Some little-known facts and shocking behind-the-scenes allegations about Judge Judy, whose real name is Judith Sheindlin, have recently been revealed. Judge Judy was one of the top-rated and most-watched shows on TV. When its CBS deal ended in 2021, Amazon streaming services stepped in and released the Judy Justice reboot.
The show’s first season was successful, but also criticized. Some people thought it was crazy for Judy to be on air for so long. There are also little-known facts about Judge Judy that are totally bizarre and don’t paint the show or its protagonist in the best light.
Is Judge Judy a Real Judge?
To start, Judge Judy isn’t even a real judge like the show claims. While Judy used to be a judge in New York’s family court, she retired before starting on the show in 1996. Judy is legally allowed to help people come to a decision, so her technical title would be a mediator or an arbiter. Surprisingly, that’s not the only thing false about Judge Judy’s shows.
Although the New York State Flag is in the background of many Judge Judy episodes, the show and its reboot is actually filmed in California. Apparently, Judy flies out to the west coast on Mondays, and filming usually takes place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
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If you’re wondering how the cases on the show are filmed in California when money already seems to be tight for many of the people involved, you might be in for a shock…
Allegedly, the litigants, or people appearing on the show, have all of their expenses paid by the show. If they accept a producer’s invitation to appear on the show, any money they either win or lose is covered by the producers. This is a seriously good deal, especially for those already tight on cash.
However, it turns out that some people will do almost anything for a free trip. Because the litigants and any witnesses involved have their travel, hotels, and either their winnings or losses totally paid for, it almost seems like a free California vacation.
Some Cases On Judge Judy May Have Been Fake
You aren’t going to believe what a group of friends decided to do after hearing about the chance to have their California travel costs covered…
Apparently, Jonathan Coward and his group of friends learned about producers covering travel cost and made up a story to trick them. To celebrate getting away with it, the group rented a convertible car and drank champagne. Jonathan claimed that their fake win felt great.
One of the real cases on Judge Judy ended in a pretty shocking way, though. Judge Judy was actually the likely reason that an entire school got shut down, and crazy enough, it’s a good thing it was.
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Tony Robb and his mother appeared on the show when they tried to get his tuition money back from Cornerstone Christian School in Clearlake, California. This case was terrible.
Allegedly, Tony was locked in a closet for hours while attending the school. Not only did he and his mother win their case, but Judy also decided to look a little more closely at the school’s staff. What she found out is honestly insane.
Shockingly, the staff wasn’t just treating students poorly. They weren’t even qualified to be teaching in the first place. The school ended up being shut down. While that case had a good outcome, there were some really disturbing things happening behind the scenes of Judge Judy.
Disturbing Allegations Made Against Judge Judy Producer
When the reboot of the show, Judy Justice, was announced in 2021, some people were surprised that it was happening. Apparently, some of the longest-standing producers on the original show had been named in several scandalous lawsuits.
According to the claims in the lawsuit documents, one of the producers on the show, Randy Douthit, made the Judge Judy set an absolutely awful place to work. Several former employees have either filed lawsuits against him or have spoken out in interviews.
Randy has been accused of making many women uncomfortable with his inappropriate behavior and comments. Former segment producer, Shawn Griggs, has said that she had many troubles with Randy during her time working on the show. She claimed that she was embarrassed during staff meeting.
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She also claimed that Randy criticized her hair and weight at work. She even said that Randy called her ugly and evil. Shawn didn’t want to keep dealing with Randy’s treatment, but didn’t want to lose her job either. She decided to ask the show’s supervising producer, Victoria Jenest, what to do and did not expect the response she got.
Allegedly, Victoria told Shawn that Randy would treat her better if she flirted with him a little bit. Victoria claimed that Randy liked when the women on set acted like that, and Shawn should give it a try. As terribly shocking as that is, another former producer shared something similar.
Other Judge Judy Staff Members Spoke Out
Nancy Barry was a segment producer on Judge Judy, and she revealed some more of Randy’s horrible behavior. Nancy claims that Randy would go into fits of rage behind the scenes.
She also said that the producers who were attractive women and also flirted back with Randy ended up more successful. Apparently, most of their cases were accepted and they were treated much more fairly than others… Surprisingly, Randy didn’t just target the staff on Judge Judy.
Randy has also been accused of saying terrible things about people who appeared on the show. In some of the lawsuits he was involved in, court records have shown that Randy made some disgusting comments from the control room on set.
Apparently, Randy had to grade producers’ cases to screen them for the show based on how unique and compelling they were. He also considered the litigants’ appearance in the grade. Some of those grading forms were revealed through the lawsuit.
Shockingly, Randy made some rude and inappropriate comments about the litigants’ teeth, income, and even their race. Even if the guests on the show aren’t aware of what Randy has commented, I can’t believe that he would make those remarks at all.
Why Judy Is Loyal to Randy
Randy and his lawyer deny any of this happened. As for former employees, they shared a crazy reason why Randy is still getting away with his behavior: Judy allegedly knew about all of the allegations surrounding Randy and still continues to defend h8im.
Crazy enough, Randy is actually the executive producer and director of the Judy Justice reboot. A former production assistant from Judge Judy says that Randy is basically untouchable.
The former employee revealed that Judy allegedly doesn’t care how the show is made, as long as she gets paid. Apparently, Judy and Randy go way back and she has a lot of trust in him, despite what her staff says.
Judy even claims that she’s the luckiest person on TV to have been able to work with Randy for over 20 years, and that he keeps making her look good.
Not that it should justify sticking up for Randy’s terrible behavior, but Judy makes an insane amount of money for being a TV judge. She reportedly only works about 52 days out of the year, and makes a whopping $900,000 each of those days. Can you imagine making almost a million dollars every day you go to work?
Judy allegedly owns not one, but FIVE multimillion dollar homes. She also has her own private jet and a 152-foot-long super yacht named the Triumphant Lady. However, despite Judy making all that money, her longtime bailiff from Judge Judy isn’t on the Judy Justice reboot for a really sad reason.
What Happened to Bailiff Petri Hawkins-Byrd?
Petri Hawkins-Byrd, known mainly as Byrd, was Judge Judy’s bailiff from the start. Surprisingly, he offered to be Judy’s bailiff in a letter congratulating her on her new show back in 1996, and she accepted.
Their friendship and on-screen chemistry was a huge hit with viewers, and allegedly even earned him more money over time. This is why people were seriously shocked when Byrd revealed some crazy information last year. He said that he wasn’t even aware that Judy Justice was happening until he heard Judy reveal the news on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
He sadly shared that he and Judy must view friendship differently, because he couldn’t believe that he wasn’t asked to return as the reboot’s bailiff. Judy must have heard about Byrd’s comments, and gave him a totally bizarre explanation.
Allegedly, Judy told Byrd that he had been priced out of the Judy Justice cast, and that the reboot wasn’t going to be able to afford to pay his salary. Byrd couldn’t believe that, because she apparently hadn’t even asked what he wanted to get paid.
She reportedly pulled in $25 million for the first season of the show, and didn’t even tell Byrd about it being produced. I can’t believe she hadn’t even asked Byrd about being her bailiff after he was on Judge Judy for 25 years.
Byrd ended up taking a role in one of Amazon’s other TV shows, Tribunal, which is also produced by Judy. Hopefully they can make amends and everything goes well, because the situation sounded a little shady between them.
