Joe Brown (judge) - Court Show

Court Show

The syndicated reality court show, Judge Joe Brown, premiered on September 14, 1998. On September 10, 2012, the series entered its 15th season and began airing in high-definition. The set of Judge Joe Brown is directly beside the set of Judge Judy in the same facility, Sunset Bronson Studios. The two shows are both produced by Big Ticket Television and are syndicated by CBS Television Distribution, the successor company to their previous distributors: Worldvision Enterprises, Paramount Domestic Television, and CBS Paramount Domestic Television. The show is syndicated in the US. and airs during daytime hours. It airs on CTV in Canada and Fox8 in Australia. Like the majority of television "court" shows, Judge Joe Brown is a form of binding arbitration. The show's producers maintain the appearance of a civil courtroom.

Joe Brown is the first African American to appear on courtroom television shows. His entrance into the court show genre was followed by the entrances of numerous other African American judges, such as Greg Mathis of the NAACP Image Award winning court show, Judge Mathis; Mablean Ephriam (first African American female television jurist) previously of Divorce Court; Lynn Toler previously of Power of Attorney and currently of Divorce Court; Glenda Hatchett of Judge Hatchett; etc. With all of its seasons having aired consecutively, solely under Brown, Joseph Brown is the second longest running television jurist, behind Judith Sheindlin. While there are court shows that outnumber both Judge Joe Brown and Judge Judy in seasons within the courtroom show arena, namely Divorce Court and The People's Court, they are also programs with multiple runs and multiple judges in their histories. As far as ratings in the legal/courtroom genre go, Brown's program usually ranks in second place, above The People's Court and below Judge Judy.

The program also features a news reporter and bailiff. Sonia Montejano joined the show as a baliff in 2006, succeeding Holly Evans, who had been the bailiff since the show's debut in 1998. As of fall 2010, former FOX Sports and current MLB Network freelance reporter, Jeanne Zelasko, is currently the show's news reporter. Zelasko succeeded Jacque Kessler, who had been the show's news reporter since its debut. Rolonda Watts is the show's announcer, succeeding Ben Patrick Johnson. Popular musicians Coolio, Ike Turner, and Rick James have all been litigants on the show.

For the most part, Brown has a languid and perfunctory nature about him, particularly while gathering all the facts and trying to figure out the case. Often, it's only when he's deemed one of the parties as guilty that Brown comes alive, displaying a dynamically haranguing, scalding, and judgmental side towards the parties he perceives as guilty. With dynamic tirades, Brown is touted as a "no-holds-barred" and "non-traditional" jurist towards guilty litigants: at several intervals throughout the case, Brown can be seen standing up, pacing and raging around the bench area, all awhile berating culpable litigants; in these moments, Brown sometimes sits upon the desktop of his bench to add emphasis to his long, angry tirades. His tirades are often filled with life lessons, instruction, and moralisms against wrongdoers, such as: grow up and be a man, quit acting like you have no "home training", be a civilized human being and stop trying to be "cool", quit acting like a "thug", take responsibility, have a sense of class and decency, etc.

Brown tends to allow "victimized" or "wronged" litigants ample opportunity to also berate "guilty" litigants, often delighting in this and listening in amusement; moreover, he allows audience applause and laughter at the guilty litigant's expense so that the whole courtroom is against the guilty party. With brasher litigants than other courtroom shows, however, perhaps due to the nature of the cases or at least Brown's style, guilty litigants on Judge Joe Brown have been known to act out and brazenly so. On past episodes, many litigants, who were perceived as guilty by Brown and treated accordingly, have not hesitated to chuck items around the courtroom, such as water; curse out and insult the judge; and engage in other forms of brazen misconduct. (In fact, in February 2010, Brown himself was sued by one of his former television show litigants for alleged slander and fraud, but won the case because of the waivers the court show has its litigants sign prior to the televised proceedings). In many cases, such behaviors have led to Brown having these litigants arrested and thrown in prison.

It was reported in the summer of 2012 that Brown was the second highest paid daytime television personality, earning $20 million a year, only second to Judge Judy, who earns $45 million a year.