Back in the early 90's Maury didn't pay his guests to come on there, they just had transportation, hotel, airfare, food paid for.
I've not seen his show in a near decade so i'm not sure what they do nowadays.
It may be that Ron is trying to start anew, maybe this whole case is helping him "grow up" and become more of a man. I don't mean this in any negative way.
There was a lot of talk about him being hot headed in the past, well people change.
His initial reaction and cussing at Misty is explainable since he was displaying his hurt and fear through his anger about Haleigh being missing.
For those people who keep mentioning that "why isn't Ron out searching for Haleigh" and the like statements, here:
"Cummings, 25, said law enforcement officers don't want him to join search groups or go looking for his daughter on his own. But he has to help somehow, which is why he intends to keep giving interviews, such as the one last week in offices of Mowrey Shoemaker Beardsley in St. Augustine."
http://staugustine.com/stories/092009/news_092009_040.shtml
"He said he's not going to respond every time someone suggests that he or his wife had something to do with HaLeigh's disappearance. But he has vowed to keep the little girl's name and picture in the public eye.
"All this stuff that's said about me on TV ... I don't try to counteract with it," Cummings said. "I'm not trying to get back on there and throw punches back at someone that threw punches with us.
"Rather than do that, we'd rather sit back and just allow HaLeigh's face to be ran across the TV over and over. If they have to rake me across the coals every day, all day, to put my daughter's face on national TV every day, then that's great."
Ron has proved that on NG show that he is not trying to throw punches back at those who threw them first, metaphorically speaking.
He's saying they'd rather not talk bad against those who have done that about them. Also that if the media has to talk bad about Ron, he says at least it's brining attention to Haleigh, which is true. This is why the story has stayed in the news so long. The media sells the drama going on with the families, while it is drama, it still brings attention to little Haleigh. Everyone knows they're her family, so it seems in a way any type of attention negative or positive, will bring attention to little Haleigh's case..