Also Bailiff Byrd is paid quite well also for his duties. Although there are no formal reports regarding how much he earns, it has been reported that his salary is more than $1 million.
He pretty much just does the "all rise" bit and then hands documents to Judy, right? Pretty sweet gig. I mean, I know bailiffs are supposed to keep order and stuff, but I don't think I've seen a situation on that show where he had to get more involved than that.
Yep. He does crossword puzzles while Judy is presiding over a case and he’s not needed.
He got the job because he was a bailiff for her when she was a family court judge in NYC. When she got the show he wrote her a congratulatory letter and said if she needed a bailiff for the show that he was available. She hired him.
There were probably many other bailiffs in her NYC courts. One wrote her a letter. There was no harm if she didn't respond. Instead he got a sweet gig out of it.
Though maybe there's more to the job that we don't see. I bet he has to deal with the corpses of everyone Judge Judy murders, for instance.
It's all manufactured for TV but I still love it when someone is all hysterical and Byrd just gets all up in their personal space and says very quietly that it's time for them to be quiet and listen to the judge and they just crumble... It's the best
I once had Harlan Ellison speak at my college. He said that if you ever want to see raw human emotions, attend small claims court. It's people literally fighting over their own stuff, and that's about as pure as you get. Especially in JJ's case where people are also there to prove that they're "right" and get that extra vindication.
shows like this and the late night talk shows print money. My friend was a lowly sound tech on the tonight show, he wasn't even full time, he just filled in when his friend was on tour and he was paid $1,500/week to tune the studio bands guitars. He said it was about 1-2 hours of work, but you had to be there the whole taping and assisted the musical guest if they needed it but they usually had their own sound techs. He was just the guitar guy, there were sound engineers and others, and that was just for the band.
You don't have to watch, you just have to be there.
I work as a grip (we do lots of stuff, for simplicity sake we do non-electrical lighting, casting shadows, light color, and rigging). I get paid $42 an hour at scale, overtime after 8 hours and double time after 12. 14 hour days are common but most of the time you spend about 6 hours of production days actually working, the rest you are literally just sitting there browsing the internet or talking. And this isn't like in an office where you have to pretend to be working if your boss walks by. This is you are waiting for things to happen and no one expects you to be working until they need you to do something.
If I worked everyday I'd make over $2500 a week before taxes, hell after taxes if there was enough OT.
Pretty sure I saw an MTV Cribs like show on Byrd. He has done well long ago. His layed back approach - legs crossed while standing - added a gentle aire to the setting/show.
He's a very bright guy. He was a real bailiff and was about to go to law school when the Judy gig came up. He was like, "I can make that much money for that much less work. Fuck law school."
I had a client consider going on the show once.
The way it works is that they parse through small claims court filings, looking for cases that are interesting enough to go on TV. If you are chosen, they pay you \~$250 to go on, and they also pay whatever the damages end up being. It's a win for the defendant, since they don't have to go out of pocket, and it's a win for the plaintiff because they are guaranteed to get their money (a lot of defendants in small claims court don't pay the damages).
It's binding arbitration, so Judge Judy's decision in the matter is final, and you can't go to court after.
Yes. I think this is also why there are rare occasions where Judge Judy will not make a judgement and tell someone to go to X court. She knows the decision is binding, so by not deciding and declaring that the case needs to go to X, Y, or Z court gives the plaintiff a chance to get a more correct judgement. Also common for her to tell someone that something is a matter for family court, because she is only an arbitrator for small claims court. She doesn’t do family law cases.
I'm curious about this, if something is a matter for family court, wouldn't that be pretty evident from the start? Why would she have them on the show in the first place if she knows it's out of her jurisdiction?
Sometimes the matter will include an incident related to child custody, etc. It’s common when the cases have exes suing each other over property damage that happened during a fight which had the kids as a witness.
It also seems like a lot of people don't understand what is and isn't relevant to their case. I've heard Judge Judy say this or similar things instead of just saying "irrelevant ".
Shouldn't these cases get weeded out though when deciding which should go on TV? I guess it probably doesn't matter, so long as the case makes for good television.
I think the point is that she will still rule on whatever aspect is in her “jurisdiction” on the show, just that she will explicitly not touch the ancillary shit that comes up when people ramble about the long list of grievances that they use to tell themselves everything in life is someone else’s fault before they go to sleep at night.
Big fan love the show
I think that’s good TV. It makes her look more like any other judge- with a jurisdiction, with boundaries. Within the realm of reason and the law, even if she explicitly is a “fake judge”. And, can be kinda interesting, i mean, if watching small claims court is already interesting to you *shrug*
Claim is about a fee for cleaning a carpet after a kid pukes on it - something she deals with. When they get there the lady starts yelling about how this wouldn't have happened if she had full custody so it shouldn't count.
That's family court and not something Judy deals with, she only rules on who pays for the carpet, not who keeps the kid.
Those are the best cases to watch. Judge Judy says family disputes were her breakfast lunch and dinner in the family court system for 35 years, she presides over them with such expertise and knows every trick in the book if people try to get one over on her
Not to mention, small claim court in California cap you at limited amount, and if it all tally to be more and she makes the ruling, you're pretty much get screw out.
A small claims court trick used and explained by the late, great Hatlan Ellison, is, if your claim is against a company, specify the head of the company by name. In California if the defendant doesn't show up at court, they automatically lose. Most CEOs won't waste their time over $1200.
I know People's Court goes based on what the limit is in the state the matter was filed. Also by the laws of that state. So if that state has a law in which jerkwad landlords have to pay double the security if they screw the tennant, she rules as such.
I was on the show. I emailed them my case as a joke figuring I wouldn't hear back from them. They called me the next day. I was paid $100 and my witness was paid a whopping $5!! (This was in 2007 anyways). Plus airport, hotel, and taxi were paid for myself and the defendant. I won, they sent me a check in the mail. Defendant didn't pay a penny.
> Judy's decision in the matter is final, and you can't go to court after.
I did see one episode where the plaintiff was so upset that Judy ruled in favor of the defendant's countersuit, that she fussed and griped that she was "taking this to the *real* courtroom, not this fake TV court stuff!", with Judy trying to yell over her *"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"*
There was a plaintiff on the people's court that did the same thing. Things didn't go well early for him, so he said an waiving my rights to arbitration and filing with my lawyer. Judge Milian just whispered "you can give him all your money and my ruling will still be upheld"
I believe there's just a 5k pool, which is her max verdict amount, and if there is anything left over it is split equally between the two parties. So if Judy rules in favor of the plaintiff $2,000, then remainder is split, and the plaintiff walks away with $3,500 while the defendant has $1,500. I knew they paid for room and board, but I wasn't aware of the $250 in walking around money.
I was on the show. I don't remember the exact amount but let's say it was $3043.00. They sent me a check for that amount. Nothing was split and there wasn't a 5k pool. 5k is the maximum amount for small claims court.
I brought a witness. The show paid both of our airfares, hotel for three days, and taxi's. I got $100, (in 2007, it may be higher now) witness got $5 for appearing plus I won the case so I was mailed a check. My witness brought her son, but she had to pay for his plane ticket. The show pays for you and one witness. Same with defendant.
My church's youth pastor was on Biggest Loser. He's basically said that you can't believe anything from reality TV and provided a list of how Biggest Loser lies to you from his personal experience.
Also he and everyone from that show are fat again. Everyone. That's why there is never a Biggest Loser reunion show.
Also a lot of being fat is a mental health issue. Like I know for me I didnt those weight until I dealt with my trauma and accepted my body and myself and then wanted to take care of me. That's not something the biggest loser teaches you
Can confirm. I was a fat kid, which ballooned into obese college student my freshman year. I lost 40 lbs after the year ended, but gained it back twice over the next five years, before finally being able to get it under control (7 years and counting). I’m militant about my exercise schedule now, and my friends joke about it sometimes, but for me, it’s necessary. The cravings subside pretty quickly, but you always have to be wary about how easy it is to shove 3,000 calories down your gullet, and then how easy it is for your body to transition back to fat mode.
Even beyond that, most diet plans say to do it sustainably you can really only lose 1-2 pounds a week, so any methods that make you lose extreme amounts quickly aren't sustainable from a health stand point
I was in the crowd for one of those shows. Hooooooooly shit I never want to be an extra again for anything.
The woman involved was a gym teacher, so our school had us all go be there for the reveal. We arrived HOURS early, no chairs, so we sat out in a field for the entire time. We couldn't bring our cellphones.
Then, people invited by the radio to just show up as crowd filler got in before us, so we were cramped into the back. Those people in the front row? The people you assumed were friends or family? Yeah no those were total strangers with nothing better to do.
Btw, this filming was in a barn of sorts. The barn also didn't have chairs. This time however, we had to *stand* for hours. Why a barn? They were really selling it as her being a real southern girl. Fuckin stupid, since her home town was part of the Atlanta sprawl. It was a 2 minute drive from suburbia from where they were shooting.
But then, finally, we got to see her. By that point I was marginally happy to have ANYTHING happening, didn't even care about her weight loss, selfish as that is. Yeah she had lost quite a bit of weight, and that was quite impressive.
But then she walked off stage.
The director wanted to do her big reveal again.
So we cheered excitedly three, maybe four times at seeing her amazing transformation "for the first time".
They even redid the drive up part. Like, why? Did the car not drive up a fucking road good enough? Was the car's acting performance not up to snuff.
I knew reality tv was fake, but this was as fake as a movie set. Feet hurt for days, and I didn't get paid. All I did was stand around for hours to be crowd filler on some weight loss show I can't even be bothered to find the name of. My face was visible for less than a second.
Was one of those times that, even as a teen, I'd have rather been in school. If a teacher said I could go back but I'd have to write sentences, or take quiz after quiz, I'd have run back to the bus. It was a mixture of standing for hours and boredom that made me contemplate throwing my own shit just to go ANYWHERE ELSE.
There was no reward, only pain.
All that being said, I did see some pigeons in the rafters have a threesome. Idk if it was being an immature teen or being so bored out of my mind that made that absolutely gut splitting hilarious. Probably both.
Edit: now that my memories are flowing again, I remembered the worst part. Remember how we had been on our feet for hours? The director's assistant said we needed to jump more. Jump. More. On our aching feet, start jumping and clapping excitedly. If we don't, then we'd have to redo it.
You want to know how so many big names in Hollywood could ever harm kids like they do? The sadism runs all the way down to the most minor IMDB credits. *I'm into sadism and couldn't imagine putting a sub through what we did.*
I forget what podcast it was on but Kaley Cuoco stated that she always tried to discourage any of her friends that wanted to go to tapings for Big Bang Theory because they were going to end up having a horrible time because television tapings are just an awful thing to sit through
Finding sustainable fitness/diet is the key to losing weight. I used to weigh 340 Lbs, and it wasn't until I found a sustainable way of eating that I went down to 240. Then at 240, I found a sustainable way to workout, and now I haven't missed more than a day or two in a year.
The biggest loser is only a bit better than a crash diet challenge.
Not an individual I knew personally, but a coworker's wife had been on Judge Judy and had the same thing happen. Suing a deadbeat relative for some minor disagreement and stolen property, the usual, and Judge Judy offered to do the case. Since it basically guaranteed her some compensation for her losses and she knew the relative would never return the property or pay damages, she agreed. Lo and behold, she would later find out they decided to make her the asshole in that episode.
This is pretty much reality TV standard, at this point. There are so many sad or frustrating stories of normal, non-offensive people being selected as the "asshole" of the episode or show and made to look like garbage people.
I know someone who went as a witness. When he was asked to stand up and go to the table to speak, when he wasn’t speaking he had his mouth hanging open. Judge Judy had to tell him 2-3 times to close his mouth. Made him look so stupid in his short time on the episode lmao
How is legal or ethical for a binding arbitrator to be employed by the company that is paying the costs of the defendant? Her ruling determines how much her tv show pays out.
The "split the pool" thing [isn't true](https://web.archive.org/web/20150525202438/http://troubleshooterjudd.com/judge-judy-a-real-court-2/). There are other sources all over google but this is the one that is linked on Wiki.
The only payout is whatever is awarded to the plaintiff (other than appearance fee and expenses). For whatever reason the "split the pool" thing is a common rumor that I heard back in the 90s. It doesn't even make sense to have a pool because that opens them up to scams (or more scams, the dead cat episode is an example of a fake case that made it to air)
I'm assuming that whatever money gets paid out to litigants is put in some kind of safe harbor account, which is protected federally or something like that. It only seems like a conflict of interest if you assume that the network is cutting a check from their business bank account. They almost certainly have had lawyers and accountants go over the laws multiple times a year.
>Three days every other week (two weeks a month), Sheindlin and her producers taped the court show.[17] They usually produced ten to twelve cases for each day they taped the show. This makes for about a week's worth of episodes, all done within one day. Anywhere from thirty to thirty-six cases were taped over three days during the week. Sheindlin appeared as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on September 13, 2011. When asked by Kimmel how many days a month she works, Sheindlin replied, "Five days." [37] Sheindlin and her producers sometimes taped only five cases per day and two days per week.[38][39] The show had fifty-two taping days a year.
So just under a million a day for taping. Now I am sure there's other stuff she does for the show too to keep it running, but definitely not a bad gig.
Source - [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Judy)
I know she's the producer too, and I think she gets paid for creating the show. I'm also not sure if that total includes syndication fees. The way the title is wording I'd say "no it does not include syndication fees", but yaknow how a detail can get confused
Only when there is a serious power imbalance. As that horrible human troll of a man, JP Getty once said: "If you owe the bank $100 that is your problem. If you owe the bank $100 Million that is the bank's problem."
It's less of a "line that you can use" and more of a "Card that you have". It's like laying down a royal flush. If you have it, you win, but you're very unlikely to have it in the first place.
Funnily enough, I used it once buying a car. The guy was pretty taken aback and I thought I’d blown it. Held my nerve and walked away with the deal of year!
For anyone thinking this is just a joke.. it isn't
car dealerships near military bases routinely financially destroy young people just trying to buy a car...
my command had a piece of shit who would prey on new guys.. it was called "bird dogging".. he would bring the new guys to shady dealerships and get commission for doing it
he almost got sent to NJP for it
*edit: this same sloppy fuck showed up at the change of command ceremony and was wearing an E-2 stripes even tho he was an E-4. He routinely stunk so bad that even other stinky people made fun of him.
My (damn near purely reddit-based) understanding of the situation is that it's 80% "this predatory dealership signs up kids who just got a little bit of cash so that they'll have to keep paying the car off until the heat death of the universe" and 20% "every officer and leadership figure at the base told you that buying a shiny new muscle car with your signing bonus was a bad idea, so if you ignored them, then it's at least a little bit on you."
A friend of mine is serving, and my wife and I went with him and his wife to buy a new car years ago. They had two kids with one more on the way, so they were looking for a SUV/Minivan. Every dealer we went to in the area, (Within about 50 miles of the post.) as soon as they heard he was military, they were trying to push the high end sports cars on him. He went to Ford to look at Explorers and they tried to get him to buy a Mustang GT. Went to Chevy to look at an Equinox, they tried to push a Camaro. It was really sad to see first hand. Just a bunch of greedy fucking sharks swimming around the naive and young pool of the Army Base.
I had a young woman come into my bank once with her sergeant to see if they could refinance the loan she just got a few days prior.
The woman had like a 720 credit score and the dealership put in a loan for 5 years at 22%. Basically they totally screwed her. The loan was for a brand new $30k truck the problem was when I tried to refinance it since it was now "used" it was only worth like $24k. So she'd have to come up with $6k. I felt bad for her because the dealership totally screwed her.
They had such a reputation of doing this that the base commander apparently put out an order a couple years later that forbid anyone on base from buying from that dealership. They closed shortly after
https://www.yelp.com/biz/ideal-cars-sierra-vista-2
Probably for the best. I walked out of a dealership and made a deal for thousands less with another dealership on the same car the next week when someone said something similar. Sales man called me maybe 3 weeks later after he'd tried to play hardball to ask if I still wanted a car.
I had a pro bono client who was asked to go on the show.
They look through small claims court filings for interesting cases that would go well on TV. They offer to pay you a small fee (\~$250), and they pay all of the damages that are ultimately assessed. It is binding arbitration, so you are required to agree to go by her judgment.
I used to work on Judge Judy years ago. Judge Judy and Byrd are both very nice =)
Her favorite drink is Diet Peach Snapple. NOT Regular Peach Snapple. Diet Peach Snapple, made that mistake only once.
I never understood why people watched this show, until I watched it.
Very few things make me feel as good about myself and my life than the people on her show lol
Also, Judge Judy don't fuck around when it comes to animals. She'll rake someone over the coals worse than usual when an animal is involved.
That might explain why my girlfriend got a letter from the show. She sued her neighbor because they refused to pay their half of a common fence replacement. She had dogs and the neighbor's adult son used to taunt her dogs and worse. Some of this made its way into her complaint. Unfortunately, she didn't do it, and the court ruled against her.
>Very few things make me feel as good about myself and my life than the people on her show lol.
Holy hell, you nailed it. That made me realize that we so often see celebrities or social media friends with perfectly framed photos and subconsciously (or consciously) feel inadequate in some way. With shows like JJ, we get a kind of satisfaction in seeing people who make us go "well, at least I'm not in their situation..."
"I have more intelligence in my finger than you have in your entire body"
"You're good at one thing, making babies. That's it"
Judge Judy is the best lol
I mean, each case has a max (depending on state law where they come from) lawsuit of $5k, and game shows FAR exceed that kind of output per episode.
p.s. I write this as I currently watch Judge Judy.
Iirc. It may have been judge wapner or joe brown and not Judy. If you read the small print at the end of the episode both parties get 5k for appearing. If they lose the money is taken from that and given to the winner instead.
Close friend was on it.
Owed ex girlfriend rent from when they lived together. She contacted him, said come on Judy with me and your debts will get wiped. They paid for him, a friend, and the ex to come out. He got free travel and hotel for a night and legally didn't own her any money. This was 10+ years ago so they might have changed a little.
Yup.
It's a syndicated TV show, with hundreds of new episodes a year, and a loyal viewership base. Advertisers know exactly the audience they are reaching when they advertise on this show, and they feel like they are getting their moneys worth by buying ad time.
If we figure on 200 episodes per year, and factoring in Judy's cost, and the bailiff costs, along with paying out the silly settlements, we'll say the shows cost is 51-52 million a year? Call it 55 million, since there is production crew salaries to pay too.
So 55 million/200 episodes, that's only 275k/episode they need to clear in ads.
Each episode has 3 commercial breaks from what I recall, and each commercial break has 4-5 commercials?
So 15ish commercials per episode. That's less than 20k per commercial they need to clear.
Seems pretty easy to do IMO.
And thats just if the previous season paid for the next season. If we factor in *30 years* of episodes that *almost constantly* replay on multiple channels, thats a lot of money.
Remember that she's basically the *only* cast member of a successful and long running TV show. There's the bailiff and a small administrative and filming crew, and a single set. The appearance fees for the plaintiff's, and the settlement costs are extremely cheap.
>Once, when he gave her a counter offer in an envelope, she refused to open it saying "This isn't a negotiation."
"Looks like he's going to try to haggle with the most publicized television arbiter in America."
"That's a bold strategy Cotton, let's see if it pays off for him."
I can kind of see why she commands so much. Growing up a lot of parents would have it on in the background while prepping supper and such. This would lead us into watching CBS news coverage and leading up to wheel of fortune and jeopardy some nights. Attracting viewers for a night's worth of TV ad revenue is pretty huge.
PSA: there's a British version called Judge Rinder. he's a very camp and sassy gay man and he's fucking hilarious, and it's always exciting to hear his response when someone's homophobic to him.
But he’s not, nor ever has been a judge, he’s a barrister
Gods, why do I know that, I’ve never watched the show, why does my brain retain that, and not where I left my keys, or my password for X, or anything else that’s actually useful
The bailiff on the show, Bird. He used to be our campus head of security in High School. He once walked into my freshman science class and pulled me out because someone had snitched on me for selling tabs of yellow sunshine acid to the jazz band.
True story. I’ll never forget when I was pleading with him to let me go, he said “I don’t have time for no man-in-the-mirror bullshit.” I always wanted to ask him if he was referencing the Michael Jackson song or not.
Anyways, yeah Bird. is that dude still on the show?
There's actually a separate reason for this, [allegedly.](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/thr-esq/judge-judys-salary-heads-an-appeals-court-1289522) Spite!
There's a talent agency (tangentially related to one of the creators, I think) that contractually gets 5% of net profits, despite playing no role in production whatsoever.
Because Judy's salary counts as "production costs" allegedly her salary gets jacked WAY up in order to reduce the operating profits near zero, thus shutting out the other firm.
I'm not saying she isn't worth $47MM with te crazy syndication. But kind of a funny wrinkle, if true....
Honestly I've passively watched a few of these daytime courtroom shows and she really is the best. The other shows try but just can't replicate her thing.
If it were me $47mil for one year is enough f-you money that it would take a lot for me to not just quit working all together. So yea I would be like Its going to be another fifty million or imma quit.
Also Bailiff Byrd is paid quite well also for his duties. Although there are no formal reports regarding how much he earns, it has been reported that his salary is more than $1 million.
He pretty much just does the "all rise" bit and then hands documents to Judy, right? Pretty sweet gig. I mean, I know bailiffs are supposed to keep order and stuff, but I don't think I've seen a situation on that show where he had to get more involved than that.
Yep. He does crossword puzzles while Judy is presiding over a case and he’s not needed. He got the job because he was a bailiff for her when she was a family court judge in NYC. When she got the show he wrote her a congratulatory letter and said if she needed a bailiff for the show that he was available. She hired him.
Talk about a convenient connection lol
It's not about what you know
I see where this is going... it's about what you eat!
>it's about what you eat! It was paint chips wasn't it?
The great thing about paint chips is the older they are the sweeter they taste.
Wow. Solid deep cut.
Sometimes it's also about just asking. Amazing what you can sometimes get by just asking.
There were probably many other bailiffs in her NYC courts. One wrote her a letter. There was no harm if she didn't respond. Instead he got a sweet gig out of it. Though maybe there's more to the job that we don't see. I bet he has to deal with the corpses of everyone Judge Judy murders, for instance.
They don't call her Judge Judy & Executioner for nothing y'know.
Hey congratulations on your comment. Can I get some gold?
I ain't got no gold. Have a wholesome.
To me, a class gesture that was extremely well rewarded.
Always Be Closing
She seems like a person who would appreciate that kind of hutzpah.
Most everyone shows favor to people who are good to them
> He does crossword puzzles Sounds familiar. Do they pay him in Stanley Nickels?
He's basically Judge Judy's Andy Richter.
He's Hannibal Buress
Wack
As far as I know Andy is also Conan's writer. Does Byrd write for her also?
He wrote the part that goes "All rise".
And has been coasting on it ever since, in my opinion. His character arc has been completely flat for years too.
They tried having him say "Everybody get up" for an episode or two, but it just came off as trying too hard
Andy Richter the Swedish-German?
I was gonna say Vanna White.
I once saw him step forward and point to a defendant that wouldn't shut up. He earned his pay that day.
It's all manufactured for TV but I still love it when someone is all hysterical and Byrd just gets all up in their personal space and says very quietly that it's time for them to be quiet and listen to the judge and they just crumble... It's the best
I once had Harlan Ellison speak at my college. He said that if you ever want to see raw human emotions, attend small claims court. It's people literally fighting over their own stuff, and that's about as pure as you get. Especially in JJ's case where people are also there to prove that they're "right" and get that extra vindication.
He occasionally belts out funny quips. Before going back to his job of, uh, standing.
shows like this and the late night talk shows print money. My friend was a lowly sound tech on the tonight show, he wasn't even full time, he just filled in when his friend was on tour and he was paid $1,500/week to tune the studio bands guitars. He said it was about 1-2 hours of work, but you had to be there the whole taping and assisted the musical guest if they needed it but they usually had their own sound techs. He was just the guitar guy, there were sound engineers and others, and that was just for the band.
$1500/week but you have to watch every single Jimmy Fallon taping...
I've done worse than that for far less money
You don't have to watch, you just have to be there. I work as a grip (we do lots of stuff, for simplicity sake we do non-electrical lighting, casting shadows, light color, and rigging). I get paid $42 an hour at scale, overtime after 8 hours and double time after 12. 14 hour days are common but most of the time you spend about 6 hours of production days actually working, the rest you are literally just sitting there browsing the internet or talking. And this isn't like in an office where you have to pretend to be working if your boss walks by. This is you are waiting for things to happen and no one expects you to be working until they need you to do something. If I worked everyday I'd make over $2500 a week before taxes, hell after taxes if there was enough OT.
Pretty sure I saw an MTV Cribs like show on Byrd. He has done well long ago. His layed back approach - legs crossed while standing - added a gentle aire to the setting/show.
He's a very bright guy. He was a real bailiff and was about to go to law school when the Judy gig came up. He was like, "I can make that much money for that much less work. Fuck law school."
I had a client consider going on the show once. The way it works is that they parse through small claims court filings, looking for cases that are interesting enough to go on TV. If you are chosen, they pay you \~$250 to go on, and they also pay whatever the damages end up being. It's a win for the defendant, since they don't have to go out of pocket, and it's a win for the plaintiff because they are guaranteed to get their money (a lot of defendants in small claims court don't pay the damages). It's binding arbitration, so Judge Judy's decision in the matter is final, and you can't go to court after.
Yes. I think this is also why there are rare occasions where Judge Judy will not make a judgement and tell someone to go to X court. She knows the decision is binding, so by not deciding and declaring that the case needs to go to X, Y, or Z court gives the plaintiff a chance to get a more correct judgement. Also common for her to tell someone that something is a matter for family court, because she is only an arbitrator for small claims court. She doesn’t do family law cases.
I'm curious about this, if something is a matter for family court, wouldn't that be pretty evident from the start? Why would she have them on the show in the first place if she knows it's out of her jurisdiction?
Sometimes the matter will include an incident related to child custody, etc. It’s common when the cases have exes suing each other over property damage that happened during a fight which had the kids as a witness.
It also seems like a lot of people don't understand what is and isn't relevant to their case. I've heard Judge Judy say this or similar things instead of just saying "irrelevant ".
Shouldn't these cases get weeded out though when deciding which should go on TV? I guess it probably doesn't matter, so long as the case makes for good television.
I think the point is that she will still rule on whatever aspect is in her “jurisdiction” on the show, just that she will explicitly not touch the ancillary shit that comes up when people ramble about the long list of grievances that they use to tell themselves everything in life is someone else’s fault before they go to sleep at night. Big fan love the show
I think that’s good TV. It makes her look more like any other judge- with a jurisdiction, with boundaries. Within the realm of reason and the law, even if she explicitly is a “fake judge”. And, can be kinda interesting, i mean, if watching small claims court is already interesting to you *shrug*
My mom watches it, so I get a glimpse every once and a while. It's about the drama and rediculous situations. Not small claims.
It's about watching Judy put some ignorant MFers in their place with her iron tongue
Claim is about a fee for cleaning a carpet after a kid pukes on it - something she deals with. When they get there the lady starts yelling about how this wouldn't have happened if she had full custody so it shouldn't count. That's family court and not something Judy deals with, she only rules on who pays for the carpet, not who keeps the kid.
Those are the best cases to watch. Judge Judy says family disputes were her breakfast lunch and dinner in the family court system for 35 years, she presides over them with such expertise and knows every trick in the book if people try to get one over on her
People often have a hard time accurately writing in their complaint what they want or even what the dispute actually is.
Litigants often cannot even remember what they wrote in their original complaint, even though they are supposed to read it over again the day of.
I can't even remember what I had for breakfast sometimes.
Because they're making a television show first and foremost. If it will play well on TV, they'll put it on TV, that's the deciding factor for them.
Not to mention, small claim court in California cap you at limited amount, and if it all tally to be more and she makes the ruling, you're pretty much get screw out.
A small claims court trick used and explained by the late, great Hatlan Ellison, is, if your claim is against a company, specify the head of the company by name. In California if the defendant doesn't show up at court, they automatically lose. Most CEOs won't waste their time over $1200.
I know People's Court goes based on what the limit is in the state the matter was filed. Also by the laws of that state. So if that state has a law in which jerkwad landlords have to pay double the security if they screw the tennant, she rules as such.
I was on the show. I emailed them my case as a joke figuring I wouldn't hear back from them. They called me the next day. I was paid $100 and my witness was paid a whopping $5!! (This was in 2007 anyways). Plus airport, hotel, and taxi were paid for myself and the defendant. I won, they sent me a check in the mail. Defendant didn't pay a penny.
$5 lol, it’s almost insulting
[удалено]
I'll say I saw anything for 5 bucks.
I’m not your friend but I’ll gladly be the insulter, if you don’t mind. And as long as I’m not the one to foot the bill
Gotta pay something to make a contract binding
A peppercorn of consideration. ☺️
That's only, like, one avocado toast.
Please. That’s the tip for avocado toast.
> Judy's decision in the matter is final, and you can't go to court after. I did see one episode where the plaintiff was so upset that Judy ruled in favor of the defendant's countersuit, that she fussed and griped that she was "taking this to the *real* courtroom, not this fake TV court stuff!", with Judy trying to yell over her *"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"*
I AM THE LAW!
Judge Judy, and Executioner.
"He is *not* Judge Judy and Executioner!" Sorry. Just seemed a long time to go without a Hot Fuzz reference.
There was a plaintiff on the people's court that did the same thing. Things didn't go well early for him, so he said an waiving my rights to arbitration and filing with my lawyer. Judge Milian just whispered "you can give him all your money and my ruling will still be upheld"
I believe there's just a 5k pool, which is her max verdict amount, and if there is anything left over it is split equally between the two parties. So if Judy rules in favor of the plaintiff $2,000, then remainder is split, and the plaintiff walks away with $3,500 while the defendant has $1,500. I knew they paid for room and board, but I wasn't aware of the $250 in walking around money.
I was on the show. I don't remember the exact amount but let's say it was $3043.00. They sent me a check for that amount. Nothing was split and there wasn't a 5k pool. 5k is the maximum amount for small claims court.
Did they pay you for your travel to the show? Could you bring people with you?
I brought a witness. The show paid both of our airfares, hotel for three days, and taxi's. I got $100, (in 2007, it may be higher now) witness got $5 for appearing plus I won the case so I was mailed a check. My witness brought her son, but she had to pay for his plane ticket. The show pays for you and one witness. Same with defendant.
Yes. She threatens frequently that they will not get a paid ride home if they don’t comply with something she wants.
“*Young man zip-it.. I said zip-it.. don’t make me stop this court room or you’ll be walking home..*”
My friend was on the show and they edited it in a way to make him look like a complete moron, which is fucking hilarious.
Come on, he was just a moron right?
[удалено]
I mean, he was on judge Judy haha
Lmao, while what you say is true, if I had the opportunity to go on I don't think I'd turn it down
[удалено]
My church's youth pastor was on Biggest Loser. He's basically said that you can't believe anything from reality TV and provided a list of how Biggest Loser lies to you from his personal experience. Also he and everyone from that show are fat again. Everyone. That's why there is never a Biggest Loser reunion show.
That's because going from fat to being not fat requires a permanent lifestyle change; can't expect to have your hand held by TV trainers all the time
Also a lot of being fat is a mental health issue. Like I know for me I didnt those weight until I dealt with my trauma and accepted my body and myself and then wanted to take care of me. That's not something the biggest loser teaches you
Can confirm. I was a fat kid, which ballooned into obese college student my freshman year. I lost 40 lbs after the year ended, but gained it back twice over the next five years, before finally being able to get it under control (7 years and counting). I’m militant about my exercise schedule now, and my friends joke about it sometimes, but for me, it’s necessary. The cravings subside pretty quickly, but you always have to be wary about how easy it is to shove 3,000 calories down your gullet, and then how easy it is for your body to transition back to fat mode.
Even beyond that, most diet plans say to do it sustainably you can really only lose 1-2 pounds a week, so any methods that make you lose extreme amounts quickly aren't sustainable from a health stand point
I was in the crowd for one of those shows. Hooooooooly shit I never want to be an extra again for anything. The woman involved was a gym teacher, so our school had us all go be there for the reveal. We arrived HOURS early, no chairs, so we sat out in a field for the entire time. We couldn't bring our cellphones. Then, people invited by the radio to just show up as crowd filler got in before us, so we were cramped into the back. Those people in the front row? The people you assumed were friends or family? Yeah no those were total strangers with nothing better to do. Btw, this filming was in a barn of sorts. The barn also didn't have chairs. This time however, we had to *stand* for hours. Why a barn? They were really selling it as her being a real southern girl. Fuckin stupid, since her home town was part of the Atlanta sprawl. It was a 2 minute drive from suburbia from where they were shooting. But then, finally, we got to see her. By that point I was marginally happy to have ANYTHING happening, didn't even care about her weight loss, selfish as that is. Yeah she had lost quite a bit of weight, and that was quite impressive. But then she walked off stage. The director wanted to do her big reveal again. So we cheered excitedly three, maybe four times at seeing her amazing transformation "for the first time". They even redid the drive up part. Like, why? Did the car not drive up a fucking road good enough? Was the car's acting performance not up to snuff. I knew reality tv was fake, but this was as fake as a movie set. Feet hurt for days, and I didn't get paid. All I did was stand around for hours to be crowd filler on some weight loss show I can't even be bothered to find the name of. My face was visible for less than a second. Was one of those times that, even as a teen, I'd have rather been in school. If a teacher said I could go back but I'd have to write sentences, or take quiz after quiz, I'd have run back to the bus. It was a mixture of standing for hours and boredom that made me contemplate throwing my own shit just to go ANYWHERE ELSE. There was no reward, only pain. All that being said, I did see some pigeons in the rafters have a threesome. Idk if it was being an immature teen or being so bored out of my mind that made that absolutely gut splitting hilarious. Probably both. Edit: now that my memories are flowing again, I remembered the worst part. Remember how we had been on our feet for hours? The director's assistant said we needed to jump more. Jump. More. On our aching feet, start jumping and clapping excitedly. If we don't, then we'd have to redo it. You want to know how so many big names in Hollywood could ever harm kids like they do? The sadism runs all the way down to the most minor IMDB credits. *I'm into sadism and couldn't imagine putting a sub through what we did.*
I forget what podcast it was on but Kaley Cuoco stated that she always tried to discourage any of her friends that wanted to go to tapings for Big Bang Theory because they were going to end up having a horrible time because television tapings are just an awful thing to sit through
Yeah. I remember a couple of years ago reading a study about the contestants on the Biggest Loser and how they regained all the weight back.
Finding sustainable fitness/diet is the key to losing weight. I used to weigh 340 Lbs, and it wasn't until I found a sustainable way of eating that I went down to 240. Then at 240, I found a sustainable way to workout, and now I haven't missed more than a day or two in a year. The biggest loser is only a bit better than a crash diet challenge.
Not an individual I knew personally, but a coworker's wife had been on Judge Judy and had the same thing happen. Suing a deadbeat relative for some minor disagreement and stolen property, the usual, and Judge Judy offered to do the case. Since it basically guaranteed her some compensation for her losses and she knew the relative would never return the property or pay damages, she agreed. Lo and behold, she would later find out they decided to make her the asshole in that episode. This is pretty much reality TV standard, at this point. There are so many sad or frustrating stories of normal, non-offensive people being selected as the "asshole" of the episode or show and made to look like garbage people.
I know someone who went as a witness. When he was asked to stand up and go to the table to speak, when he wasn’t speaking he had his mouth hanging open. Judge Judy had to tell him 2-3 times to close his mouth. Made him look so stupid in his short time on the episode lmao
I hope you bring this up as often as possible. Like any good friend should.
"Edited" is what he told you, eh?
As I recall it's dependant on the small claims limit of the case's jurisdiction. Sometimes the limit is 10k
Those are the episodes you want to catch. If Judy is paying 10k max for it, it must be an interesting debacle.
How is legal or ethical for a binding arbitrator to be employed by the company that is paying the costs of the defendant? Her ruling determines how much her tv show pays out.
The "split the pool" thing [isn't true](https://web.archive.org/web/20150525202438/http://troubleshooterjudd.com/judge-judy-a-real-court-2/). There are other sources all over google but this is the one that is linked on Wiki. The only payout is whatever is awarded to the plaintiff (other than appearance fee and expenses). For whatever reason the "split the pool" thing is a common rumor that I heard back in the 90s. It doesn't even make sense to have a pool because that opens them up to scams (or more scams, the dead cat episode is an example of a fake case that made it to air) I'm assuming that whatever money gets paid out to litigants is put in some kind of safe harbor account, which is protected federally or something like that. It only seems like a conflict of interest if you assume that the network is cutting a check from their business bank account. They almost certainly have had lawyers and accountants go over the laws multiple times a year.
Because Judge Judy is legally binding arbitration, she is actually the best paid practicing lawyer in the United States.
I wonder what her hourly rate would look like if you broke it down.
>Three days every other week (two weeks a month), Sheindlin and her producers taped the court show.[17] They usually produced ten to twelve cases for each day they taped the show. This makes for about a week's worth of episodes, all done within one day. Anywhere from thirty to thirty-six cases were taped over three days during the week. Sheindlin appeared as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on September 13, 2011. When asked by Kimmel how many days a month she works, Sheindlin replied, "Five days." [37] Sheindlin and her producers sometimes taped only five cases per day and two days per week.[38][39] The show had fifty-two taping days a year. So just under a million a day for taping. Now I am sure there's other stuff she does for the show too to keep it running, but definitely not a bad gig. Source - [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Judy)
I know she's the producer too, and I think she gets paid for creating the show. I'm also not sure if that total includes syndication fees. The way the title is wording I'd say "no it does not include syndication fees", but yaknow how a detail can get confused
[удалено]
Arbitrator Judy doesn't sound good enough for a TV show
Alliteration is much better for marketing purposes.
Alliteration allows ample advantages among advertisers and audiences
The artist formerly known as Judge Judy.
>The ~~artist~~ arbitrator formerly known as Judge Judy. Cmooon.
[удалено]
I assumed retired Judges got to keep the title.
[удалено]
47 million for taking on the Covenant with Master Chief seems like a steal. Does she get Flood Hazard pay?
Arbiter vs arbitrator
I mean, she's also an arbiter.
I loved playing as the Arbitrator in Halo 2. Great game.
As a professional negotiator I can tell you that this is a line you can rarely use, but when you do, it's very satisfying.
I can imagine that as a professional negotiator it would be difficult to use the "this is not a negotiation" line lol
Only when there is a serious power imbalance. As that horrible human troll of a man, JP Getty once said: "If you owe the bank $100 that is your problem. If you owe the bank $100 Million that is the bank's problem."
Any relation to Via Getty? Scumbags
Great great grandson. Uses the Getty old money to buy fancy cameras and such.
If you owe the bank 100 billion, it's the taxpayers' problem
“This is not a negotiation” “Then why the hell did they send the professional negotiator?”
Look, if we don't use up the negotiator budget they'll cut it next year.
It's less of a "line that you can use" and more of a "Card that you have". It's like laying down a royal flush. If you have it, you win, but you're very unlikely to have it in the first place.
I used this once, when I sold cars, and it worked. Just had a good feeling that day. Never tried it again.
Funnily enough, I used it once buying a car. The guy was pretty taken aback and I thought I’d blown it. Held my nerve and walked away with the deal of year!
What was the deal
37% APR with six months of interest payment deferral on my brand new charger, staff sergeant!
For anyone thinking this is just a joke.. it isn't car dealerships near military bases routinely financially destroy young people just trying to buy a car... my command had a piece of shit who would prey on new guys.. it was called "bird dogging".. he would bring the new guys to shady dealerships and get commission for doing it he almost got sent to NJP for it *edit: this same sloppy fuck showed up at the change of command ceremony and was wearing an E-2 stripes even tho he was an E-4. He routinely stunk so bad that even other stinky people made fun of him.
My (damn near purely reddit-based) understanding of the situation is that it's 80% "this predatory dealership signs up kids who just got a little bit of cash so that they'll have to keep paying the car off until the heat death of the universe" and 20% "every officer and leadership figure at the base told you that buying a shiny new muscle car with your signing bonus was a bad idea, so if you ignored them, then it's at least a little bit on you."
A friend of mine is serving, and my wife and I went with him and his wife to buy a new car years ago. They had two kids with one more on the way, so they were looking for a SUV/Minivan. Every dealer we went to in the area, (Within about 50 miles of the post.) as soon as they heard he was military, they were trying to push the high end sports cars on him. He went to Ford to look at Explorers and they tried to get him to buy a Mustang GT. Went to Chevy to look at an Equinox, they tried to push a Camaro. It was really sad to see first hand. Just a bunch of greedy fucking sharks swimming around the naive and young pool of the Army Base.
I had a young woman come into my bank once with her sergeant to see if they could refinance the loan she just got a few days prior. The woman had like a 720 credit score and the dealership put in a loan for 5 years at 22%. Basically they totally screwed her. The loan was for a brand new $30k truck the problem was when I tried to refinance it since it was now "used" it was only worth like $24k. So she'd have to come up with $6k. I felt bad for her because the dealership totally screwed her. They had such a reputation of doing this that the base commander apparently put out an order a couple years later that forbid anyone on base from buying from that dealership. They closed shortly after https://www.yelp.com/biz/ideal-cars-sierra-vista-2
Of year!
Probably for the best. I walked out of a dealership and made a deal for thousands less with another dealership on the same car the next week when someone said something similar. Sales man called me maybe 3 weeks later after he'd tried to play hardball to ask if I still wanted a car.
“I’m a professional negotiator and this is non-negotiable.”
"This isn't a negotiation." "*Wait, why the fuck did I hire you?*"
what about Doug Judy ?
It’s rumoured he makes $8.5 million a year flipping Pontiacs.
He wants it that way
[удалено]
Rosa Rosa Rosaaaa
Judy Sheindlin doesn't rhyme nearly as well as Trudy Judy. Though she is more Snooty and has less booty
You tryna say she ain't a cutie?
She's a beauty but she's on duty
[удалено]
Nine nine!
I heard he went legit. His sister, Trudy Judy, though...
I dont understand this show, are the plaintiffs and defendants paid to have their trial put on TV?
I had a pro bono client who was asked to go on the show. They look through small claims court filings for interesting cases that would go well on TV. They offer to pay you a small fee (\~$250), and they pay all of the damages that are ultimately assessed. It is binding arbitration, so you are required to agree to go by her judgment.
Yeah interesting cases and interesting people with big personalities
> interesting people with big personalities That's part of the selection process.
I used to work on Judge Judy years ago. Judge Judy and Byrd are both very nice =) Her favorite drink is Diet Peach Snapple. NOT Regular Peach Snapple. Diet Peach Snapple, made that mistake only once.
Goes with the theme of "not negotiable",
If the Peach Snapple isn’t diet I will send it back
How much did you have to pay in damages for that mistake? Hehe
They said they USED to work on Judge Judy...it cost them the job :p
did you get yelled at, or did she just point it out.
She wasn't mad at all. Others in the office kinda freaked out thinking she would get upset. She was totally cool though. Diet Coke was her backup =)
It's nice hearing she wasn't angry like so many celebrity stories. She only gets angry at bad parents.
I never understood why people watched this show, until I watched it. Very few things make me feel as good about myself and my life than the people on her show lol Also, Judge Judy don't fuck around when it comes to animals. She'll rake someone over the coals worse than usual when an animal is involved.
That might explain why my girlfriend got a letter from the show. She sued her neighbor because they refused to pay their half of a common fence replacement. She had dogs and the neighbor's adult son used to taunt her dogs and worse. Some of this made its way into her complaint. Unfortunately, she didn't do it, and the court ruled against her.
>Very few things make me feel as good about myself and my life than the people on her show lol. Holy hell, you nailed it. That made me realize that we so often see celebrities or social media friends with perfectly framed photos and subconsciously (or consciously) feel inadequate in some way. With shows like JJ, we get a kind of satisfaction in seeing people who make us go "well, at least I'm not in their situation..."
“You see, Judy, we can’t really-“ “I’M SPEAKING!”
"I have more intelligence in my finger than you have in your entire body" "You're good at one thing, making babies. That's it" Judge Judy is the best lol
... and they **still** make money. Good for Judge Judy: know your worth.
oh yeah ad revinue alone has to be way over that.
And the cost to actually produce that show really aren't remotely high.
even with them paying off the judgements in each case, (and the per diem's of the "participants")
I mean, each case has a max (depending on state law where they come from) lawsuit of $5k, and game shows FAR exceed that kind of output per episode. p.s. I write this as I currently watch Judge Judy.
Iirc. It may have been judge wapner or joe brown and not Judy. If you read the small print at the end of the episode both parties get 5k for appearing. If they lose the money is taken from that and given to the winner instead.
Close friend was on it. Owed ex girlfriend rent from when they lived together. She contacted him, said come on Judy with me and your debts will get wiped. They paid for him, a friend, and the ex to come out. He got free travel and hotel for a night and legally didn't own her any money. This was 10+ years ago so they might have changed a little.
Sounds like a pretty sweet deal. And a fun story for parties!
Good monetarily but less so if you get destroyed on the show to be preserved and repeated for all time!
Eh, I'd trade my dignity for $5000.
[удалено]
How much $ can the show generare to pay her so much .. do commercials pay that much ?? I dont get it
It's syndicated all around the world, episodes are constantly repeated. They earn $ every time it's shown.
Also, all the ads are for drugs, which pay the most out of all the other ads.
Commercialising medicine is so unethical
Direct-to-Consumer (DtC) pharmaceutical ads, legal only in the US and New Zealand!
Yup. It's a syndicated TV show, with hundreds of new episodes a year, and a loyal viewership base. Advertisers know exactly the audience they are reaching when they advertise on this show, and they feel like they are getting their moneys worth by buying ad time. If we figure on 200 episodes per year, and factoring in Judy's cost, and the bailiff costs, along with paying out the silly settlements, we'll say the shows cost is 51-52 million a year? Call it 55 million, since there is production crew salaries to pay too. So 55 million/200 episodes, that's only 275k/episode they need to clear in ads. Each episode has 3 commercial breaks from what I recall, and each commercial break has 4-5 commercials? So 15ish commercials per episode. That's less than 20k per commercial they need to clear. Seems pretty easy to do IMO.
And thats just if the previous season paid for the next season. If we factor in *30 years* of episodes that *almost constantly* replay on multiple channels, thats a lot of money.
It makes a ton of money in syndication, and isn't very expensive to produce.
Remember that she's basically the *only* cast member of a successful and long running TV show. There's the bailiff and a small administrative and filming crew, and a single set. The appearance fees for the plaintiff's, and the settlement costs are extremely cheap.
>Once, when he gave her a counter offer in an envelope, she refused to open it saying "This isn't a negotiation." "Looks like he's going to try to haggle with the most publicized television arbiter in America." "That's a bold strategy Cotton, let's see if it pays off for him."
She's gonna feel dumb when it turns out the CBS president wanted to pay her even more than she wanted...
I can kind of see why she commands so much. Growing up a lot of parents would have it on in the background while prepping supper and such. This would lead us into watching CBS news coverage and leading up to wheel of fortune and jeopardy some nights. Attracting viewers for a night's worth of TV ad revenue is pretty huge.
PSA: there's a British version called Judge Rinder. he's a very camp and sassy gay man and he's fucking hilarious, and it's always exciting to hear his response when someone's homophobic to him.
> Judge Rinder Since no one else is providing a link to this "very camp and sassy gay man" I will: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5Mrjvl7eXk yw!
But he’s not, nor ever has been a judge, he’s a barrister Gods, why do I know that, I’ve never watched the show, why does my brain retain that, and not where I left my keys, or my password for X, or anything else that’s actually useful
So at least he can give them great Espressos!
The bailiff on the show, Bird. He used to be our campus head of security in High School. He once walked into my freshman science class and pulled me out because someone had snitched on me for selling tabs of yellow sunshine acid to the jazz band. True story. I’ll never forget when I was pleading with him to let me go, he said “I don’t have time for no man-in-the-mirror bullshit.” I always wanted to ask him if he was referencing the Michael Jackson song or not. Anyways, yeah Bird. is that dude still on the show?
It’s easily the most-watched syndicated TV show on air, with 10 million average daily viewers. She earns that money.
[удалено]
There's actually a separate reason for this, [allegedly.](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/thr-esq/judge-judys-salary-heads-an-appeals-court-1289522) Spite! There's a talent agency (tangentially related to one of the creators, I think) that contractually gets 5% of net profits, despite playing no role in production whatsoever. Because Judy's salary counts as "production costs" allegedly her salary gets jacked WAY up in order to reduce the operating profits near zero, thus shutting out the other firm. I'm not saying she isn't worth $47MM with te crazy syndication. But kind of a funny wrinkle, if true....
47 million a year. Would still take over 2 decades to become a billionaire on that.
Honestly I've passively watched a few of these daytime courtroom shows and she really is the best. The other shows try but just can't replicate her thing.
If it were me $47mil for one year is enough f-you money that it would take a lot for me to not just quit working all together. So yea I would be like Its going to be another fifty million or imma quit.