The plan for a Judy Justice foray into broadcast syndication is coming into focus. According to sources, the Amazon Freevee court show, created by and starring Judy Sheindlin, is being taken out to stations by Scott Koondel’s Sox Entertainment, targeting a fall 2024 launch. As Deadline noted in May, when rumors about a potential Judy Justice syndication play first surfaced, the move would make the first original court show on streaming also the first streaming show to sell into broadcast syndication.
About 260 episodes of Judy Justice have streamed on Freevee over the first two seasons. The show, which has been renewed by the Amazon free, ad-supported platform for two more seasons, will have close to 400 episodes available by the time of its planned fall 2024 rollout. None of them have been exposed to linear viewers so Judy Justice would be considered broadcast syndication exclusives.
The news comes amid a dearth of new offerings in the broadcast syndication market, which has been undergoing a contraction. Meanwhile, Sheindlin’s previous court show, CBS Media Ventures’ Judge Judy, continues to do well with repeats two and a half years after it ended its original syndicated run. Averaging 5.6 million viewers season to date, it leads all court shows and tops all first-run daytime syndicated programs except for Family Feud.
Judy Justice, which is distributed by Sox Entertainment, is upping the ante on the cases featured with a $10,000 award offered to plaintiffs vs. $5,000 on Judge Judy. It is planning a launch next fall when the current Judge Judy station deals are up, I hear.
According to Freevee, Judy Justice has grown to be the service’s No. 1 Original program in hours watched, with customers viewing more than 150 million hours by the end of April 2023. In its debut season, the program won the Daytime Emmy for Best Legal/Courtroom Program.
Judy Justice is executive produced and directed by Randy Douthit, executive produced by Koondel and co-executive produced by Amy Freisleben.