CBS sued for Judge Judy's $47M salary and profits from TV series

A breach of contract between CBS channel and Rebel Entertainment Partner has reached the court, in a lawsuit that revealed Judge Judy Sheindlin had a take home salary of $47 million a year. Plaintiff Rebel claimed that Judge Judy's salary is being unfairly deducted from gross profits.  

Judge Judy is a hit courtroom reality series that grossed more than $1.7 billion during its 19 seasons on the air since 1996 until present. Rebel filed a lawsuit to CBS for not paying the packaging fee of 5 percent of its net profits, based on their 1995 agreement. 

Rebel's attorney, Bryan Freedman, said in the Hollywood Reporter, "Defendants agreed to pay Sheindlin an upfront salary that is far in excess of any person in non-scripted television, and then included that fee in the Show's production expenses, thereby preventing Rebel from receiving any backend compensation."  

Last 2009, Big Ticket Television, Inc., which is under CBS, had more than doubled Sheindlin's salary to $45 million and changed its compensation structure in a way that purposefully prevented the show from earning net profits. Rebel also stated in the lawsuit that they had been receiving $6.4 million from its share of the show from 1996 until 2007. But they had claimed that they did not receive anything in backend compensation since February 2010.

When Judge Judy's salary had increased, the TV Show's profit at the time was $3,572,195. But Rebel Entertainment, had written in the lawsuit through its attorney that its net profits were negative $3,195,217, as reported in HOLLYWOOD Deadline.  

But Judge Judy herself has ruled in favor of its defendant. She said with her trademark wit, in Starcasm's report, "The fact that Richard Lawrence [President of Rebel] is complaining about my salary is actually hilarious...Neither I nor anyone involved in the day-to-day production of my program has heard from him in 20 years...Yet he has somehow received over $17,000,000 from my program. My rudimentary math translates that into $8,500,000 an hour for Mr. Lawrence. Not a bad payday. Now complaining about not getting enough money, that's real chutzpah!"

With this, Judge Judy shot down all allegations of the defendants. Her words show her lack of concern with the case. Furthermore, she denied feeling the presence of  President Richard over the past 20 years and in the creation of her other show, Hot Bench.  

Tags

Judge Judy, CBS tv series, Rebel Entertainment Partners

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