Dueling Judys

CBS and Sox Entertainment joust over sales of Judith Sheindlin court shows

Is there such a thing as too much Judge Judy? Local TV station owners are about to find out. Cbs-owned court show “Judge Judy,” fronted by the inimitable Judge Judith Sheindlin, was a stalwart of daytime syndication for 25 years until it ended original production in fall 2021. But “Judge Judy” never left the airwaves because CBS has continued to sell rerun packages of the show to station owners. “Judge Judy” racked up more than 7,200 half-hour episodes over its long run.

But Sheindlin didn’t hang up her robe after she left “Judge Judy”’s courtroom. She immediately moved on to a new court show, “Judy Justice,” that bowed in 2021 on Amazon’s Freevee streamer. Now, Sox Entertainment, the distributor of “Judy Justice,” is selling reruns of that show to local stations.

An added bit of intrigue is that Sheindlin has no financial stake in “Judge Judy” reruns, after selling her interest in the show to CBS for an estimated $95 million in 2017. While CBS is looking to secure top prices and time slots for its rerun package, Sox aims to elbow aside the old show and nab the best stations and time slots for “Judy Justice.”

Scott Koondel, CEO of Sox Entertainment, who was a longtime content sales executive for CBS and Paramount, doesn’t mince words. In his view, local broadcast TV is struggling to keep viewers in daytime because the options have become so thin. Where CBS, Warner Bros., Disney and other Hollywood players once produced dozens of Monday-friday series (talk shows, game shows, etc.) for national syndication, the volume of new shows has fallen significantly. So too have the profit margins.

“It’s clear the syndication marketplace has changed dramatically,” Koondel says. “Consolidation has taken its toll on the station buyers. As a result, viewers have vacated the airwaves. They have rejected poorly produced talk shows and tabloid shows.”

Koondel has sold “Judy Justice” to station groups including Nexstar, Sinclair, Hearst and Tegna. The two largest station groups that have yet to buy his show in any market are CBS and Fox. Those TV titans are rivals, but they’re also partners in one key sense: CBS handles national ad sales for Fox’s roster of syndicated programming. Koondel openly questions whether those business ties are influencing the buying decisions of the 28 stations owned by CBS and the 29 outlets owned by Fox. CBS declined to comment but pointed to past statements noting that “Judge Judy” reruns are among the most-watched programs in syndication.

“When two companies control most of the available syndicated programming and [numerous] stations in the biggest markets, independent producers have a hard time launching a series,” Koondel argues. “Most TV station groups still have limited choices. It’s a losing proposition that has no benefit to the public.”

With no easy answers to be had, the Judy logjam seems like a ripe case for the inevitable revival of “The People’s Court.”