Judge Joe Brown
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''Judge Joe Brown'' is an American arbitration-based reality court show starring former Shelby County,
Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
criminal court judge Joseph B. Brown. The series premiered on September 14, 1998 and ended on May 22, 2013 for a total of 15 seasons. Joe Brown was the second highest paid daytime television personality behind '' Judge Judy'' during the time the show was running. During the entirety of its series run, Brown was the longest serving
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
television arbitrator; this record is now held by Greg Mathis of '' Judge Mathis'', which premiered the year after Brown's program in 1999 and ran for 24 seasons through 2023.


Production history

Judge Joe Brown is the first
African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
man to preside over a courtroom television show and the first African-American person to preside over a long-running courtroom series. However, former New York prosecutor Star Jones is the first African-American person to preside over a court show ('' Jones & Jury'' 1994–1995). With all of its seasons having aired consecutively, solely under Judge Joe, Judge Joe Brown was the second longest running television jurist for many years prior to his resignation, just behind Judge Judy Sheindlin. While there are court shows that outnumber both ''Judge Joe Brown'' and ''Judge Judy'' in seasons within the judicial arena, namely '' Divorce Court'' and '' The People's Court'', they are also programs with multiple lives and multiple "judges" in their histories. The set of ''Judge Joe Brown'' was directly beside the set of '' Judge Judy'' within the same facility, Sunset Bronson Studios. After ''Judge Joe Brown''s 2013 cancellation, however, the space was used for the courtroom series '' Paternity Court'' for a season (2013–14), followed by the court show created and produced by Judge Judy Sheindlin, '' Hot Bench'' (2014–present). Like ''Judge Judy'' was for the entirety of its 25 year run, ''Judge Joe Brown'' was both produced by Big Ticket Television and syndicated by
CBS Television Distribution CBS Media Ventures, Inc. (formerly CBS Paramount Domestic Television and CBS Television Distribution) is the television broadcast syndication arm of CBS Studios, a division of the CBS Entertainment Group, in turn a division of Paramount Global, ...
(CTD), the successor company to their previous distributors: Worldvision Enterprises, Paramount Domestic Television, and CBS Paramount Domestic Television. Like the majority of television court shows, ''Judge Joe Brown'' is a form of binding arbitration. The show's producers maintain the appearance of a civil courtroom. ''Judge Joe Brown'' ran in
first-run syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...
and entered into its 15th and final season on September 10, 2012, also regularly airing in high-definition for the first time beginning in that same season as well. The show was syndicated in the U.S., and aired during daytime hours. Reruns aired weekday mornings on Bounce TV from 2018 to 2021. It aired on CTV in Canada and Fox8 in Australia. The show then began streaming on Pluto TV for the earlier seasons and The Roku Channel for the later seasons until around 2023 when the show was removed from both streaming services, however the show returned to The Roku Channel in late 2024.


Ratings

As far as ratings in the legal/courtroom genre go, Brown's program ranked in second place during its entire run, typically just above ''The People's Court'' and significantly below ''Judge Judy''. Consequently, ''Judge Joe Brown'' was the highest rated male-arbitrated television series during its run.


Adjudicating approach

According to Roger M. Grace, editor of the '' Metropolitan News-Enterprise'', for the most part, Brown had a languid and perfunctory nature about him, particularly while gathering all the facts and trying to figure out the case. Occasionally, however, once he suspected a party of being guilty, Brown had become particularly cantankerous as shown in his irritated, quarrelsome communication. Brown had also subjected these litigants to harsh tirades and judgmental commentary. At several intervals throughout many of the cases, Brown had been seen up on his feet in the midst of a tirade, pacing and raging around the bench area. In these moments, he'd also been known to sit atop the desktop of his bench to add emphasis to his long, angry tirades. The harshest of Brown's tirades had generally been delivered to men whose behavior he regarded as particularly irresponsible or egregious. In these moments, Brown flinged out his personal values and guidance at men, such as: "Grow up and be a man", "You don't know nothing about manhood", "Quit acting like you haven't got any home training", "Be a civilized human being and stop trying to be cool", "Quit acting like a thug", "Take responsibility", and "Have a sense of class and decency." Brown had been criticized for these behaviors for "lacking self-control." Brown tended to allow " victimized" or "wronged" litigants ample opportunity to also berate "guilty" litigants, often delighting in this and listening in amusement; moreover, he allowed audience applause and laughter at the guilty litigant's expense so that the whole courtroom was against the guilty party. With brasher litigants than other courtroom programs, however, perhaps due to the nature of the cases or at least Brown's approach, guilty litigants on ''Judge Joe Brown'' had been known to act out. On past episodes, many litigants who were perceived as guilty by Brown and treated accordingly had not hesitated to chuck items around the courtroom (such as water), disrespect the judge, or threaten the other party or spectators. In fact, in February 2010, Brown himself was sued by one of his former television show litigants for alleged slander and fraud, but won the case because of the
waiver A waiver is the voluntary relinquishment or surrender of some known right or privilege. A waiver is often written, such as a disclaimer that has been accepted, but it may also be spoken between two or more parties. When the right to hold a ...
s the court show had its litigants sign prior to the televised proceedings. On the series, Brown had typically responded to most of the aforementioned behaviors by telling the litigants they'd be receiving a ticket or demanding that the litigant be arrested and thrown in
jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cr ...
for violating a
statute A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...
that requires proper behavior and decorum in arbitration.


Recurring roles

The program also featured a news reporter and bailiff. Holly Evans was the
bailiff A bailiff is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. There are different kinds, and their offices and scope of duties vary. Another official sometimes referred to as a '' ...
from 1998 to 2006. Sonia Montejano replaced her for the rest of the run in 2006. Jacque Kessler was the show's news reporter from 1998 to 2010. Former
Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...
and current MLB Network freelance reporter Jeanne Zelasko succeeded Kessler as the reporter in 2010. Ben Patrick Johnson was the show's announcer from 1998 to 2005. Rolonda Watts succeeded him as announcer in 2005. Popular musicians Coolio, Ike Turner, and
Rick James James Ambrose Johnson Jr. (February 1, 1948 – August 6, 2004), better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, James began his musical career in his tee ...
have all been litigants on the show. As of 2014, Sonia Montejano now serves as the bailiff on the new panel court series '' Hot Bench''. Rolonda Watts is currently the announcer for the Sherri Shepherd Show.


Salary

It was reported in mid-2012 that Brown was the second highest paid daytime television personality, earning $20 million a year, only second to Judge Judy, who earns $45 million a year. In April 2013, however, following the show's cancellation, Brown disputed these reports claiming that CTD was only paying him $5 million a year.


Resignation and issues with CBS

As reported on February 27, 2013, by ''
Broadcasting & Cable ''Broadcasting & Cable'' (''B&C'', or ''Broadcasting+Cable'') was a telecommunications industry monthly trade magazine and, later, news website published by Future US. Founded in 1931 as ''Broadcasting'', subsequent mergers, acquisitions and ...
'', CBS had told Brown that the salary amount they were paying him–of $20 million (though Brown disputed this, claiming that CBS had never given him a salary of any more than $5 million)—would be cut in the wake of his declining ratings, license fees, and advertising revenues. Ratings for ''Judge Joe Brown'' were declining during its last several seasons on the air. In the 2013 February sweeps, the show was down 20% to a 2.4 live plus same day rating from a 3.0 the previous year according to Nielsen Media Research. Brown refused to do the show under the new terms. Rather, he shopped his program to Byron Allen of Entertainment Studios. Station executives told ''Broadcasting & Cable'' they were less than happy to be learning about the dissension at the end of February 2013 when their options for replacing the show were limited. On the final production tape day of March 14, 2013, Judge Joe Brown started at 11am and after taping 6 cases, producers cut him off at 3pm. The gallery audience was dismissed and crew was packing up when Judge Joe slammed his gavel and reportedly said: "Is that it? After 15 years? Well, I am not signing again with CBS and I'm forming my own production company!" The Judge was talking to the back of people's heads as they walked away. CBS Television Distribution announced on March 26, 2013 that they would be cancelling the show and cease distributing the series after its summer 2013 reruns. Fox station owners (that had contracted to air the program) were reportedly not interested in a CBS-chosen replacement judge (which would have been Marion County, Indiana Judge Geoffrey Gaither). Brown later called out CBS for their treatment of him, claiming they had reneged on contract agreements, cheated him out of money, failed to give him sufficient advertising in favor of concentrating their advertisements in ''Judge Judy'', and engaged in several other unjust, underhanded and unethical business practices. Worthy to note, Sheindlin of ''Judge Judy'' would also later walk out on CBS, citing her own resentment with management moves under the distributor related to salary cuts and the handling of a court series she produces '' Hot Bench''. After receiving $100 million from CBS for selling back her entire series catalog, Judy Sheindlin was essentially replaced in syndication by her own reruns. Sheindlin continued to executive produce with a different distributor, Amazon Studios, to do the same arbitration-based legal dispute handling on '' Judy Justice'', which airs through streaming on Amazon Freevee.


References


External links

*{{IMDb title, 0235927 1990s American reality television series 2000s American reality television series 2010s American reality television series 1998 American television series debuts 2013 American television series endings First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Television shows filmed in Los Angeles Television series by CBS Studios American English-language television shows Arbitration courts and tribunals Court shows