Judge Judy Sheindlin left her CBS show last year after the distributor decided that 25 years of reruns was enough to sell and continue making a profit off, with the suggestion being that just selling the shows 25 year archive to networks was a better bet than continuing with a new contract with Shendlin who was making $45 million per season and likely would have been demanding more in the negotiations for the show to continue. Instead, she left the show and signed on with Amazon to stream a new version of the concept on IMDBtv (the free streaming network by the Amazon owned Internet Movie Database website).
Regarding the end of Judge Judy, she admitted she “wasn’t teary” and didn’t feel “all that emotional,” but said, “I felt gratified that I had completed that part of my journey and done it respectably. It was just the end of the day, the end of the job. I cleaned the bathroom, and the bathroom is sparkling.”
Judge Judy fans will have a unanimous reaction to the trailer: Where’s Byrd??? Judy’s bailiff Petri Hawkins Byrd stood by her side for 25 years on the syndicated show Judge Judy, but will not be joining her on Judy Justice and at the time of this writing, no one knows why. Byrd was Judy’s bailiff in her courtroom before the show and stayed on for the entire 25 year duration of Judge Judy. First thought was that he probably was ready to retire? That doesn’t appear to be the case, as last year, Byrd told the Associated Press he would be “honored” to join Judy in her new venture – but as the trailer for the show depicts – no Byrd is present. Instead, Judy praises her new bailiff Kevin, a retired Los Angeles probation officer and entrepreneur, as “one of the warmest people”. Byrd seemed pretty warm to most… Was there friction? Drama? Or more likely – did the budget of the show just not justify matching his previous salary, reported to be $1 million a year. This would make sense since the show added 2 other cast members, whose salaries have not been reported but are unlikely to be $1M each.
The new members are two additional women flanking the judge on the bench: court stenographer Whitney Kumar, and law clerk Sarah Rose – who “happens to be my granddaughter,” Judy notes in the trailer. “Sarah is wired like I am,” Judy says. “She’s a little snarky. I like that.”
The other, less shocking change is her ditching of the traditional black judicial robe, replaced with a burgundy red one with white collar flaps.
The show premieres November 1 with new episodes to be released each weekday.
