According to various news sources the long running syndicated TV show “Judge Joe Brown” has been cancelled after 15 seasons. “The cancellation took place as a result of not being able to come to a happy medium over Brown’s $20-million annual salary, which CBS was looking to trim because of the show’s dip in ratings. Even though all of the syndicated court shows have seen a decline in viewership, Brown’s half-hour daily program has maintained its No. 2 two spot behind the viewer favorite, “Judge Judy, ” whose No. 1 spot beats all of her competitors by a wide margin.
The “Judge Joe Brown” show will continue to run in original and repeat episodes until
September of this year.
As far as the next steps for the suave and distinguished Brown, he has reportedly met with famed TV executive Byron Allen about holding on to his show, according to an unnamed source. As far as Brown obtaining a salary that even comes close to what he is making now, if he decides to cement a deal with Allen’s Entertainment Studios, forget about it, speculates the source.”
Judge Brown’s hit show started in 1998. Prior to his television deal, the 65-year-old served as a criminal courts judge in Shelby County, Tenn. Brown began his career as a practicing attorney before he landed the role of a Memphis prosecutor, the very first African-American prosecutor in the city. When Brown presided over the appeal of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s convicted murderer, James Earl Ray, he garnered public attention. Accusations of racial bias resulted in Brown being removed from the Ray case. Even though he got booted from the famed case, Brown caught the attention of producers and distributors of the “Judge Judy” show, and not long after, he became a household names in homes across America for more than a decade and a half.