Maury

Since 1991, Maury Povich has used his daytime television show to address many different issues, although some of the most common are ones that many parents do not like to think about. With topics ranging from paternity tests to cheating spouses and even including allowing the audience to guess what gender a guest is, Maury both raises awareness toward these ideas as well as offers solutions.

Unlike other daytime syndicated hosts, Povich is likeable, seems caring, and truly tries to help his guests find some type of closure with their difficult issues. In many cases, he offers guests ways to overcome their problems, like by offering paternity tests to multiple partners of the same mothers that are unsure of who the fathers of their children are. Additionally, for episodes featuring unruly and in some cases downright awful children, Povich brings in specialists - police officers, drill instructors, former addicts, and similar people who have been through the same things - in an attempt to get them to change their ways.

Not all episodes involve topics like these, though. In some, Povich simply allows for old "missed connections" to be reunited in an effort to allow those who have had feelings for years to express them to the objects of their desire. Often, these people have undergone staggering transformations, (from geek to chic, from overweight and frumpy to thin and fashionable) and want to surprise the other person who has not seen them for years.

Another type of episode that airs is of the "Which Gender am I?" variety. The guests on the show all look like fit and beautiful women, but the truth is that some of them are actually men dressed as women. It is up to the audience to guess as to the actual gender of each guest, with the big reveal coming at the end of the episode. What makes this more entertaining and sometimes confusing is that some of the guests with the more masculine features actually turn out to be female, making it much more difficult to accurately guess.

Maury's mission is not to humiliate, except in some cases the badly behaving young people. His program strives to help those that need it, and at the end of each year, he features a "Top 10" program focusing on guests from the past year and updating viewers on any progress - or setbacks - since the airing of their episode.