You ARE retiring: Maury Povich show to end in September

Maury Povich, the TV host notorious for his DNA tests to determine, “You ARE the father!,” will stop making new episodes of his long-running daytime talk show, its distributor said Sunday.

NBCUniversal Syndication Studios said new episodes of “Maury” will air through September, and reruns will continue to be available for stations to air.

With 31 seasons behind him, the 83-year-old former Chicago TV anchor is the longest-running daytime talk show host in the history of broadcast television. The show airs locally on WGN-Channel 9.

“Six years ago when I was ready to retire, my the NBCUniversal family asked me to continue the show,” Povich said in the distributor’s statement. “Even though I told them I was ready for assisted living, out of loyalty to NBCUniversal and my more than 100 staff and crew members, [NBCUniversal exec] Tracie Wilson and I agreed to one more deal. I’m so proud of my relationship with NBCUniversal and all those who worked on the ‘Maury’ show but as I occasionally tell my guests on ‘Maury,’ ‘Enough, already!’ ”

Povich, whose wife is former “CBS Evening News” anchor Connie Chung, was an established journalist who had worked at a variety of local stations, including WMAQ-Channel 5 in Chicago, when he made his first entry into tabloid TV with the magazine show “A Current Affair.” He left to launch the talk show in 1991.

While it has tackled many topics over the decades, “Maury” largely relies on two signature segments: lie detector tests to smoke out cheating lovers, and DNA tests to establish paternity.

He told the Associated Press in 2012 that the show defied the theory that viewers will tire of repeated routines. “The opposite is true,” he said. “They want it more. They want DNA more. They want lie detectors more. They want crazy teenagers so that they can realize they’re not as bad as some of those other people out there. When we narrowed our focus, the more popular we became.”