I’ve done “The new season interview” dance with Judy Sheindlin many times before, but now it’s different: she’s celebrating 20 years on TV and, at the age of 72, is drawing an unheard-of 10 million viewers each day to “Judge Judy.”
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
“I just got a text from my grandson, Casey. He’s a lawyer but he does all the social media for ‘Judge Judy’ and ‘Hot Bench,’ says Sheindlin, alluding to her other hit court show. “He just texted me that we got a 7.7 in the overnights, and [‘Judge Judy’] is an old show. It’s a phenomenon that the audience changes and the demo changes.
“It’s clearly not the format, since there are many court shows,” she says. “So it has to be the message and the messenger and some excellent directing, which is why the show looks so good. The message is a simple one: It’s your life, take responsibility for it, say you’re sorry and ’fess up when you do something wrong.
“That has to be delivered in an entertaining way and, fortunately, I don’t have to act,” Sheindlin says. “I don’t have a script. It is what it is.”
It’s your life, take responsibility for it, say you’re sorry and ’fess up when you do something wrong.
- 'Judge Judy' Sheindlin on her show's message
Sheindlin, by the way, has been named “Longest Running TV Judge” by Guinness World Records. “For me it’s a fantasy, and the most interesting thing is that [‘Judge Judy’] has stayed a relevant program on TV for 20 years. Do I understand it? No. I don’t understand a lot of things going on today. I think it’s some sort of synergistic thing with America — something about plain-speak and linear thinking and getting from point A to point B.”
I asked Sheindlin — who, by the end of the coming season, will have shot 5,000 shows covering 10,000 cases — if she has to fake it when she has a bad day at the office. “I never don’t have a good time,” she says. “Even when I go to work with a cold or a sore throat, as soon as I hit the mark and walk out that door, everything else is gone and I’m up.
“Right now I’m still enjoying it,” she says. “I left family court for the vagaries of TV and said to myself, ‘Judy, what the hell are you thinking?’
“It seems like only yesterday.”
Last, but not least …
Former “What Not to Wear” co-host Clinton Kelly returns to TLC for “Love at First Swipe,” premiering Oct. 2 (9 p.m.) with co-host Devyn Simone. The show’s about identifying and fixing mistakes people make online vis a vis style and dating profiles … Showtime is currently filming its new drama series “Billions” in NYC. It’s about a hard-charging US attorney (Paul Giamatti) targeting a blue-collar hedge fund king (Damian Lewis) and premieres in January … “Nashville” stars Charles Esten (Deacon) and Jonathan Jackson (Avery) will be performing with the bands Sixwire and Enation at the Tunnel to Towers 5K Run/Walk Sept. 27 … Local newsman Tony Guida’s weekly series, “Tony Guida’s NY,” airs Wednesdays on CUNY TV and covers the “colorful denizens and corners of New York.”