Judge Judy - the Reality TV Show

[Airborne]

The highly popular TV program "Judge Judy" is a semi-legalised spoof opera portraying what appears to be a genuine courtroom drama of actual cases.

You can read all about the "Judge Judy" set-up on the web, it is all explained in finite detail. Here is a short description.

 

Judge Judy is played by Judith Sheindlin a former 1965 Lawyer who in 1982 was appointed a Judge in the Manhattan small claims family court system. She retired in 1996. Currently she has no license to practice in law.

 

She was engaged by a Los Angeles TV company to play Judge Judy in their 1996 launch of the current Reality Courtroom Show series of the same name. The show became an instant hit.

 

Judith Sheindlin receives an annual salary exceeding $45 million dollars and her net accrued worth is about $95 million.

 

The show itself is a TV Reality series, it is NOT a real courtroom drama. It is a Hollywood adaptation of an Arbitration Court with legal backing. The program organisers, select the contestants from people who have filed small claims in the real Courts, but not yet had their cases heard. They are offered this TV arbitration option with all the freebie enticements, for which they then have to sign contracts like all other actors and have to accept the TV arbitration findings as binding.

There is no appeal against an arbitration decision.

 

Nobody loses. The contestants get free travel to and from LA with all Hotel and other expenses paid. Nobody pays anything. Any claimant granted a financial payment is paid by the TV company up to a limit of $5,000. The loser pays nothing.

 

All it amounts to a big jolly holiday for the contestants in LA with all expenses paid. Everybody wins and smiles all round.

 

So, a great entertaining show - YES, but no more than a TV spoof series where dear 70 year old Judith makes an increasingly higher personal fortune with every show at $125,000 per episode, to place her at position 13 in the list of America's richest female actresses.

 

Now you can tell the wife that Judge Judy is not for real, it is only a TV show, just like

Coronation Street, Eastenders or Bugs Bunny.

[RandyL]

You're right. Most of these programs pay the litigants from a fund so no one really loses any money.

 

Some of the litigants still fight like heck though even when the monetary amounts are tiny. I've seen people file suits for less than $100. Hardly worth my time to go to any court but sometimes people just have to scream to anyone that they are right based on principal. I actually kind of understand that as principal and integrity are more important than money. However at my age I have more important battles to fight that affect major issues. But heck at least they get their day in court so to speak.

 

It is fun to watch some peope make idiots of themselves though. However of all the reality court programs I've seen that is one of the worst I've seen based on my interpretation of justice.

 

But like you said it is a free vacation for some. But it is also a vacation that comes with a higher price than money for some as they air a lot of dirty laundry and expose their true selves to everyone.

[Airborne]

You're right. Most of these programs pay the litigants from a fund so no one really loses any money.

 

Some of the litigants still fight like heck though even when the monetary amounts are tiny. I've seen people file suits for less than $100. Hardly worth my time to go to any court but sometimes people just have to scream to anyone that they are right based on principal. I actually kind of understand that as principal and integrity are more important than money. However at my age I have more important battles to fight that affect major issues. But heck at least they get their day in court so to speak.

 

It is fun to watch some peope make idiots of themselves though. However of all the reality court programs I've seen that is one of the worst I've seen based on my interpretation of justice.

 

But like you said it is a free vacation for some. But it is also a vacation that comes with a higher price than money for some as they air a lot of dirty laundry and expose their true selves to everyone.

 

An absolutely brilliant post of yours. Nobody is in doubt that the show is good entertainment, but my aim was to demonstrate that it is no more than a TV farce or legal flavoured soap opera.

 

Many people really think that it is an actual Courtroom scene, just like they also think that Coronation Street, Hollyoaks and Eastenders are for real. The Granny brigade do believe these things.

 

So, me being a realist and destroyer of fairy tales, tell the kids that there is no Father Christmas and it is only Daddy in a red dressing gown and cotton wool beard.