According to Deadline, Judy Justice will officially debut in fall 2024 through television syndication. In well over 100 U.S. broadcast areas, including all the of the top ten, Scott Koondel’s Sox entertainment, which distributes the Amazon Freevee show, has signed multi-year agreement with significant broadcast groups like Weigel, Mission broadcasting, Sunbeam, Nexstar, and Cox Media. The announcement was jointly released by the corporation and Amazon MGM Studios.
The move also makes the first streaming original court show to sell into broadcast syndication, as Deadline reported in May in response to initial reports about a possible Judy Justice syndication play.
She comments, “What a full circle moment, This continues to be quite an adventure!”
Over the course of the first two seasons, about 260 episodes of Judy Justice have been streamed on Freevee. Season three debuted earlier this week. When the show debuts in fall 2024, it will have nearly 400 episodes available.
Since none of them have encountered linear viewers, Judy Justice would be regarded as an exclusive for broadcast syndication.
Koondel, CEO for Sox Entertainment and executive producer of Judy Justice, talks about Sheindlin by saying, “We are thrilled to bring Judy Justice to linear television audiences nationwide. With Judge Judy Sheindlin at the helm, viewers can expect a compelling and thought-provoking legal experience in high definition for the first time in broadcast,” “I’m grateful that TV station groups have embraced this new innovative syndication model with talent that has been on broadcast stations for 28 years.”
Judy Justice is raising the bar for the featured cases with a new $10,000 to $5,000 award for plaintiffs vs. Judge Judy entering the contracted syndication space where few new syndicates have entered the market in the last few years.
Lauren Anderson, head of AVOD, unscripted and targeted programming at Amazon MGM Studios had to say this: “We remain honored that Her Honor agreed to go on this streaming adventure with us,” and “Having firmly cemented her place as an icon of broadcast television, Judge Sheindlin took a pioneering risk bringing her new show and brand to a then-nascent service. Not only are we thrilled that her common sense, life skills building approach to justice has been a hit with cross-generational Amazon customers, we are beyond delighted that we, in partnership with Sox Entertainment, are now able to deliver Judy Justice back to hundreds of broadcast markets – and broadcast audiences – across North America. Full circle indeed.”
In November 2021, Judy Justice made her Amazon Freevee debut. In the courtroom with Judge Sheindlin are bailiff Kevin Rasco, a former Los Angeles probation officer, court stenographer Whitney Kumar, a board-certified court reporter in the state of California, and recently admitted attorney Sarah Rose, who acts as the law clerk. Up until April 5th, new episodes are released every weekday.
Randy Douthit(Hot Bench, Judge Judy: Justice Served) is the executive producer and director of Judy Justice, while Amy Freisleben(Judge Judy, Tribunal Justice) is the co-executive producer.