A multimillion-dollar lawsuit against CBS has America’s most popular overseer in the courtroom, well, in a courtroom.
Rebel Entertainment Partners claims that it has been denied payments since 2010 from the net profits of Judge Judy’s show. The show is allegedly losing money, but Rebel Entertainment Partners isn’t too happy with that excuse, as Judge Judy Scheindlin, herself, is paid up to $47 million a year.
That does seem like an awfully large amount of money to be “losing money.”
But after her contract extension and pay raise, per Deadline, “in the six-month accounting period after Scheindlin’s pay raise, however, Defendants reported net profits of negative $3,195,217, of which 5% (negative $159,761) was allocated to Rebel.”
The filing adds that CBS did not act in good faith with the company, adding that CBS-owned Big Ticket Entertainment cut Rebel from more profits “by licensing the show to CBS’s corporate affiliates — television stations owned or operated by CBS — for below-market fees in transactions that were not negotiated at arms-length.”
Judge Judy fired back in a statement, via Deadline:
“The fact that Richard Lawrence is complaining about my salary is actually hilarious. I met Mr. Lawrence for 2 hours some twenty-one years ago. Neither I nor anyone involved in the day-to-day production of my program has heard from him in 20 years. Not a card, not a gift, not a flower, not a congratulations. Yet he has somehow received over $17,000,000 from my program. My rudimentary math translates that into $8,500,000 an hour for Mr. Lawrence. Not a bad payday. Now complaining about not getting enough money, that’s real chutzpah! Since I have not spoken with Mr. Lawrence in over 20 years to suggest that he had any involvement in my creating Hot Bench is equally laughable.”
Hot Bench is a spinoff of Judge Judy where the judges are…well, you can probably figure it out.
In their complaint, the entertainment company puts into perspective the amount that Judge Judy was being paid, compared to other non-scripted salaries,“This figure [$47 million] is grossly inconsistent with customary practice in the television industry, as the next-highest salaries in non-scripted television at that time were David Letterman ($28 million), Jay Leno ($25 million), and Conan O’Brien ($10 million),” the paperwork from the lawyers of Rebel said, via Deadline.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwnEANXiwIs
They added, “And in 2013, when Scheindlin was reportedly receiving $47 million annually, no one else came close, as the next highest salaries in non-scripted television were Jon Stewart ($30 million), Matt Lauer ($25 million), and Jay Leno ($20 million), they add with more late-night and early-morning math.
Clearly her incredibly large salary, and the lack of payments here are pretty damning if a deal was in place. As attorney Bryan Freedman told Deadline, “Even Judge Judy would rule against CBS in this case.”
As bad as Judge Judy might look in this case, she can take solace in the fact that Jim Harbaugh has her back.