Judge Judy is returning to television with “Judge Judy: Unfiltered, Unforgettable,” a 90-minute primetime special chronicling her three decades as America’s favorite TV judge. Through home movies and personal archives, Judith Sheindlin offers an intimate look into how she became the sharp-tongued, no-nonsense jurist who sat on the bench in Manhattan for nearly 20 years before she segued into television with the syndicated daytime court show “Judge Judy.” The special, which airs Sept. 22 on CBS and Paramount+, traces Sheindlin’s journey from her childhood in Brooklyn to the New York City Family Court, where she established herself as a tough but fair judge who brought empathy to her work. Hollywood notables including Amy Poehler, RuPaul, Samuel L.
Jackson, Steven Spielberg and former Paramount Pictures chief Sherry Lansing appear on the special to share their favorite “Judge Judy” stories. Sheindlin’s son, Judge Adam Levy, who leads the upcoming daytime court show “Adam’s Law,” was also interviewed along with other family members, friends and former colleagues who share a connection with Sheindlin. Spielberg recalls his mother’s love for the show, sharing, “My mom watched her religiously, and one day I asked my mom, ‘Why do you love ‘Judge Judy’ as much as you do?’ and my mom said, ‘Because she’s not full of crap, she tells the truth, she calls it the way she sees it.
In a way, she is the voice of myself that I don’t let go out that far.’” The special is timed to the 30th anniversary of “Judge Judy’s” debut in the fall of 1996. Green, Susan Zirinsky and Terence Wrong serving as executive producers. Longtime Sheindlin associate Gary Rosen is consulting producer with David Perozzi as senior producer and Asyu Saliba and Cara Tortora as supervising producers.
The series became the No. 1 first-run syndicated program, averaging 10 million viewers per episode, and was the highest-rated court program for each season it aired. After Oprah Winfrey ended her daytime talk show in 2011, Sheindlin became daytime television’s highest-paid star, earning roughly $47 million annually at her peak. Sheindlin launched another court series, “Judy Justice,” in 2021 on Amazon Prime Video’s now-defunct Freevee.
The show’s first season garnered 25 million hours of viewing time and became IMDb TV’s top original program in first streams and hours watched.
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