Judge Judy is an
American
court show
featuring former family court judge
Judith Sheindlin arbitrating over
small claims cases. The
series is in first-run
syndication
and distributed by
CBS
Television Distribution, the successor company to its previous
distributors
Worldvision
Enterprises,
Paramount Domestic
Television, and
CBS Paramount Domestic
Television.
Since premiering on September 16, 1996,
Judge Judy has
been the ratings leader in courtroom-themed reality-based shows. As
of 2009, the
Judge Judy program has been
nominated twelve times for
Daytime Emmy Awards. In January 2008,
Judge Judy was extended through the 2012-13 season (the
show's seventeenth).
The
program earned Sheindlin a star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame
, which she was awarded in February 2006. Two
DVDs have been released; the first in 2007 and the second the
following year.
Court show background
Overview
The show's creation stemmed from
Judith
Sheindlin's reputation as one of the most outspoken family
court judges in the country, becoming the topic of a
Los Angeles Times article in February
1993. The piece caught the attention of
60 Minutes, leading to a segment about
Sheindlin on the show, which brought her national recognition. This
led to her being approached by television producers, who asked her
to preside over her own courtroom reality show. The title of her
show was originally going to be "Hot Bench." Unhappy with that
title, however, Sheindlin convinced her
television producers to change it.
Although
Judge Judy is the title of the show, it has also
become a nickname for Judith Sheindlin. Judy Sheindlin became the
first television judge whose name was included in the title of the
show. Randy Douthit and Timothy Regler are the show's
executive producers.
At the beginning of each court proceeding, Sheindlin gives a
summary of the case; she then questions the parties regarding
dates, times, locations, and other matters involved in the lawsuit.
Judge Sheindlin demands decorum in her court. She will sometimes
chastise participants, even audience members, for showing up in
inappropriate clothing, and silence audience outbursts, even if
they are in response to quips she herself made. Order is maintained
by her bailiff, officer Petri Hawkins-Byrd. After this process,
Sheindlin renders the judgment, either by finding for the plaintiff
(typically by saying "judgment for the plaintiff in the amount of
... dollars".) or by dismissing the case. When a counterclaim has
been filed, it will be handled during the same show segment.
In the first two
commercial breaks,
a preview of the upcoming case is shown. When the show returns from
the first two commercial breaks, it airs the voice-over,
"Real
cases! Real people! Judge Judy!" (recorded
by announcer
Jerry Bishop), followed by
a recap of the current case. After the third commercial break, the
voice-over is heard again, providing the show's telephone number
and the
website to submit cases. Generally
each show presents two cases, but infrequently an episode will
present a single long case, three shorter ones, or even four
shorter ones. At the end of a case, the plaintiff and the defendant
express their feelings about the case, although sometimes this part
of a case is omitted.
Structure
In order to ensure a full audience, the producers of Judge Judy
hire
extras who compose the entire
gallery. Though tickets are not offered for the show, arrangements
can sometimes be made with Sheindlin's production staff to allow
fans of the show into the audience. Once all the cases are through,
all of the audience members receive payment. The extras must be
dressed
formally and no logos or brand
names may be visible on their clothing. Extras are also instructed
to appear as if they are having discussions with each other, before
and after each case, so the bailiff may make such announcements as
"Order! All rise" and "Parties are excused, you may step out". As
far as the court cases are concerned however, what is seen on Judge
Judy is neither staged nor scripted. The plaintiffs have actually
sue the defendants and that very case
is heard and decided upon by Judith Sheindlin. The court show
acquires cases by people submitting claims into them via their
website or
phone
number.
The producers' employees call both parties and ask them questions
about their case to make sure it is suitable for Judge Judy. If the
parties agree to be on the show and sign a
waiver, agreeing that
arbitration in Sheindlin's court is final and
cannot be pursued elsewhere (unless she dismisses the lawsuit
without prejudice), their case will
air on Judge Judy. The award limit on
Judge Judy, as on
most 'syndi-court' shows (and most small claims courts in the
U.S.), is $5,000. The award for each judgment is paid by the
producers of the show, from a fund reserved for each case. About
forty percent of the cases are money judgments, while the remaining
sixty percent are either
dismissed or
there is an order for an exchange of property.
Both the
plaintiff and the
defendant receive
$100 for their
appearance as well as $35 a day, paid to them by the show. The
litigants' stay lasts for the number of days that the show does
taping for that week, which is two or three days. In addition, the
airfare (or other means of travel) and
hotel expenses of the litigants and their
witnesses are covered by the show. If there
is an exchange of property, Sheindlin signs an order and a
sheriff or
marshal oversees
the exchange. There are no
lawyers present
and participants defend themselves on Judge Judy, as is standard in
a small claims court. Sheindlin sees only a half-page complaint and
a defense response prior to the taping of the cases, sometimes only
moments before. Most of the cases, without any footage deleted to
meet the time constraints of the show, usually last anywhere from
twelve to forty-five minutes.
Recordings and airings
Three days every other week (two weeks a month), Sheindlin and her
producers tape the court show. They usually produce ten to twelve
cases for each day they tape the show. A week's worth of episodes
consists of approximately ten cases. Anywhere from thirty to
thirty-six cases are filmed over the three days they tape per week.
However, Sheindlin and her producers sometimes only tape five cases
per day and two days per week. The show has fifty-two taping days a
year. For each season, some 650 claims are brought to the set to be
presided over by Judge Judy.
This means approximately 8,450 claims have
been brought to Judy Sheindlin's Hollywood
set as of the end of its thirteenth season
(2008-09).
For the most part, cases are taped all throughout the year except
for two breaks Sheindlin and all of the members of her show have
for the year. One of the two breaks includes an extra week off in
December, as the show is only taped one week out of that month
because of the holidays. The other break is from mid-July (only
taping one week in July) and all through August. According to
members of the show, the reason for this break is because people
are more interested in taking vacations than in filing lawsuits
around that time.
Altogether, there are 260 new
episodes per
season of Judge Judy. There's at least one new episode for every
weekday, with the exception of a few
hiatus during most of the summer and a
couple of holidays. The cases are all pre-recorded for
editing purposes and will usually air one to
three months after being taped. The cases are mixed up and not
shown in order of when they were recorded. While the cases taped in
March end the seasons, the cases taped throughout April, May, June,
and July start out each season in September and last through the
beginning of November.Throughout the very beginning of each season,
two new Judge Judy episodes air per day. After two weeks, it
shortens down to one new airing a day, followed by a repeat
afterwards. There are also various other moments throughout the
year where two new episodes are shown for a few weeks. This usually
includes January, when the show returns from its short winter
hiatus. Two new episodes are also shown daily during the "sweeps"
months of November, February, and May. Unlike most
television shows, Judge Judy does not air
its
season finale in April or May.
Rather, it will air its last few new episodes sporadically over the
summer months, with many repeats in between, and its season finale
taking place some time in July or August.
Location
Judge Judy
tapes at the Tribune
production
studios, now known as Sunset Bronson Studios as of early 2008, on
Sunset Boulevard, in Los Angeles
, California
. Every other week, Sheindlin flies out on
her private jet to tape Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The Judge
Judy set is directly beside the
Judge
Joe Brown set, in the same studios. Both shows are produced by
Big Ticket Entertainment.
The two shows alternate taping weeks.
Despite
its California location, the show displays various images of
New York
City
upon returning from commercial breaks, including a
subway train that is passing by the camera which reads World Trade
Center
, but is only noticeable if the footage is
paused. It also features the phrases "State of New York" and
"Family Court" (Sheindlin was previously a New York family court
judge) within the
letterboxes used going
to and from breaks since the ninth season. The set features a
New York State Flag behind
Sheindlin's seat.
Furthermore, the title sequence features
Judge Judy posing in white robes with light emanating from a raised
hand, evoking the Statue of Liberty
and therefore New York City (though it should be
noted that Judge Judy is actually posing as Lady Justice, as evidenced by the blindfold
over her eyes and the weighing scale suspended from her left
hand). Immediately before each episode, the Judge Judy
version of Lady Justice is shown lifting the blindfold of
neutrality to greet the audience with a mischievous and alluring
wink.
Alterations
In the past, the show changed very little from season to season.
The show's music and graphics are the only thing that have changed
repeatedly over its past twelve years. The ninth season (2004-05)
is one of the few seasons in which the show made a major
alteration; the Judge Judy intro had been changed drastically. A
jazzed version of a theme from
Beethoven's 5th Symphony was adopted as the
new theme music. For its scenes, Judge Judy is shown in a different
courtroom from her own (part of a proposed renovation to the
courtroom but was rejected by Sheindlin for being too dark),
approaching the camera, followed by folding her arms, and smiling
at the camera. This is followed by showing various scenes of her
presiding over different cases.
Before the ninth season, the show used an original tune for their
theme music. Various versions of this original tune were used, as
the song was altered every few seasons. Used as the scenes for the
theme song before the ninth season, was a
computer animated approaching scene
towards a
courthouse, up until that scene
entered into the courthouse. From there, several shots of Sheindlin
presiding over different cases were displayed, moving from one side
to the other. Those shots developed into the courthouse
symbol that represents her program (this symbol is
always displayed inside of the
letter D, in
Judy), by the end of
the
theme music. Before these scenes,
there was a scene of the courthouse symbol that represents her
program, over a green background. Shots of Sheindlin, presiding
over different cases, flew into the scene and moved into each of
the square-shaped designs of the courthouse, correspondingly.
The colors that represent the show have altered several times over
the years. The first couple of seasons of Judge Judy were
represented by the colors
sea green and
saffron.
Blue
and saffron represented the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh
seasons. An array of many bright colors, along with blue and
saffron represented the eighth season. Since the ninth season, the
various graphics on the show have been
falu
red and saffron. As of the twelfth season,
prussian blue has been added to the show's
color scheme for the opening previews
of each episode.
The only changes made to the Judge Judy set were all mostly made in
the early seasons of the show, which includes: the wooding that
takes up most of the courtroom was a much lighter shade of brown in
the beginning of the series; the wall behind Judge Judy did not
always have the shiny surface it has now, with the black and dark
brown color mixture (it used to be plain brown); the fake window
display along the sides of the courtroom has gone from displaying
designs, to going plain and only showing whiteness, to displaying
the current scene of fake buildings; the carpeting was light pink
in the beginning of the series; there were two different podiums
that were replaced by the two currently used podiums; altogether,
Sheindlin has had four different chairs throughout the show's
existence. She had three smaller chairs before she got her current
chair. Her very first chair was
Persian
indigo, and her second chair was
hunter
green with diagonal square designs. Sheindlin's third chair was
similar to her current chair, only with a lower back behind her
shoulders. Though these chairs had low backs, they were all still
executive chairs. They were replaced early on by the traditional,
executive chair she has been sitting in for the majority of the
show's existence. The chair is button-tufted, with a high back and
thick padding. It is a
burgundy
leather chair.
Judge Judith Sheindlin
Judge Judy is known for being strict towards either the
defendant or the
plaintiff. If the litigants attempt to lie, or
deviate from directly answering her questions she is known to
become impatient. Because of her straightforwardness of expression
and impatience in making litigants get to the point, to keep them
from wasting time on irrelevant and unimportant details, Judith
Sheindlin is well-known as a no-nonsense
jurist. Combining those qualities with her swift
handling of many of the matters brought up throughout the course of
each
proceeding, Judge Judy is
touted as,
"A show where justice is dispensed at the speed of
light."
Disbelieving many of the questionable affirmations of the parties
that appear before her,
lying is the main
problem that the incredulous Judith Sheindlin has with both
litigants and their
witnesses. In fact, one of her most popular
catchphrases is
"Baloney!", and she is also convinced that
"If something doesn't make sense, it's not true."
Of all her characteristics, Judge Judy is noted most for her very
tough, but fair attitude. If a plaintiff files an unreasonable
complaint, Judge Judy may tell him or her
to "get over it." Judge Judy also tends to be highly irascible
generally towards both parties that appear before her, mostly in
her startling explosions at litigants who speak out of turn, try to
argue with her, or ramble. Sheindlin often makes such remarks as
"I'm speaking!," "Liar, liar, pants on fire," "Sir, you want to say
something to me? You sure you want to say something to me?", and
"You mess around with me young lady, I'll wipe the floor with you.
We follow each other?" In fact, the show's
tagline is
Justice with an Attitude. She
has explicitly stated that she sometimes sets out to cause
embarrassment "in front of ten million people", to someone who has
acted badly, as a way of punishing them. Though Sheindlin has a
sense of humor as well, it’s normally presented in combination with
her gruff disposition. In fact even for reactions to her own humor,
she will often say something along the lines of "Hey!" to an
audience member who is being too noisy and has occasionally had
particularly disruptive audience members removed.
Sheindlin has many
catchphrases which
are referred to as “Judyisms”. Many of these Judyisms are intended
to provide a lesson, such as "Beauty fades, dumb is forever." and
"Don't cook a pineapple if you went for a jog." Judge Judy has
stated that the main message she wants viewers to take from her
show, is that people must take responsibility for their own
actions.
Reception
Ratings
Judge Judy went on the air in September 1996. By the end of October
of that year, the show was averaging only a 1.5 rating, putting it
in the midrank of the 159 syndicated shows on the air. At that
time, it was never expected that the show's
ratings would ever compete with highly
successful daytime TV shows, such as
Wheel of Fortune,
The Oprah Winfrey
Show, and the now cancelled
The Rosie O'Donnell Show.
According to Sheindlin's
biography,
producers of her show were disappointed that the show was barely
making it on the radar. However, it didn't take long for
Judge
Judy to pick up momentum, as the show rose to a 2.1 rating by
the end of that first season. By the end of the second season
(1997-98), the court show had already risen into the 4 ranges, as
stated in Judy Sheindlin's
biography
video.
Judge Judy's ratings more than doubled to 5.6 for her third season
(1998-99), making her show an early success. This led to the
creation of
Judge Mills
Lane (lasting four seasons) and
Judge Joe Brown (into its tenth season
as of 2007), both are also by Paramount Television. In fact, it was
because of her impressive ratings that year that
The People's Court producers decided
to replace
Ed Koch with Judge Judy's
husband,
Jerry Sheindlin.
However, he lasted only two years on
The People's Court,
from 1999 to 2001, before being replaced by
Marilyn Milian.
During her fourth season (1999-00), Judy's ratings exploded,
peaking at a 9.3, just as
Judge
Mathis was created, and
Divorce Court was revived; both court
shows, having made it to their ninth seasons as of the 2007-08
season. Because of Judge Judy's success, the court show aired at
better time periods. At that point, Sheindlin's show was even
surpassing the Oprah Winfrey Show (
King World Productions which launched
Oprah was a corporate sibling of
CBS Television Studios, which
distributed
Judge Judy). Not only was Judge Judy reported
as the top-rated court show, but the top-rated daytime TV show at
this point.
Over the next three years, however, the ratings for Judge Judy
declined. This decline started in the court show's fifth season
(2000-01) and lasted through its seventh season (2002-03).
Sheindlin finally reversed this downward turn when her ratings
average increased to a 7.1 for her eighth season (2003-04). Of the
seven running court shows during the 2004-05 season, most of them
earned a 3.63 rating. All of them, that is, except for Judge Judy,
which pulled in a 7.8 rating for that season (the show's ninth).
For her tenth season (2005-06), Judge Judy averaged a 4.8 rating.
Court show ratings for the 2006-07 season: Judge Judy averaged 4.6
rating for her eleventh season;
Judge Joe Brown averaged a
2.9 rating;
The People’s Court averaged a 2.7;
Judge
Mathis averaged a 2.4;
Divorce Court averaged a 2.0;
Judge Alex averaged 1.9;
Judge Hatchett averaged a
1.5; rookies--
Cristina's
Court averaged a 1.4, and
Judge Maria Lopez came in last,
averaging a 1.0 rating.
Judge Judy producer Randy Douthit
says that "they are guilty of cannibalizing each other. Most of
these court shows are lucky to get above a 1 rating today."
As of the early to mid stages of the show's twelfth season, the
ratings for Judge Judy have been located in the four to five range.
The court show averaged a 4.4 for its premiere week of September
10, 2007. It scored the same numbers for the following week of
September 16. For both weeks of September 24 and September 30,
Judge Judy averaged a 4.6 rating. The court show finished out the
week of October 7 with a two percent increase in its ratings,
averaging a 4.7. For the week of October 14, nearly every court
show remained the same or fell in ratings except for Judge Judy,
which rose two percent once again, averaging a 4.8. The following
week of October 21 ended with yet another two percent gain for the
court show, as Judge Judy averaged a 4.9 rating. The week of
October 28 saw Judy's ratings up two percent more, at a 5.0. For
the week of November 4, however, Sheindlin's ratings decreased six
percent, averaging a 4.7. In conjunction with the following week of
November 11, Judge Judy elevated 8%, averaging a 5.1 rating. For
the week of November 18, Judge Judy's ratings lowered 2% to a 5.0.
For the week of November 25, Judge Judy sunk 2% again, averaging a
4.9 rating. For the week of January 13, Judge Judy averaged a 5.3
rating. For the week of January 27, Judge Judy averaged a 5.6
season-high rating.
The ratings for Judge Judy have made it one of the top ten
syndicated daytime television shows. As of the early to mid stages
of its twelfth season, the show's rankings has fallen mostly in
fourth place among daytime television shows. In relation to the
2007-08
television season, Judge
Judy is the only syndicated show to increase in ratings over the
previous
season.
Judge Judy is reportedly watched by ten million people daily. Judge
Judy's daytime audience is composed of approximately seventy-five
percent
women and twenty-five percent
men.
Criticisms
One of Sheindlin's critics is
Joseph
Wapner, who was the first
star of
reality courtroom shows. He presided over
The People's Court from 1981 to
1993. On November 26, 2002, Joseph Wapner criticized Judge Judy's
courtroom behavior, stating, "She is not portraying a judge as I
view a judge should act. Judge Judy is discourteous, and she's
abrasive. She's not slightly insulting. She's insulting in capital
letters." Judge Judy replied through her publicist, stating, "I
refuse to engage in similar mud slinging. I don't know where or by
whom Judge Wapner was raised. But my parents taught me when you
don't have something nice to say about someone, say nothing.
Clearly, Judge Wapner was absent on the day that lesson was
taught." Since then, Wapner has stated, "She is a disgrace to the
profession. She does things I don't think a judge should do. She
tells people to shut up. She's rude. She's arrogant. She demeans
people. If she does this on purpose, then that's even worse. Judges
need to observe certain standards of conduct. She just doesn't do
it and I resent that. The public is apt to gain the impression that
this is how actual judges conduct themselves. It says '''judge'''
on the nameplate on the bench and she's wearing a robe."
While the cases on
Judge Judy are actual small claims
court cases, the show is not a court of law, but rather an
arbitration, and all parties must sign contracts agreeing to
arbitration under Sheindlin. Even this status has been disputed: in
Doo Wop Shoppe Ltd. v. Ralph Edwards, syndi-court
justice was determined not to be an actual form of arbitration
because a third party pays part of the cost of the judgment. This
decision was subsequently overturned.
The
American Bar
Association notes that:
"B.M. v.
D.L.", the Family Court of Kings County, New York,
overturned part of a Judge Judy decision.
The parties had appeared in front of Judge Judy over a
dispute involving personal property.
However, Judge Judy made a decision involving child
custody and visitation.
The court overturned the custody and visitation part of
her decision on two grounds.
First, it was a matter that was not covered by the
agreement to arbitrate.
Second, as a matter of public policy, an arbitrator
could not decide child custody and visitation rights.
Considering that Judy had been a judge in New York’s
family court, it is particularly ironic that she decided to
overstep her arbitral authority on this particular
issue.
References
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Search