Summary: Two producers want 5% of Judge Judy’s recent sale of her show library to CBS.
Two producers want a piece of Judge Judy’s massive payday, and they are suing the sassy TV personality for $4.75 million, according to Variety.
Last year, Judge Judy Sheindlin was paid $95-100 million for her show’s library, cementing her status as the highest paid performer on television. The high-profile sale caught the attention of producers, Kaye Switzer and Sandi Spreckman, who said that they helped launch the program twenty years ago and were deserving of 5%.
“On or about August 8, 2017, it was announced that Defendant Sheindlin sold the Library to CBS Television Distribution for a sales price ‘over $95,000,000.’ None of the Defendants have compensated the Plaintiffs for their portion of the sales proceeds. Nothing in any of the contracts would allow for a second sale of the Library to be made “subject to the rights of Participant”. That was a provision that only applied to the Producers, defined as ‘Big Ticket Pictures, Inc., a subsidiary of Spelling Television Group Inc. Accordingly, the Defendants have breached the contracts by failing to pay the Plaintiffs their percentage interest in the sale of the episodes,” the lawsuit obtained by Deadline stated.
This is not the first claim from Switzer and Spreckman, who died in 2009. The two have sued Judge Judy several times before in order to claim their stake in “Judge Judy,” a syndicated legal show that is now in its 21st season. Since Spreckman’s death, her estate has been fighting on her behalf.
Switzer and Spreckman filed their lawsuit in Los Angeles on Friday, stating they were denied their stake in the sale of the library. The lawsuit lists Judge Judy, Big Ticket Entertainment, and CBS as defendants.
Judge Judy reportedly brings in an annual salary of $47 million, and she is also facing a breach of contract lawsuit from the producers’ agent, Richard Lawrence of Rebel Entertainment, who said Judge Judy’s absurdly large salary led to him not being paid his portion of the show’s profits.
“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,” Rebel’s lawsuit stated. “Defendants further reduced Rebel’s net 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 responded to the lawsuit and said that Rebel had done nothing but represent three producers who had worked on an early version of her show.