when I turned 87 this year, I, I said, david, here I am, and I'm still here. And I know that you Would love to see me right now at 87. My, my brother, we were very fortunate family. My father was a sports writer for the Washington Post for 75 years. And we grew up with me and my brother and my younger sister, my older brother David, my younger sister Lynn. And I was in the middle and I swear to God, Daniel, I don't know if families are like this, but I always felt that my brother was the most favored kid in the family. My brother thought that my sister was the most favored kid in the family, and my sister thought that I was the most favored kid in the family. So that's how we grew up. I mean, we, we kind of grew up as equals, but my brother, who ended up being one of the really great lawyers in the world, my, my brother was my hero. Every I, I, I was known growing up as Me too Povich, because everything my brother did, my, I said to my parents, me too. Me too. I want to do everything my brother did. And the most fortunate part about it is as, as I got as an adult, got more successful and did all these things, my brother thought that I was his hero. And I just couldn't. I mean, I, I thought that was the nicest thing anybody has ever said to me, that my brother, who I looked up to all of my life, thought that I was his hero in later years. And I, I, I, I, I, I can even tear up about that.
- [27:54]
Daniel
How special it reminds me. So my dad's brother just passed away, but the same thing. My dad is going to be nearing his age and he said the same, he's the same thing because his dad and my grandfather passed away at this exact same age. So he, he always tells me when he talks to me on the phone, like, you know, as I'm nearing this age, that seems to be the end. And I'm like, what a fascinating. What. So life is very fascinating, right? Like full circle.
- [28:24]
Maury Povich
I was just going to say the one thing that my father forgot to tell us and it's interesting. My father was the seventh of nine children, grew up in, born in Bar Harbor, Maine, spent his youth in Bar harbor and, and Bath, Maine. He was the last of his clan. Everybody had died before him, all of his brothers and sisters. He was the last, he was the last of. My mother was one of nine and so all of her people had gone. My, that generation always kept their grief inside them for some reason never showing it. And the, I really, I really would have liked my father to teach me how to grieve because I now have to do it on my own, and I don't. I have to. All I know is that, that with my brother and with my friends and with my parents, I grieve and I get very emotional about it. But I sure would have liked to have known how they did it.
- [29:40]
Daniel
When you think of, like, your grandkids or nephews, nieces, at some point you're going to be Googled. Someone's going to Google you one day. Maybe they watch your AI avatar talking to them. But what do you hope that they understand? That maybe the Internet and then maybe your AI avatar won't tell them about you?
- [30:01]
Maury Povich
Well, first of all, my youngest grandchild is 20. So they've all gone. They've gone through the Maury show for years. They now watch the podcast. One of my grand nephews works on the podcast. One of my nephews, believe it or not, was my director on the talk show for the last 10 years of the talk show. So all of my grandkids, now, they don't have to look me up. But I will say, d. I don't think I've told anybody this, Daniel. I get a call from the New York Times about four or five years ago, and this guy who I find out later on is a terrific writer, is calling me because they want to write my obit. And I went, oh, wow, this is interesting. So I've spent the last couple of years talking to the New York Times about my obituary, which is written. And the only thing I got very pissed off about was I finally asked the writer, how about, can I see it? Can I see my obit? I would love to see my obit. Said, we can't show you that. Are you kidding me? This is the New York Times. We don't show people what we write. I said, does that mean I'm going to have to read about it after I die? I said, yeah, that's the way it's going to be, that my obit's already written. You know what? I said to myself, well, then if that's the case, let's have the funeral right now so that everybody can stand up and say all these things about me and I can listen.
- [31:52]
Daniel
Do you think that with the journalism change, with the media change, obviously used to be you had to work, work for a network, you had to write for a publication. You have this transition now where instead of people writing about and talking about, like you said in the beginning, now they're free. They can, they can leave those. They can go on their own, talk about whatever they want, do a substack newsletter, do a podcast, do things on their own. How do you see this change? Do you think people even gravitate to, towards those traditional, or do you think everyone's going to say, screw that? I want to go off on my own?
- [32:30]
Maury Povich
I think journalism is in big trouble, and I've felt that for a long time. So does my wife. It's tough to find the kind of journalism that not only we practice, but we believe in. I interviewed Joy Reid on the podcast and she, I said, so what would you call your, your feelings about news? Do you think you're a journalist or do you think you're an opinionist? She, she gave me a, a comment that, that I felt was legit. She says, I'm an opinion journalist. That's it. Okay. A lot of us would think that that's kind of cross purposes, but that's okay. If that's the way you want to feel, that's fine. She says, I said, so what does that mean? She says, I give an opinion based on fact? I said, okay, as long as your fact is right.
- [33:25]
Daniel
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Like, I think about this a lot. Like, I. I'm glad you said opinionist. I've never heard that before. But I almost feel like most people sadly now have become opinionists. And it's like we're forced to. I mean, social media now. Anyone can say their opinion. I'm like, that's why I try to consume not a huge amount of content online, because I get forced to listen to everyone's opinion instead of just making my own.
- [33:53]
Maury Povich
You know, I give credit to one publication, forget reading their editorial pages, but I will tell you that the Wall Street Journal, their news pages are as good as theirs. They are very, very good. And they're very. And they're. And I don't think that they, I don't think any opinion or any slant is in their news reporting. You could take a look at their, their editorial page, and that's different. But you take a look at their front page, that's a good front page.
- [34:29]
Daniel
You know, my favorite social media platform is LinkedIn. I hope that one day you're on LinkedIn. I haven't seen you there yet.
- [34:36]
Maury Povich
I'm not there. I don't. I'm not there.
- [34:37]
Daniel
I feel like you should be, though, really. I think you got to talk to your team. I think you got to get on LinkedIn. I feel like this type of stuff would be great for LinkedIn, by the way. I don't know. I'm Not a social media expert, but I did write this book with my wife, though. It's called Unlimited Possibilities.
- [34:56]
Maury Povich
Oh, very good.
- [34:57]
Daniel
How to Live Life.
- [34:58]
Maury Povich
I believe in that.
- [35:00]
Daniel
That's what I'm asking you about. My final question. So unlimited possibilities is essentially breaking through barriers you didn't think possible. That's how we phrased it. I want to know what was an unlimited possibility moment for you in your life.
- [35:16]
Maury Povich
I think the unlimited possibility came in 1986 when this wild Australian named Rupert Murdoch plucked me from the Channel 5 newsroom in Washington D.C. and brought me to New York to do this crazy tabloid journalism show called A Current Affair and hooked me up with all these wild, crazy Australian producers and writers. And my whole world just exploded because everything I thought was new and it was new in the, in the world of television news couldn't compare to the five years I did on that show that showed. And, and it catapulted me into 31 years of talk. And it was, it was the funnest five years of my life. And with working with these guys, I mean, it was. I mean, we're, we were just cowboys just riding out there doing everything in the world that no other news division was doing. And within two or three years when we got so popular, all, all of a sudden all the television news networks were doing the same stories. We were the same stories they threw in the trash can three years before
- [36:38]
Daniel
local TV to national TV to the number one talk show on the planet to rewriting what it even means to be on tv, creating reality TV before it even existed. I mean, what a. Like, what a pioneer. Like what? I never thought in 1993 when I'd watch your show, I'd be sitting here right now. That's the amazing thing about podcasts. And I love your show, by the way. On par. You interview really amazing. You interview a very diverse group of guests, like from all different industries, walks of life. And there's. You're sitting with, across from Maury poets. I like to understand what's going through their head. I have to ask one of them.
- [37:21]
Maury Povich
That's one of the reasons why. It's because in the old days when I was doing local talk shows, nobody who knew who I was when they would come to town. Now it doesn't matter who comes on. They all watch the show. They know. They think they know me. Wow, I'm so honored to be. I said no, I've never been able. Only now am I on an equal level with all the guests I have. I'm. I'm amazed.
- [37:55]
Daniel
You know, there's. There's really amazing humble people. You are incredibly humble. And. And I. I appreciate that. Yesterday we had on the founder of Kind Bar, who is now like one of the leads on Shark Tank. And I have to say something I'm recognizing about the two of you is. And all we've had, we amazing people like yourself. You're always so humble. Like the most. The most successful people, really the pioneers of anything I find, are actually incredibly humble and kind people.
- [38:28]
Maury Povich
You know, it's. It's because we're just lucky to have gotten where we. Where we are, and we. We just feel fortunate. And I've never in my. In my life thought that. That somebody owed me something. Never, ever had that thought in my life.
- [38:48]
Daniel
Well, this has been great. I. I can't wait. I hope everyone checks out the show. I know you got a lot going on. They can check out the social, but on par. It's incredible. Season two. I can't wait. I'm excited for Ricky Lake. I started watching all your highlights. It was great. I'm hooked. And thank you so much, by the way. I'm honored that I am sitting virtually across from you and you're on our show today. So thank you for that.
- [39:11]
Maury Povich
Thanks so much, Daniel. Nice to be with you.