Judge Judy will end in 2021 after 25 seasons, with new show Judy Justice in the works
It's the end of an era! EW has confirmed that Judge Judy's upcoming 25th season (2020-2021) will be its last. The long-running courtroom show featuring Judy Sheindlin first premiered in 1996, and CBS, which owns the library to Judge Judy, will air reruns after it concludes.
But don't worry, Judy stans: Sheindlin will be starring in a new show, Judy Justice, set to air in 2022.
In a preview clip of Monday's Ellen Show, Sheindlin tells Ellen DeGeneres what led up to the decision.
"I've had a 25-year-long marriage with CBS and it's been successful. Next year will be our 25th season, silver anniversary," Sheindlin says. "And CBS, I think, sort of felt they wanted to optimally utilize the repeats of my program because now they have 25 years of reruns. So what they decided to do was to sell a couple of years' worth of reruns." CBS bought the Judge Judy library (consisting of 5,200 episodes) for $100 million.
Sheindlin adds, "But I'm not tired, so Judy Justice will be coming out a year later. Judge Judy, you'll be able to see next year — a full year, all new shows. The following couple of years, you should be able to catch all the reruns that CBS has sold to the stations that are currently carrying Judge Judy, and Judy Justice will be going elsewhere. Isn't that fun?"
She kept mum about the details of her new show and where it will find its home, but hopefully, the exciting news will satiate fans for awhile.
In 2019, Sheindlin was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the 46th Annual Daytime Emmys. The year prior, she was the world's highest-paid TV host, with $147 million in pretax income in 2018.
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