May the best show win?
Judge Judy Sheindlin is making her return to TV this fall — and will have to compete with CBS reruns of her old show, “Judge Judy.”
Sheindlin ended her successful syndicated courtroom series, “Judge Judy,” after 25 seasons with CBS in 2021.
The famed TV judge and her executive producer, and former CBS exec, Scott Koondel, then created and distributed “Judy Justice,” a new courtroom show on Amazon’s Freevee streaming service via Sox Entertainment that same year.
Now the highest paid TV jurist is making her way back to linear television this fall after being cleared in 95% of the country, despite CBS “trying to keep Judy out of the marketplace,” an insider told Page Six.
CBS was banking on local markets buying up reruns of Scheindlin’s old show, and was left gobsmacked when she hit the market with a new product for stations to buy.
Unfortunately for CBS, a source says, they’re now stuck selling repeats of “Judge Judy,” which has less value in the marketplace while other stations have the option to air original shows from “Judy Justice.”
Variety reported CBS is trying to secure the most coveted timeslots, and top dollar, for its reruns while “Sox aims to elbow aside the old show and nab the best stations and time slots for ‘Judy Justice.’”
It didn’t have to be that way, however. Sources told us there were talks for “Judy Justice” to replace CBS’ long-running daytime chat series, “The Talk,” which “will never be ‘The View,’” one source put it.
The network’s syndication division owns the rights to the original show’s library, and has provided episodes to stations since the show ended in 2021.
A CBS syndication insider told us, “‘Judge Judy’ has been a staple of our syndication programming offerings for decades. We already have the whole library to license… our plate is full.”
They were also unfamiliar with any conversations about replacing “The Talk” with “Judy Justice.”
A CBS spokesperson did not comment, and a rep for Sheindlin did not get back to us.
Meanwhile, her EP would not comment on CBS, but described the judge “as a juggernaut with a massive loyal audience,” who, “will follow her from broadcast to streaming, streaming to cable. If I broadcast her on a billboard in Times Square, she would draw a New Year’s Eve crowd,” Koondel said.
New Yorker’s won’t have to worry about catching her on a Times Square billboard: They’ll be able to watch “Judy Justice” at 3p.m. on Pix 11, and “Judge Judy” re-runs on CBS stations.
At least Judy fan Jay-Z will be happy!
