“Maury ”Producer Recalls 'Unscrupulous Things' Staff Did to Get Guests — Including Poaching Them from Other Talk Shows!
- - “Maury ”Producer Recalls 'Unscrupulous Things' Staff Did to Get Guests — Including Poaching Them from Other Talk Shows!
Christopher EdwardsJanuary 15, 2026 at 3:30 AM
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The Maury Show/Youtube
Maury Povich during his first DNA Test in a1998. -
Dirty Talk: When Daytime Talk Shows Ruled TV reveals behind-the-scenes competition among '90s daytime talk shows to secure sensational guests
In the three-episode special, a former Maury producer admits to poaching a guest from Sally Jessy Raphael in a shocking incident
The series explores the rise of "Trash TV" and its impact
A Maury producer is spilling secrets about the making of the '90s talk show, and the ruthless behind-the-scenes battles that sparked between its competitors.
In the premiere episode of Dirty Talk: When Daytime Talk Shows Ruled TV — the new ABC News Studios documentary that debuted on Wednesday, Jan 14 — Maury producer Anthony Freire opened up about the unknown competition to secure guests amid a crowded market.
Sharing war stories, Freire recalled one instance in which producers from Maury poached a guest who was slated to appear on Sally Jessy Raphael's self-titled talk show.
"It was crazy. We did some unscrupulous things," said Freire. "It was a Sally guest. And it was a woman who had cut out her own breast implants. A producer from Maury whisked her away into our studios and kind of pushed her on the set, and there she was talking to Maury."
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Sally Jessy Raphael and Kitty Dukakis during a 1990 taping of Sally Jessy Raphael.
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Burt Dubrow, a producer on Sally Jessy Raphael at the time, also remembered the incident.
"I would like to think that we never stole a guest from another show. However, I do remember somebody stealing a guest from us," said Dubrow. "We flew her in, we put her in a lovely Holiday Inn across the street, and the producer went to get her, and she was not there."
Alamy
Montel Williams in a 1991 episode of The Montel Williams Show.
Dirty Talk: When Daytime Talk Shows Ruled TV features juicy anecdotes about the rise of the so-called "Trash TV" era, which included shows like The Maury Povich Show, Montel Willams, The Jerry Springer Show, Ricki Lake, Leeza and Sally Jessy Raphael.
Povich appears in the documentary, alongside Williams, Raphael, Leeza Gibbons and a slew of producers who worked on the shows.
In the documentary, Williams, 69, says all of the big name talk show hosts at the time participated in the frenzy.
"Early on, I did as many strippers as Oprah did, I did as many strippers as Sally did, I did as many strippers as Phil did," Williams said, referring to The Oprah Winfrey Show, Sally, and The Phil Donahue Show. "Everybody was trying to figure out how they can put the biggest breasts on air."
Other taboo episodes will also be discussed in the series, according to the trailer, including one Povich, 86, says he "couldn't do" today.
Courtesy Everett
Maury Povich during a 1991 episode of his talk show.
The first episode dove into how the daytime format exploded in the ‘90s, with sex and conflict becoming key to the show’s appeal.
According to a release, the second episode — airing Jan. 21 — explores why viewers watched and why guests agreed to bare it all on air. It’ll also dive into the shocking incident when one guest murdered another after a taping. And the third and final episode, releasing Jan. 28, will dive into the “new levels of sensationalism” the genre plumbed, with The Jerry Springer Show leading the race.
Dirty Talk: When Daytime Talk Shows Ruled TV will air Wednesdays (at 9 p.m.) Episodes stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
