Judge Judy is heading back to court, but not in the way the fans of the soon-to-end syndicated series probably assume, and it looks to partially be Les Moonves’ fault.
Less than six months after CBS and Rebel Entertainment Partners settled their long-running legal battle over big bucks in missed contractually obliged payments from the show that has aired for more than two decades, a new lawsuit is in the docket. Rebel is now suing former Manhattan family court judge Judy Sheindlin and a ViacomCBS division for more than $5 million over a seemingly sleight-of-hand $95 million sale of the show’s rich library.
“Disgraced media mogul Les Moonves may have been shown the door at CBS in 2018, but not before he conspired with other CBS executives, including former CBS programming chief Armando Nuñez, to avoid embarrassment over his colossal mismanagement of the sale and repurchase of the back-episode catalog for the Judge Judy television program,” claims the breach of contract complaint filed Tuesday morning.
“In 2015, Moonves and his loyal lieutenant Nuñez seriously underestimated the value of the episode library and sold the rights to these episodes to series star Judith Sheindlin for a song,” the filing adds. The $47 million-a-year Judy Sheidlin herself, CBS division Big Ticket Entertainment and CBS Corporation itself are among the defendants.
You may already having a nagging feeling you’ve heard this case before – and you would be correct, kind of. In early 2018, Judge Judy co-creators Kaye Switzer and the trust of the late Sandi Spreckman filed their own suit claiming they were owed $4.75 million from the $95 million sale of the show to the then House of Moonves in the summer of 2017.
In this matter, as was made apparent in their now resolved suit that was first filed in 2016, Rebel, under its long-acknowledged profit participation as the “successor in interest” to Judge Judy original packager talent agent Richard Lawrence and his Abrams, Rubaloff & Lawrence firm (which reps Switzer and Spreckman), is entitled to 5% of any profits from the 25 seasons of the show. Ergo, Rebel claims it also gets a part of corresponding enrichments like a certain $95 million sale of the library. Now Rebel wants the money it says it is owed.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Deadline