New Anchor of ‘A Current Affair’ Likes the Show’s ‘Real Characters’

NEW YORK —  Maureen O’Boyle anchors “A Current Affair.” This means she gets to advise viewers, as she did one enchanted evening, that the show “is breaking the news of the dirtiest divorce of the decade. .”

That is some leap from her first job in TV. She was a college freshman then, a raw rookie doing the morning news at a station in Washington, N.C. It wasn’t easy being green. She recalls telling viewers this:

“Don’t forget to watch Clara Scott and the rest of the Eyewitness News team here on Channel 9.”

As she was on Channel 7 when she said this, she and management agreed she wasn’t quite ready for anchoring. But, she said, the executives told her she seemed to have a natural ability for TV and not to give up.

And now, at 27, the tall, rangy native of Charlotte, N.C., is the new anchor of Fox Broadcasting’s syndicated “A Current Affair,” the senior citizen of tabloid TV.

O’Boyle has been with “Affair” as a reporter and occasional anchor since 1988. Last month, she was named to succeed Maury Povich, 51.

O’Boyle has already replaced Povich--sort of. She has anchored “Affair” since October. There’s no word when he’ll materialize again.

The show’s Nielsens have slowly risen since her October arrival.

She isn’t dismayed by those who knock the show as tabloid TV or No-Cal National Enquirer. In fact, she said, “I was attracted to the show because of some of the things that people didn’t like about it.

“It really was totally different from anything I’d ever seen. . . . It had great stories with real characters.”