Maury Povich Reveals Friendly Daytime TV Rival Jerry Springer Described ‘Maury’ as ‘the Real Deal’

Long before reality TV took over the airwaves, Maury Povich and Jerry Springer were two of daytime television’s biggest names — and according to Povich, they had a genuine friendship to match their rivalry.

Povich, 87, sat down with host Speedy Morman on the YouTube interview series Slice Joint on Wednesday, May 20, reflecting on the golden era of talk television and sharing some candid memories of his late friend and competitor.

Povich said the two were close from the start. “Jerry and I were friends. … We were kind of kindred because we started our talk shows the same year, 1991,” he said on the show. He explained that Springer once told him, “Here’s the difference between the shows. Maury’s show is the real deal and my show is wrestling.”

When asked who had the better show, Povich replied, “Well … I mean, Jerry has gone to his greater life. I would say mine.”

The former Maury host was equally candid about his decades-long marriage to Connie Chung. “Every year my wife Connie Chung and I take a vote as to whether we want to be married the next year and it’s a tie,” he said. “So, we have to wait to take another vote the next year.”

Povich also traced the origins of modern reality television back to the chat shows. “We started in the ’90s,” he said on the show. “It was the kind of golden age of talk in the ’90s and the 2000s, where there were no less than 20 of us on the air in daytime. I believe that everything that is the reality shows now, from The Kardashians to the Housewives, all emanated because of those daytime talk shows.”

Maury ran from 1991 to 2022 and The Jerry Springer Show from 1991 to 2018. Springer died of pancreatic cancer in 2023, at his suburban Chicago home. He was 79.