A few years ago, Amazon’s Freevee streaming service made big news after it struck a deal to be the exclusive home of Judy Sheindlin’s new courtroom TV show Judy Justice. Best known as Judge Judy on the hit daytime court show. Now the parent company Sox Entertainment is exploring taking the Amazon original and making it available to broadcast TV networks to help fill the need for content that many have, according to Deadline.
Over the last few years, many popular daytime TV shows have ended their runs. The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Wendy Williams Show, Maury, Dr. Oz, and The Real all ended production last year. Now Dr. Phil, Rachael Ray, Judge Mathis, and The People’s Court will all stop production in 2023. This has left a need for new original programs, and many hope that Judy Justice will fill that void.
Judge Judy reruns have done very well, even outperforming most first-run syndication shows. The hope is bringing Judy Sheindlin’s new show to broadcast TV will attract fans of Judge Judy show.
Increasingly local TV stations have been looking for new content to keep daytime viewers. Reruns have become less profitable as many of them are streaming online for free with ads.
As more content moves from broadcast TV to networks’ own streaming services like Peacock and Paramount+, this Amazon original may make the jump the other way.