The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - PTFO - Sex, Lies, and Longevity with TV Legend Maury Povich

Episode Date: December 26, 2023

You may remember him as the paternity-test king of fever-pitch daytime television. But this renaissance man has seen it all — the JFK assassination, Waco, a woman who's afraid of aluminum foil — and he has emerged an optimist. Climb into your TV for wisdom on courage, vulnerability, and reassurance from the OG who held up Pro Bowlers at practice... and introduced the world to Cotton Ball Man. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Okay, so it's December 26th, day after Christmas, you've been surrounded by family, hopefully. Hope that was good for you. If it wasn't, and you find yourself like wondering, and I really related to these people, fair question, and I have an episode for you today. Because I sometimes get concerned that the episodes we make three times a week relentlessly, forever, don't get consumed by everybody on the planet, also just in our own feed on our YouTube channel, because there's some real good sh**, man.

Every episode's kind of like my kid to continue this theme of paternity. This one, I want you to meet. I have a feeling that some people missed it, but this is a visit from the man who, I would say, is the face of genetic testing. Okay. Also the longest running daytime host in American television history.

He is a legend and icon. None of these things are exaggerations. He also made me as happy as I've been in the year 2023 because of this episode. So with a further ado, welcome to the stage. Mr. Moripovic. Welcome to Pablo Tore. Finds out I am Pablo Tore. And today we're gonna find out what this sound is.

You wanna own up and tell everybody what you are deathly afraid of? Aluminum fluoy, oh. Is it the noise? It's the look. And the noise is... And the noise? Yeah.

Right after the sad. You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. It's a thrill. It's just a thrill to hear you laugh across this table for me. Well, it's nice to be with you. I've watched you a lot. Oh, well, I believe that I win that competition who has seen more of the other. Well, it's not close. Yeah. Well, you, you, when you appear with that miscreant corn hyzer. I tune in. Well, corn hyzer says the only reason I have Pablo on is a smarter than I am.

Yeah, he said he likes to, he likes to self deprecate in a way that is always so flattering to me and makes me suspicious. It's a little too kind that man, when it comes to this stuff. There are many reasons why I am legitimately, like, sort of deliriously happy that you're here. One of them is that it's like I climbed into my television. There are only a few people who made me feel that way. You are one of them.

But the second reason is that you have the blood of truly, like sports writing, sports writing greatness inside of you. So for people who don't understand your lineage, explain who your father is. Okay. So my father's name is Shirley Povitch. He was a kid in Bajar Bermain growing up as a towny kid. It didn't come from the wealthy family or any, but the millionaires who suffered in Bahar Bermain, the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts, the Morgan's, all these

people built their own golf course called Kibo Valley. And my father was a caddy at the course course and he was thrown together one time with a man when he was about 15 years old. And he caddyed so well for this man that this man said my carriage because there weren't any cars on Mount Desert at the time. And so he picked my father up in his carriage every day in the summer for three straight years went to my grandmother and said, I want to take your son with me. I own my own golf course in Washington, DC, and he'll be my caddy. And I also own a newspaper called The Washington Post, and I will give him a job.

And my father arrived in Washington in 1922. My father died in 1998, 75 plus years later, working for the Washington Post. The sports writer, sports editor, the youngest sports editor in the country at the age of 21. One of the greatest columnists as well of all time. Shirley Povic is, I mean, the name in the world that me and the aforementioned Miss Cree

at Tony Cornheiser have it. This is, we are dealing with royalty. I just want to make clear too, that the reason I had your phone number in the first place is because of Cornheiser. Right. And you guys. He gave it out, huh?

He's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's not a betrayer in this way, but I, but I in the sake of, for the sake of journalistic transparency, I make clear that you guys, you and Tony, are actually, you know each other because of this way. Forever. I mean, my father was very instrumental in hiring not only Tony, but Michael Wilbon. You know, it's very interesting when Tony was first hired. Tony has everyone knows as a great sense of humor and used to write humorously a lot and my father went to George Solomon and then the sports editor of the post and said, I don't know if this is going to work out.

I don't know if he's that funny. And then he came back about a year later and said to Solomon, you know, I have to admit, I was wrong, he's terrific. And so from then on, they've been best buds. He has, Tony has that way of winning you over, despite maybe your skepticism. And I of course say this in the context of knowing

that you and Tony were also business partners. Yeah, well, that's another reason why I'm a little leery of him. He, you know, I have invested in some, you know, glorious businesses like the clothing business and never worked out. I invested. I started a newspaper in the middle of when newspapers were going down in the great state of Montana, which I still have, not a great idea. And then

Cornheuser tries to convince me to invest in his goddamn restaurant in Washington. Yeah, chatter. And that's another failing adventure of mine. Yeah. Well, all of that stands in contrast to a remarkable bit of longevity, which is that you own this title and this is an incredible title.

You were the longest running daytime host in television history. Right, yeah. I never expected it. You never expected it? No, no. I mean, first of all, I always thought when I was growing up in this business, doing news, sports, talk shows, that if I, this is what I said to myself, if I could make $50,000 a year, the rest of my career, I would be so excited and so happy. And secondly, if I could still stand this business at the age of 50, I would consider that a victory.

I think I set the bar too low. Yeah, yeah, I would have taken the over on that one. Yeah, yeah, I would have taken the over on that one. Okay, so you should know that there is an alternate universe, a miserable, alternate universe where Mori Povitch is not this Mori Povitch. Now age 84, because for the first 25 years or so of Mory's professional life, he worked in local news. He did some sports, he did a lot of hard news, he hosted a talk show, he anchored the evening news, he mostly hopped from job to job to job all across the country. But then, this insane Australian guy, named Rupert Murdoch. Some in Morrie to New York, to host a new tabloid-style news show called A Current Affair. And this is 1986.

An current affair went on to take so many viewers from its direct competitor, Entertainment tonight, that the company that owned Entertainment tonight went out and hired Morrie to launch his own daytime talk show, The Mori Povice Show, which was just one entrance among many in the super crowded field of daytime TV in 1991. So what you're saying is that you're entering to daytime television, which again, when I was growing up, I was born 85, right? 80s and 90s, daytime television.

Huge. And not just an economic machine, but a golden age and institution that shaped American life. There were at least 10 of us on the air. When I say that, I mean, there was Phil Donahue and there was Oprah, there was Herald O'Revere, and there was me and there was Sally Jessie Raphael and

Joan Rivers and Jenny Jones and Montel Williams. I mean, I could get a Springer. Jerry Springer. And so it was so funny one time because for their 25th anniversary NBC gave Phil Donahue a prime time show and he asked all of his competitors to be in a skit on the show and we all showed up at the Green Room. All of us, all eight or nine. The Avengers of daytime television. All in the Green Room.

Talk show hosts in the Green Room. Not one of us would talk to each other. Our egos were so big that we couldn't even converse with each other. But it was like that though. It was. It was doggy talk. Right, right. That reminds me a bit of just the competitiveness of sports. Same thing.

Keeping track of what the other person's stat line might be done. Exactly. Or clickbait now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The metrics, the numbers were the race to be great. The greatest. I'm genuinely curious. This is a show about finding out stuff.

And I say that now in smile because your show, of course, is the ultimate show about finding out stuff. Yeah. Mori Povic finds out is a good alternate title for your show. But how good is your memory of your show over decades upon decades upon decades upon decades? Well, I mean, it's difficult because there are two great themes for the last 24 years

and it was of course paternity tests and lie detector tests. So those things kind of merge. Uh-oh, my golly. Wait, I'm getting your silly phone calls. No, it's all good. And not only that, it was spam. How was that? I was hoping for Connie. No. Oh god, almighty. Let me get this off. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's all good. I'll call it. If you want me to. Well, we might need to. She's not writing her mail. I was gonna say she's not writing

her memoirs. Allow me to be, she's not writing her memoirs. Allow me to be the millionth Asian American young person to just use you as a way to getting to your... Do you know when Connie saw you on part in the interruption, she immediately looked you up to find out your heritage. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.

This is, oh, oh, that's, that's, that is, I'm serious. Put it on, put it on the epitaph stuff. Just like Connie Chung wanted to know, where is this kid from? Is all I, I mean, now we're in the gravy phase of the proceedings today. That makes my, that makes a month, a year for me. Yeah, so what happened was, happened was, the first seven years when I worked at Paramount for the show,

it was like Oprah and Donna Hughes, just a wait, for instance, we went to Waco, Texas for the Branch Davidians, we would go to Nashville to do a country music week. We would, I mean, it's the same kind of motif that the today's show had or Oprah had or Phil had. And then after seven years, I left, I became a free agent and then I went to NBC University

for the last 24 years. And the first couple of years were the same thing. And then my producers came to me and said, we have this idea. Okay, what's the idea? We want to do paternity tests. You know, we see on the soap operas all these themes about who's the father of these children, and it takes about six months to play out the theme on soap operas. We think we can do it in about 12 minutes.

Hahaha. And I went, oh boy, this is going to be good. And, you know, obviously just the way, particularly daytime television is or tabloid tell you, just want to push the envelope as far as you can. Right. Again, you're in competition. Right. Exactly. So we come down to the first show,

and I think this was a crucial moment for everything. And I'm getting depreved about the story, and I've read up on the story, and read up on the characters involved. And the producer says, and so,ari, the result, and I said, you know, I don't want to know the result. I don't want to know the result of a paternity just. I don't know the one another result of a lot of detect. I don't want to know, I don't know anything. My guest doesn't know the reason why I have those signature

lines of you are the father, you are not the father, is because I didn't know. You are authentically finding out that very moment with us, the audience. Because to me, the only way, daytime talk, you have to connect. The way you connect is you're part of them, you're part of the audience, you're the extension of the audience. You, and the the audience. You're the extension of the audience.

You and the way I questioned, was the same questions the audience would ask if they had a chance. Yes. And so that's the way it went down. Oh, you were an avatar for our curiosity. Right. And I just wanna, there are so many,

I'm sure you get this all of the time now. Just people being like, you remember that time? Right. That, I am gonna do a self-indulgent thing. Right. I want to watch a couple of things from your show with you. Can we do that?

Sure. I'm curious, Mori, if you remember this one. What happens if this is your child? Then I'll step up and take care of it. You will? You saw it, will. For free? Yes, absolutely. You won't charge. Nope. You will? They saw will. For free? Yes. Absolutely.

You won't charge. No. You won't be charging if it's yours. No. OK. Well, let's find out then, all right? I know. I know.

Oh, boy. When it comes to one year old Ashley, Jeremy, you are not. Oh, no. No. No. No. No. No. When it comes to one year old Ashley Jeremy you are not So for people who aren't watching along on YouTube or the Japanese network that dude just backflips more it Yeah, and a white dude too a white dude back flipping with incredible Elacrity, but you remember that back? That's not lost. I mean, you're not numb to that. I don't think it was the only back flip I ever saw.

There are more of course. Are you kidding? I have back flips from the rainbow coalition every color in the world you can imagine. Let me pause you for a second. There I can tell you. I can't tell you the number of NFL players who have said to me, we're in the locker room before the,

before practice and the coaches are asking us to come out and we're not coming out until we find out who the father is. And I'm telling you from this is from stars. Oh, I believe this. Oh, no, because I was that way when I was like, you know, sick at home from school. Sure. And where you really sick. I mean, sometimes sometimes you had to you had to stay home. You had to gin it up because you might see this. might see this. You know that gentleman. I mean, he's like maybe the most iconic of all. Yes. What he would you rank him number one in terms of just the most? That's viral most. Yeah. I mean, there were very, there were several different clips that millions on you do still today. Oh yeah, I mean, it's that guy dancing

and essentially just becoming the host of your show as you go to console. The would be mother of his child who was not is an incredible contrast in just like untrammeled delirium, utter delight. And you, you have the bedside manner. I mean, that's the thing in these clips that people need to appreciate.

You were maybe the best handholder. And I mean, that figurative and literal. When it came to just people on your show. I think that's one of the reasons for the success was that the connection you make with the audience and the connection is that the connection you make with the audience. And the connection is that they thought of me as part of their family. And I don't think a host can ask for anything more than that.

I mean, it's very interesting. When I first started, I had some negatives on the Q ratings and things like that. So Paramount hired a guy I had known years and years before, named Roger Ails, who at that time, this is before Fox News, was a research consultant. I'm very... And so Roger gets to me and says, we have to show you as a vulnerable person. We have to show you as one of those people who the audience would welcome into their homes. And the early promotional announcements for me was, I went on and said, it's a classic Oprah showing vulnerability. I've been fired, I'm divorced.

I've missed, I've worked a lot of places. Some people, some management like me, some people didn't like me. And so I had to show all of this vulnerability. Right. Because as a talk show host, you have to be vulnerable. Yes, you need to show that you also can hurt. Right. Because as a talk show host, you have to be vulnerable. Yes, you need to show that you also can hurt. Right.

Yeah, that whatever sympathies, whatever emotions you display are real. What you're saying, though, in this sort of like familial metaphor here of like your part of the audience, they welcome you in, as if you, Mori, were the father all along. Yeah. Well, I think a lot of people, the reason they come on the show is because they've always

felt that I, that they could unburden themselves in my presence. Absolutely. Rather than doing it at home in a rather difficult atmosphere at home. And they could feel safe. I mean, can you imagine that? Well, that's what I cannot imagine, but now I'm beginning to make sense of is the idea that in that Colosseum, right, in Connecticut, right, in that studio in Connecticut,

what felt insanely hostile from afar to them. Which by the way, the audience, the live audience, talk about, you know, the Romans and the Christians here. When the crowd, when you're freedom, that daunting aspect of like the arena, right, because of you, they felt it was a safe space. Exactly. Which is incredibly funny because my favorite genre,

subgenre of your show, as much as I love the paternity stuff and the lie detectors, it was the phobias. Oh my God. Do you know it's still today? They garnered the largest population on YouTube. I am in that population. I mean, I want to play for you. My favorite one, one of my favorites, and it's this one.

You wanna own up and tell everybody what you are deathly afraid of? Aluminum fluoy, oh. Oh boy, I can't wait. Is it the noise? It's the look. It's the noise of the... Oh gosh. And the noise.

Yeah. Hege, I'm telling you by the... No! No! No! No! No! Oh gosh. And the North. Yeah. Heggie, I'm telling you by the... Guys, I won! My bad! Get away from me! You better get away from me! You better get away from me! I wanna hit her!

I wanna hit her! Get away from me! Oh boy. I mean, Lumin- Yeah. And at times, we unfortunately, would take the poor intern. I was gonna say, who did you task with the interns

at the bring out the barrel of pickles or at one time there was a woman who was scared of cotton balls. Well, Mori, I have good news for you. Well, this intern is an all-American. She's afraid of cotton Cotton absolutely makes me 100% terrified The way it feels and what happens when I think about it it gets to the point where I feel like I'm having a panic attack

Okay, you know you've got a confront your phobia now. This is the famous Mari show Cottonball man I think that's the greatest thing in television history That poor intern So take me take me behind the scenes as to how the cotton man came to be well behind the scenes as to how the cotton man came to be. Well, you know, when once the phobia shows became popular, we used to get all these requests. And we would take, I mean, what are we gonna do,

put somebody on who has a phobia against snakes? I mean, we all have that. Right. But cotton, aluminum, pickles, mustard, mustard, I mean, it's unreal. And so the poor end. You visually describe for people who are just listening to us, giggle over, again, the greatest moment in the history. Explain what happened there.

What did we see? What we did on the phobia shows, whoever had a phobia in order to overcome it, according to our expert who in the back works on them for a couple of hours and then we come back and show how to overcome this. In order to overcome this, you have to confront it. And I mean, I got a little squeamish because I mean, I hate to see these people, you know, and they're just catatonic. I mean, they're just, oh, you become vicariously afraid because they are running. They're always more, they're always running backstage.

They run backstage. All the way to the audience. They run everywhere. And by the way, at times we run after them. Oh, yeah, oftentimes you get the camera, the shaky handheld following them around the back maze of your studio. And so in this clip, it was something I'd never seen before, but I never frisket it up a person, it full of cotton balls coming out like you know like I was like one of those old-time classy horror movies. Yeah, a creature from the black lagoon at the lagoon was just cotton balls. Exactly. And so it uh I mean it was. It was an intern? As an intern. Yeah. Oh yeah. I wonder what job that guy got next. What part of the of all of the things we've watched and beyond, what part surprised you the most?

How often were you genuinely like, because I met you see enough things? There were there was. It happened twice on the show and I was at a loss. And a woman comes on and accuses a fellow of being the father of her twins. And, uh, okay. And so, since I've told you before, I don't know the result. I open up the envelope and the guy is the father of one, but not the other. In the case of two-year-old Nikolai, Eric, you are the father.

One out of two ain't back. One out of two ain't back. I have never had that on my show. And the first time that happened, I'm looking around my step. Yeah, yeah. But how does that happen? For eternal twins, lady could be quite active over a small period of time. You know, separate eggs. This is a thing that happens.

Happen. Million to one shot according to scientists, it came on twice on my show. Twice. The woman was disbelieving. I said, look, I was disbelieving until 30 seconds ago. But I know that our DNA testing is correct. therefore, you're looking for another father. Right. Oh my God. I didn't, that is a, that, this is a show full of revelations. Well, I thought you would know that

coming from the family you come from. I know, my parents are doctors. Moria, of course, has seen enough PTI to know that I gave me fun of for not knowing anything about science or medicine. And so no, Moria, I did not know that a woman could f*** two different dudes and have them built be the father of the fathers.

Your fathers are your neurologist. That's correct. That's right. And your mother's what dermatologist? How do you know this? Well, I do my research. I feel like I'm about to watch you take an envelope out and inside of it is going to be a card that says you are the disappointment to your parents.

And by the way, I always thought these women were very brave and very courageous because they would come time after time. And first of all, it was three and then four different guys. And then six and then eight, nine, maybe even 10. Yeah. And they would be ridiculed by the audience. But also they knew what they were in for. Yeah.

I mean, it's not like, and they didn't care. They just wanted to have their child to... You know, and that's why I've always justified that theme because I mean, Lord knows I've had plenty of criticism over the years. Of course. Not only from media critics, but a lot of people. Yeah, yeah, who's saying this is destructive to the American ideal. And I'm saying, look, I know this.

A child has a better chance at life if they have two parents in their life and said, oh, one, I just know that, I know that. So if I can get a significant amount of men who are approved to be the fathers of these kids, into these kids' lives, and fortunately, the show lasted so long. I used to bring back these families when there were adults.

That's right. And so I would see this father not only got into the life of that child, but they had other children, the child in question and stuff in college is often on her, on her, his own. And it's, I know it's gratifying. The idea, the idea, I mean, first off, like if you have ever seen a second of your show,

you know what you're in for, what you're signing up for, you're consenting to this in all of the ways. So to me, I am unscandalized by that dynamic, but I am fascinated as to, again, let's bring a full circle here with the parental through line of our conversation. What did your dad think of what you were doing? Well, that was very interesting. There's a Pulitzer Prize winning television critic named Tom Shales. Of course. And... The Washington Post. At The Washington Post. And Shales

at the Washington Post. And Shales writes this scathing article about me. He uses every S word, there is Marmy, uh, uh, uh, uh, sort it. Salacious. Salacious. At every S word in the world. So I called up my father and I said, Dad, uh, don't read Tom Shales today. You really don't really want to read Tom Shales. And please do not show mom the article. Now, don't worry about it, son. Just go about your business. That was his attitude. Just go about your business.

You do find him. I mean, he says, I'll tell you this, son. I had a role in hiring Tom Shales here, and good writers are hard to find. Hahaha. Did he ever pull you aside, tug you at your sleeve, and say, look, the paternity stuff, the phobia stuff, the interned rest in cotton. He never did.

He really didn't. He always worried about me. And it wasn't, he worried about me because for a long time I didn't have much money in whatever money I had was gone. And he says, you know, it really bothers me that money just burns a hole in your pocket. You never have any money. And so, when I got to be successful and the money started coming in, and how he's in his 90s, and he always went back to his boyhood home in Maine every summer.

And so I sent a plane for him and my mother to Washington to pick us up in New York and go on the main and I walked in the plane and there he is, all his newspapers spread out on a table like this and he says, I'm not going to worry about you anymore. I will say this to everyone, you know, it makes sure your parents know you're okay before they go. That was a huge part. No, more that was a huge part. I'm just seeing very eerie, you know, small parallels in my life because of course when

my parents saw me on ESPN, they're like, okay, this whole thing where you decide not to go to law school, even took the LSAT twice, where we sent you, we paid out of our noses, came to America to pay out of our noses sent you to Harvard like we're okay because it seems like this is you have something going here. Right. And that mattered. And I'm gonna tell you something. All these years later it's been 25 years since my father died. I was so happy to be able to show that to him before, that Wally was alive. And I just say that to everybody.

If you can, please make sure they know you're okay. Yeah, yeah. We mentioned, of course, your better half, Connie Chung. Yes. Before, and it's just remarkable how surrounded you are, how infused your life is with Objective journalism like capital the most capital J journalism yeah, honey Chung embodies that truly embodies that This is the CDS evening you

With Dan rather and Connie Chung Good evening nine days after the explosion in Oklahoma City, the danger there is far from over. She pointed out in some interview that, you know, Mori Povitch reads books. He like, he knows stuff about history and war and and pilot all of this stuff. Has she ever tried to nudge you towards, hey, I know you as the brilliant son of a brilliant man who traffics in the high brow.

Yeah. And yet you're doing this stuff. Yeah, right. And I say to her all the time and she appreciates it, I said, look, as long as you know, I'm fine. And that's it. I mean, I don't, I mean, it's kind of my secret. I mean, most people don't know my past. I mean, I did newsy talk shows and I were ported on the air and I was there. I was there at John Kennedy's assassination, looking at

Jackie Kennedy coming off that plane and that bloodied suit. And I covered Martin Luther King's March on Washington, and I covered the riots in Washington after the death of Martin Luther King. And I covered all of Watergate. And, you know, I had my fix. I was always, I was always kind of ill at ease with the way news and storytelling went because there was never enough time when you were covering news. It was always a minute 30. If you were anchoring, it was always a 30-second intro. There was always all these constraints. And so when the talk show gave me the ability to be a long-form storyteller, and I don't care whether it's tabloid or not,

but it's a long-form storytelling position. And I felt free. I felt the bridal was off. And it's the way I've kind of looked at it ever since. What are you most proud of? When you take the sweep of all of this, right? You've traced an arc that's, again, without exaggeration, singular in the history of media. What are you proudest of when you look back now?

Two things. The one thing that Shale said to me, years, I mean, wrote years before he excoriated me on the third of here. And he liked my talk show. And he said, you're a Renaissance man. You know, you got a little knowledge about a lot of things. And I think that plus the longevity, I'll take it.

I mean, that's fine with me. And there are some funny things. I just saw something on Instagram that was so funny but true. Black comic named Josh Johnson is doing his stand-up and he's got it in a club and he says, you know, I think the black community owes a lot to Mari Povitch. I don't think Bore gets enough credit. I really don't. Bore is such an ally to the black computer.

He really is. In all the years he's been on the show, Bore has never fucked up a black name. I'm going, I wouldn't name my baby, Don Tavius. And then I saw the most amazing thing when I saw the name of the baby underneath the picture, and there was a two. They'll put the baby on the screen, and I'll see the screen below the name, and I'll be like, is that a two in that neck? And then more and more, wow, even missing a beat will like,

when it comes to the case of six month old, to Wayne, I'm like, wow! When it comes to baby to Wayne, I just couldn't take it. In my talk show, every single name on my talk show, I say to the producers, how does they print, well, I don't know. Well, I'm going to go, where is that person before the show? I'm going to go find out. And I did that for 30 years. I had never thought about that ingredient and why so.

Everybody deserves the respect of the correct pronunciation of their name. Yes, and it also provides that ballast of we on some level, despite the absurdity of the proceedings you're about to undergo, we're gonna take you seriously in a way that is fundamental to who you are. If I can pronounce your name, you know that you can be sure that you have a space here.

[♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Do you consider yourself? I'm not thinking about this in the context again of the episode you did. Do you consider yourself an optimist about human nature? Yeah, I do. I mean, I do. I think you've seen it all and you emerge in optimus. Yeah, because of the successes I've seen, I've seen people go from, I am not the father of that child. And that woman would never ever shim in, never mind, never mind, never mind, to I'll be there. I'll be there for that child.

And some aren't, obviously, never going to be there. Oh, no, backflip guy's gone. Yeah, I mean, but he's backflipping still today. Exactly. But there are others who really take it seriously. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you, Mori, have regrets? Do you have a regret, whether it's in the realm of work

or life or the intersection between them? Are you a guy who has that thought? No. There was a time in my life when I left Washington because I wanted to find out I was wanted to be the next Walter Cronkite. And so in a seven-year period between 1977 and 1983, I worked in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and then back to Washington. Five cities in seven years. Management didn't like me in some.

I got fired one time. I didn't like management in another. I got thrown around here. I did that. I mean, this, in fact, it was a great New York Times column that Steve wrote for Esclar, named Richard Reeves fact, there was a great New York Times columnist who wrote for Esquire, named Richard Reeves. And he was a friend of mine. And he wrote his entire Esquire column in the back page of Esquire. And it said, my friend, the anchor man, Mari Povitch, I have seen him anchor

the news on four successive St. Patti's days in four different cities. The man is trying to go nationwide, city by city. Yeah, no, in NBA parlance, you were a journeyman. There's an alternate life in which you are a no man. Absolutely. And so, I mean, but I mean, look, I can almost tell you that the reason why my life settled down and then became in the ascent in 1984 is because this woman who I had dated for seven and a half years finally agreed to marry me. And that marriage in 1984 really changed everything for me. And by the way, not because I thought I was gonna be anything, because at the time I wasn't,

we, in fact, we had a marriage for the first two years. She lived in New York, work in, then at NDC. I was in Washington doing local news, and we would commute, and I would come up. And there was a, a dormant at her apartment, and he would say, and who are you here to see? And there was a dormant at her apartment. And he would say, and who are you here to see?

I said, my name is Marie Povich. I'm here to see my wife, Connie Chung. And he would call up and say, Mr. Chung is downstairs. One of us, Marie. Yeah. So I have, Mr. Chung, I have, I have gladly, absolutely been known as Mr. Chung for the rest of my life that would be fine with me How it ever came about that I was decoupled into being more Epoch

It's beyond me unconsciously uncoupled as it were. Yes, wait So what's what are mr. and Mrs. Chung like in retirement? Well, it's interesting I am sitting on the sidelines Chung like in retirement. Well, it's interesting. I am sitting on the sidelines, watching my wife complete about a three or four year effort to write her memoirs. And this is some task and it's gonna be a very, very big book. Because many publishers wanted to publish it.

No doubt. And she has just turned in her first draft. It's probably going to be out a year from now. And wow, there are a lot of personages who should be taking notice of this in the news business. They might find out some stuff. Because I don't know, I don't know if there's gonna be a filter or not.

Oh, I hope there is then. So anyway, I think she would agree that she is so happy not to be in the business these days. And you feel the same way? Yeah. I mean, you were in the business for as long as literally.. I mean, everybody says everybody says my show is canceled. My I tried to leave my show four years before it ended. And then I tried to leave it two years before it ended. And NBC just came to the I don't know. Mari, it's still going on. Oh, so I've seen the YouTube traffic

right is unrelent and my repeats 3500 of them. I mean traffic is on Relent Day. And my repeats, 3500 of them. I mean, are on the same stations, and I look at the delivery item, I'm still a creature of the goddamn business. I'm still looking at the ratings and they, and they're, how is the ghost of Mory Pogatry? Is there, they're really good.

Yeah, I bet. Kids will be playing hooky from school decades decades into the future. Can you imagine that I'm still looking at the ratings? I love that 84 years. You're still trying to box out Sally, Sally Jesse, your FI up. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And not even though he's gone, Jerry's, Jerry's in repeat still. And I'm looking at his ratings. We are such TV creatures ridiculous. I love that. I love that.

You've described the number of, and I know you love golf and you play golf and Corn Hizer can't stop talking about how good a golf for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's that. We should just say that for the record here. Well, I can say is Corn Hizer's better than Will Bonn.

I think. But indulge the existentialism here at the end though, because I am honored that you sat down and walked me through an unparalleled life and career. How do you want people, the kids' generations from now to remember what you did here on this planet. I've never really thought about that. I grew up in the Jewish religion and they had one thing in the Jewish religion that I really find that I can admire.

And that is, we don't know whether there's an afterlife or not in the Jewish religion. It might be, there might not be, we don't know. But our journey is to be written into the book of life. And you have to lead your life in such a way where you can be written into the book of life. And so therefore, I mean, that's how I look upon myself. And I think I've done a good job at that. I mean, there were a lot of hiccups along the way, but I think I've lived my life in a way that I could be penciled in.

Mori Povic, this was a genuine, genuine honor. Thank you so much. It's my pleasure, Pablo. I mean, I've watched you for a long time. And I know of your background. And just make sure that everything is OK with the libertard because he asked me on the show before you did. And I rejected him.

You know a journalist never stops going after the scoop. Exactly. You can tell him that I scooped it. I scooped you. That's right. Hey, Dan. Yeah. Try that one on.

Yeah, exactly. Where that one? You sweaty bastard. Hahaha. So today's just gonna be one of those episodes that'll always have a special place in my heart. And I don't know if you watched as much Mori as I did in the 90s. I don't know if you thought that it was a stain upon American morality,

as certainly some critics out there have said over the years. I get it. And for what it's worth, Mori himself as certainly some critics out there have said over the years. I get it. And for what it's worth, Mori himself does not even necessarily count on their being and afterlife as I found out today. But what I personally like to imagine is our creator standing there

in front of whatever heaven that might exist. Let's call it a metaphysical television studio with an envelope in his hand. And no morey povich does not know the result ahead of time. He never does, as he said. But inside this envelope, as the tension is rising, I strongly suspect, is the good news that Mori Povic has been Pablo Torre finds out a metal-lark media production, and I'll talk to you next time. you.