According to Brown, he and CBS Television Distribution (CTD) have had a profit split over the past seven years. CTD says that profit margins have become slimmer since they made the deal because viewership has dropped. With the exception of Judge Judy, all of the court shows are down this year, sometimes by as much as 20%.
After not being able to work out a new contract with Brown, CTD tried to shop a new judge — Judge Geoffrey Gaither of Marion County, Indiana — but Fox (which licenses Brown in the biggest markets) wasn’t interested.
As a result, CTD has cancelled the show and affiliates are left to figure out how to replace it.
Brown said, “It was time to move out on my own since I had some ideas that I had been having to pull teeth with no novocaine to get adopted.” He feels that CTD “difficult to deal with” and “applied zero public relations and zero advertisement” to his show.
The judge is launching his own production company and is already shopping ideas to distributors. They include a three hour radio show starring Brown and that’s already been cleared in 30 markets. This program may lead to a TV series. He also plans to produce at least one new court show, one featuring retired California Judge Deann Salcido.
Judge Joe Brown launched in September 1998 and has consistently been the second-highest rated court show, behind Judge Judy. It will continue to air until September 2013.
What do you think? Will you miss watching Judge Joe Brown? Would you watch a new program featuring Brown?
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