Pat Loves TV 8/9: JUDGE JUDY cashes in; FX and ABC go over the top; streaming services abound
Patrick Howard
Film/TV/Digital Script Clearance Analyst | Time-Sensitive Background Research
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JUDGE JUDY sells her reruns back to CBS, signs up for 25th season
Her honor will continue to hold court long after JUDGE JUDY leaves the bench. That's because this week CBS TV Distribution announced that it has made a deal with Judith Sheindlin, creator and star of the stalwart court show that began airing in 1996; THR notes that plenty of famous faces have come and gone from daytime TV since.
Other bidders for the 5,200 hours of library episodes included syndicator Debmar Mercury, per Variety. Sheindlin acquired the rights to the rerun library during a 2015 contract negotiation, and took it out for sale in February 2017.
The CBS announcement also included news that Sheindlin will stay on for the 2020-2021 TV season, marking her 25th year in daytime. B&C points out that, although she will be 79 by 2021, that doesn't necessarily mean Shendlin will retire; fellow daytime veteran Maury Povich is still doing it at 78.
Variety also suggests that a streaming service like CBS All Access might be a logical home for the content. In any case, any viewers hoping to take trip through dockets of decades past will have to wait until JUDGE JUDY retires her gavel for good before those classic episodes will surface somewhere.
TCA summer 2017: FX Networks' John Landgraf and the state of Peak TV
- Peak TV: The Count of Scripted Series in 2017 So Far (Cynthia Littleton / Variety)
- FX CEO John Landgraf On TV Business’ Transformation, Yet-To-Peak TV & Upcoming Battle For Talent (Nellie Andreeva / Deadline)
- FX Launching Ad-Free Premium VOD Service on Comcast (Jon Lafayette / B&C)
new approaches: Ryan Murphy's Half, NBC News on Snapchat
- Ryan Murphy Expands Half Initiative To Target Social Justice With Half Fest (Denise Petski / Deadline)
- TV news — via Snapchat? Here are some ways broadcast news is trying to stay afloat (Stephen Battalgio / LA Times)
- When Everyone’s Watching On Their Own Schedule, How Do We Talk About TV? (Alan Wolk / TV[R]EV)
TCA summer 2017: Disney/ABC's streaming bombshell
- Disney To Launch Disney- And ESPN-Branded Streaming Services(David Lieberman / Deadline)
- Disney’s Streaming Dreams: How Disruptive Is Its New Netflix-Style Strategy, Really? (Todd Spangler / Variety)
- Disney Streaming Move Creates New Questions for Distributors (Jon Lafayette / B&C)
what else is streaming? DirecTV Now grows, Seeso shutters, Fox mulls
- DirecTV Now Adds CBS, CW, And Showtime To Its Live Streaming Line Up (David Lieberman / Deadline)
- Comedy Streaming Service Seeso to Shut Down (Carli Velocci / The Wrap)
- Fox ‘Open-Minded’ About Direct-to-Consumer Streaming Service (Matt Pressberg / The Wrap)
sausage party: the business of TV
- Why Hallmark Is Betting It Can Create a New Cable Network (Jon Lafayette / B&C)
- READING RAINBOW Owner Accuses LeVar Burton of "Theft and Extortion" in Lawsuit (Eriq Gardner / THR)
- Hulu Nabs Bad Robot’s Period Dramedy Based On RuPaul’s Life For Development (Nellie Andreeva / Deadline)
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