Paternity Ward

Next is Niko's turn. A taped interview shows him denying any ties to Princess. "I'm 100 percent sure I'm not the father," he concludes. "I used a condom. Sanquenetta's trying to [bleep] me off and ruin my life."

He's then roundly booed as he enters the studio, arms raised in mock triumph.

Povich is moving on. After securing a pledge from Niko to participate in Princess's life should the test show that he is the father, Povich steps to the front of the small stage. He takes his seat, opens the envelope and reads:

"Niko, when it comes to 10-month-old Princess -- you are the father!"

Sanquenetta dances triumphantly. Niko exits, looking frustrated. And the audience exults.

'A Certain Goodness'

The paternity question is "a very edgy subject," says Povich, 67, while talking over lunch in his office after the show. "It's a subject that some people -- I don't want to say condemn, but they look at it as exploitation. And I just don't see it that way. I've always believed that there is a certain goodness in doing these."

Povich has taken his lumps in the media for reaching "new heights in false empathy," in the Chicago Tribune's phrase, and his show has been lambasted in the Virginian-Pilot as "a stunning display of sordidness."

Of course, his is far from the only show to have trafficked in tawdry personal revelation.

"The TV culture has produced this artificial interpersonal environment where it's appropriate to disclose your deviancies and your deficiencies," says Gerald Goodman, professor emeritus in psychology at UCLA. "They're the hardest things for humans to disclose."

During each "Maury" program, viewers are urged to contact the show's staff if they have similar stories. Faulhaber says each paternity show generates about 1,000 such calls.

Paternity "is a problem, an issue, in this country," Povich says. (According to a preliminary report from the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, 1.6 million paternities were established or acknowledged in fiscal 2004, and 1.2 million new child-support orders were issued in the same period.)

"Maury" callers are screened for credibility and the power of their stories, which are assigned to one of the show's seven production teams.