The host of a daytime talk show that is basically the same as the Sally Jessy Raphael show, only with a male host. On his show, appropriately entitled "Maury", there are all sorts of trashy topics disguised as "caring" by the show's "producers." Most shows are centered around one of the following topics:
- "I used to be a (bad social connotation)... now I'm a (good social connotation)!" -- Guests who are unpopular, not stylish, or otherwise not acceptable to their friends and family undergo a makeover and reveal their changes at the end of the show to much applause.
- "Very special kids with Tourette's Syndrome." -- although Tourette's is very real, sometimes I suspect that Maury parades these kids out before the cameras because it's just so damn funny to watch kids involuntarily shout swear words. The amount of restraint shown by the audience is admirable.
- "Overly destructive children" -- teenagers, mostly female, who are in gangs or are just generally violent will come on stage and assert their control by yelling at their parents. The parents inevitably break down crying, to the sympathetic "aww"'s of the crowd. The proper response to unruly children is to send them to boot camp, and Maury will sometimes show some video of drill instructors barking orders at the children in a nice role reversal. Whether this actually causes behavior modification is irrelevant.
There are others, but these constitute most of the shows that I have seen recently. Maury has tried to break out of this workaday rut by hosting NBC's remake of the classic game show Twenty-One, but that show's ratings dropped faster than yesterday's bran muffin.
Maury is married to CBS News anchorwoman Connie Chung.