Tasteless Television: The Maury Show, Live in Stamford

I recently attended a taping of Maury in Stamford, Conn. with a carload of my friends. I was interested in seeing what it was like behind the scenes of The Maury Povitch Show, now known as just Maury. This program has been part of American culture since 1991, incidentally the same year that The Jerry Springer Show premiered.

Maury is considered the more civil of the two shows, as it does not encourage physical confrontation between its guests. Maury Povitch has been in broadcast journalism for more than forty years, in which time he has worked in Washington, D.C. as well as outlets all over the country. Somewhere along the line, he made the switch to a morning talk show host and has never looked back.

Before attending the taping, I was conflicted as to whether the stories told on the show had any truth to them at all. The theme of the taping I attended was cheating spouses who were given lie detector tests to prove whether they were telling the truth. When the show began, I saw that Maury’s guests were not fabricating their tales, however the producers of the show were pushing them to be as dramatic and exaggerated as possible when arguing their side of the story.

One woman was convinced her husband was cheating because he was found showering with his boxers on. When the lie detector revealed that he was not, a look of absolute relief came over her. (The validity of these lie detector tests is always questionable, but for the purposes of this article, I will assume that they are all true.) However, when she did not fire back at his denials of her accusations of cheating before the results from the lie detector were revealed, the producers made large motions at her to interject, to speak up and to be as theatrical as possible. The one thing that the producers do not encourage is physical confrontation. In fact, at the earliest sign of conflict, a large security guard was on hand to restrain the guests from even getting to close to each other.

Another story told on the show was that of a fiancée who came on the show to reveal to his bride-to-be that he had been sleeping with her cousin, who had introduced them in the first place. I was expecting a huge blowout filled with yelling, screaming, hair pulling and the like. However, I instead saw the bride-to-be with her head in her hands, not wanting to speak or look at her cheating fiancée or her cousin who betrayed her. After several minutes of inactivity, even when prodded by Maury to react to the situation, the woman rushed off the stage after being motioned by the producers. On the edited version of this show, the producers’ actions are not shown, but I’m sure this woman was happy to leave the audience, even if she could not yet escape the cameras.

If the show’s only purpose was entertaining the viewer, some of the segments taped would have ended up quite differently than they actually did. However, as an audience, we did our best to be as entertaining as possible. Before the taping we were coached by the producers to react as loudly and enthusiastically as possible to everything that the guests on the show told of their tale of supposed infidelity. While I’m sure the contestants enjoyed getting a rise out of us, the studio audience, at some points I felt like I was intruding on a very personal moment, one that should be happening far away from television cameras, almost two hundred strangers and a washed up former newscaster.

Throughout the taping, what kept coming to mind was the nature of these people’s relationships. I barely feel comfortable talking to my friends and family about the inner workings of my own romantic relationships, let alone a national audience. Are these people trying to get on TV or do they just really want an outside source to confirm their suspicions that their partner is cheating? I think the answer to this question greatly depends on the couple. One woman who was accusing her fiancée of cheating on her had quips and comebacks to everything that Maury and her fiancée came at her with, as if she had spent days rehearsing for her (not even) fifteen minutes of fame.

While this woman’s seemingly rehearsed performance was more entertaining to watch, it was far less believable than the woman who sat between her cheating partner and her own cousin with her head in her hands, wishing that she had never agreed to come on the show and have her life turned upside down on national television.

Throughout the personal dramas and blowouts, Maury serves as part mediator and part instigator. He is clearly prepped on the stories of these couples before the taping, as his questions are pointed in the worst kind of way. His sympathy seems strained, which is to be expected after close to two decades listening to the problems of the masses. His forced attitude showed through during commercial breaks, where he retreated into the audience to take pictures, but quickly became annoyed when the producers left him alone with too many women who wanted to take pictures with him.

Yet, every morning, around two million Americans tune in to watch his calm composure provide a stark backdrop to the exploding personalities and emotions that surround him. I suppose that people enjoy seeing those who are less fortunate than them. Another explanation could simply be America’s warped sense of humor – through shows like America’s Funniest Home Videos, American Idol, Wipeout, and countless other reality shows, we are made to laugh solely from other people’s misfortunes. Those who sit down to watch shows like Maury every day could actually be worse off than those who appear of them, as they are the ones who have bought into this tasteless culture – and they aren’t even getting on TV in the process. I was interested to see this process take place without the help of an editing team, but I do not think I’ll be going back in the near future to see more of one of the worst parts of American popular culture.