Judge Judy has been both a successful and inexpensive for its over two decades of existence. The show generates a lot of its income by being inexpensive to produce.
To film a whole week’s worth of episodes producers only need to pay about half the cost of a single sitcom episode.
Doing The Math
How does Judge Judy maintain such a short and compact schedule? She enjoys five days of filming because she only has to film three days every other week during a single month. That's about two weeks a month, though that also means filming up to 12 cases in a single day.
The Judge doesn't seem to mind. Three days of filming can mean up to 36 taped cases in one month.
20 Years Of Experience
What do Judge Judy's fan's love about her? It's her straightforward and no-nonsense style in her courtroom. Before taking on television, she spent 20 years in the family court system in New York City. She was always known for her bluntness, her tough talk, and her very real impatience. "I can't stand stupid, and I can't stand slow," has always been a favorite quote of hers.
She offered warnings to the attorneys who came before her in court. "I want first-time offenders to think of their appearance in my courtroom as the second-worst experience of their lives … circumcision being the first." Her style has never been all for the cameras. That's her style, whether the case is being broadcast or not.
In The Crowd
Who keeps Judge Judy on TV? Who watches her shows day in and day out. It's mostly women who watch Judy on their television sets everyday, about 75% to 25%.
The breakdown as of February 2014 said that the audience consisted mostly of older women, home during the day, as well as blacks, and Latinos.
Lovers Quarrel
Judy's own popularity led to the old producers of "the People's Court" to reach out to her husband, Judge Jerry Sheindlin, to replace their former star Ed Koch on the other popular court genre program. Jerry premiered in the show's 15th season in 1999.
This led to a battle in the ratings between famous husband and more famous wife. Husband was no match for wife in the end though. After only four seasons Jerry was replaced by new star, Marilyn Milian.