EXCLUSIVE: After launching the first original court show on streaming with Judy Justice on Amazon Freevee, Judy Sheindlin could make history again with the first streaming show to sell in broadcast syndication. Former CBS executive Scott Koondel’s Sox Entertainment, which distributes Judy Justice, is actively exploring selling the show’s library — about 260 episodes — to TV stations for fall 2023 or fall 2024, sources tell Deadline. Cable syndication also is a possibility, I hear.
The news comes amid an unprecedented upheaval in the broadcast syndication marketplace as well as surprising resilience of Judge Judy repeats two years after Sheindlin’s show ended its original run.
Four long-running syndicated shows are ending this year — CBS Media Ventures’ Dr. Phil and Rachael Ray and Warner Bros.’ Judge Mathis and The People’s Court — opening up real estate on stations’ schedules. That after stations dealt with the exits of fellow stalwarts The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Wendy Williams Show, Maury, Dr. Oz and The Real last year.
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Meanwhile, Judge Judy reruns have done very well, outperforming all first-run syndication fare except for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, which have the advantage of evening time slots, and Family Feud. That has had station group owners reaching out to inquire about Judy Justice, which essentially would be a first-run program as there is little overlap between broadcast viewers and the largely cord-cutting Sheindlin fans who stream her Freevee show, produced by Amazon Studios. (According to Amazon, 75 million hours of Judy Justice‘s first season were streamed on-demand and FAST ahead of its renewal for Season 2, which has episodes dropping every weekday.)
“It’s extremely fluid tight now,” a station executive said. “There will be an opportunity for shows like Judy Justice to potentially get on the air while incumbents try to hold onto time periods at fever pitch.”
In light of the success of Judge Judy, whose library acquisition was orchestrated by Koondel while he ran CBS TV Distribution (now CBS Media Ventures), reruns of Dr. Phil, Judge Mathis and The People’s Court are all being shopped — Dr. Phil with new wrap-arounds — with distributors trying to keep the shows in their current time slots.
According to sources, the two court programs are getting some traction, but there is a fundamental hurdle all three programs are facing as sellers want cash and buyers are not willing to pay for repeats, looking for barter agreements instead.
In addition to their strong repeatability, court shows like Judge Judy and Judy Justice are attractive to stations as they skew older, featuring demographics that are sought after for political advertising, which is where local broadcasters make the bulk of their money every even year.
Streaming series getting a linear syndication run is a rarity, with Netflix’s BoJack Horseman being a prime example. Distributed by Debmar-Mercury it landed repeats on Comedy Central.
Judy Justice could repeat that and also add a broadcast syndication window, taking advantage of the flux in the market.
Buyers also are optimistic, taking changes in stride amid the mayhem in daytime syndication.
“Shows will survive, life will go on,” one person said of the ongoing purge of veteran series. “This could end up being a positive — many of these long-running shows have probably stayed on too long and should have been retired years ago.”
With the cancellations, syndicators “are pushing the reset button, creating opportunities for time periods to open up for new exciting projects.”