Maury Is All Right With Kids
By Paige Albiniak -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/11/2003
Maury Povich may not be getting any younger, but his audience is. With the college kids home from school, Universal's Maury has taken firm hold of third place among daytime's talkers, regularly beating such heavyweights as Buena Vista's Live with Regis & Kelly and his Universal counterpart, The Jerry Springer Show. The feat makes Maury the 13th-highest rated syndicated show on television.
While Maury is doing well in the national ratings, it also is topping the charts among adults 18-34 with a 2.3 rating, beating Oprah's second-place 1.9, and up 28% over last year. Maury and Oprah tie for the lead among women 18-34, each at a 3.0, putting Maury up 20% over last year in that demographic.
Oprah leads among adults 18-49 and women 18-49, but Maury is maintaining second place in the key demographics. In adults 18-49, Maury was up 19% over last year and in women 18-49 he was up 16%.
Younger audiences seem to be drawn in by such topics as "Turn My Wife Back Into the Sex Goddess I Married," "Which Teen Brother is my Baby's Father?" and "Sex, Cheaters and Frightening Moments Caught on Tape."
"These shows are something younger viewers can relate to," says Amy Rosenblum, Maury's executive producer. "We stick to our format—real-life human drama. We've been programming the show more in mind with younger audience every summer for the past six years."
Rosenblum also says that unlike other daytime syndicated shows, Maury doesn't go into a whole summer of repeats. "I save things throughout the whole year. I take the July book very seriously."
Maury is so hot in New York City that its July 30 show was the highest-rated program on its home station, The WB affiliate WPIX(TV). And with a 5.2 rating/17 household share, it was the top-rated talk show for the day in all of New York, beating King World's Oprah and Live with Regis & Kelly on WABC-TV, and King World's Dr. Phil on WCBS-TV.
With that rating and share, Maury easily won its 10 a.m. time slot. It also built on its lead-in, Warner Bros.' Jenny Jones, which came in with a 2.1/7 at 9 a.m. n
