By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Judge Judy Sheindlin is returning to television on Nov. 1 with a new red robe, a granddaughter in tow and the challenge of competing with herself.
She announced on Thursday the start date and name of her new show, "Judy Justice," which will be available weekdays on the little-known IMDb TV, a free streaming service offered by Amazon.
Sheindlin, 79, moved to the new show when her syndication deal with CBS Media Ventures ended with some acrimony after 25 years. For more than a decade, "Judge Judy" has been syndication's most popular show with the tart-talking New Yorker arbitrating small claims cases.
CBS promptly cut a deal to keep "Judge Judy" reruns on the air.
Sheindlin will be joined on "Judy Justice" by a new television bailiff and stenographer. Sarah Rose, a law clerk and Sheindlin's granddaughter, will be a legal analyst.
"She's smart, sassy and opinionated," her grandmother said. "Who knows where she gets those traits?"
Filming for the old "Judge Judy" ended after CBS bought the show's old episodes from Sheindlin. That enabled CBS to continue selling rights to air them through the syndication market without having to pay her to make new episodes. Sheindlin was widely believed to be the country's highest-paid television star.
Sheindlin, a former New York judge, was also said to be unhappy with CBS for giving priority time slots to Drew Barrymore's new show at the expense of "Hot Bench," another court show that Sheindlin created, according to The Wall Street Journal.
"We had a nice marriage," Sheindlin told the Journal earlier this year. "It's going to be a Bill and Melinda Gates divorce."
Two of her longtime producers, Randy Douthit and Amy Freisleben, will join her on "Judy Justice."
"Judge Judy" viewers have been conditioned through the years to seeing reruns, said Bill Carroll, a veteran analyst of the syndication market. Some stations would run back-to-back episodes, one new and one rerun, he said.
The show's look and format was kept so consistent through the years that to many viewers it is timeless, Carroll said.
"If you were to say to most viewers that these are not new shows, they would say, 'Oh, really?'" he said. They're almost certain to surpass "Judy Justice" in viewership although, to be fair, streaming audiences are smaller than most TV shows, he said.
Still, its value to IMDb TV will be in driving new viewers to the service, where they may be exposed to other offerings.
"For them, it can't be anything but good," Carroll said. "For her, it allows her to do what she loves to do."
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults โ two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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