This may come as a surprise to you, but Judge Judy is one of the highest paid people in television. The fiery courtroom personality has a deal with CBS worth over $47 million dollars a year to keep producing new episodes of her show for three more years, and that’s not even the most lucrative part of the deal. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Judy (whose real name is Judith Sheindlin) also got the rights to the entire back catalog of Judge Judy episodes, which her people are currently shopping around for as much as $200 million dollars.
How the hell are old Judge Judy episodes worth so much? It turns out that Judy has been a quiet ratings powerhouse for years and years, regularly wrestling with other heavyweight shows like Oprah Winfrey and Two And A Half Men for the top spot in the syndicated ratings rankings. Currently Judge Judy pulls in 10 million people per episode, which is extra impressive considering the show has been going for 21 seasons.
But still … 200 million dollars for reruns? THR reports that the big money is expected to come once Judy stops filming new episodes in 2020. There’s also the fact that Judge Judy episodes have never made their way into the global market or onto streaming services. Between TV stations looking to keep pulling some of those 10 million eyeballs and new markets ready for her patented brand of snark, Judy could absolutely bank in on her old episodes to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
