Judge Joe Brown is an American arbitration-based reality court show starring former Shelby County, Tennessee criminal court judge Joseph B. Brown. It premiered on September 14, 1998 and ran through the 2012-13 television season for a total of fifteen seasons. Joe Brown was the second highest paid daytime television personality behind Judge Judy during the time the show was running. During the entirety of his series run, he was the longest serving African American television arbitrator; this record is now held by Greg Mathis of Judge Mathis, which premiered the year after Brown's program and is still on the air into its 22nd season as of 2020. The first-run syndication series entered its fifteenth and final season on September 10, 2012, also regularly airing in high-definition for the first time beginning in that same season as well.
Judge Joe Brown is the first African-American man to preside over a courtroom television show and the first African-American person to preside over a long-running courtroom series.[citation needed] However, former New York prosecutor Star Jones is the first African-American person to preside over a court show (Jones & Jury 1994-1995).
With all of its seasons having aired consecutively, solely under Judge Joe, Judge Joe Brown was the second longest running television jurist for many years prior to his cancellation, just behind Judge Judy Sheindlin. While there are court shows that outnumber both Judge Joe Brown and Judge Judy in seasons within the judicial arena, namely Divorce Court and The People's Court, they are also programs with multiple lives and multiple "judges" in their histories.
The set of Judge Joe Brown was directly beside the set of Judge Judy within the same facility, Sunset Bronson Studios. After Judge Joe Brown's 2013 cancellation, however, the space was used for the courtroom series Paternity Court for a season (2013-14), followed by the court show created by Judge Judy Sheindlin Hot Bench (2014-present). As Judge Judy was and still is, Judge Joe Brown was both produced by Big Ticket Television and syndicated by CBS Television Distribution (CTD), the successor company to their previous distributors: Worldvision Enterprises, Paramount Domestic Television, and CBS Paramount Domestic Television.
The show was syndicated in the US, and aired during daytime hours. Reruns currently air weekday mornings on Bounce TV. It aired 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.
Ratings[edit]
As far as ratings in the legal/courtroom genre go, Brown's program ranked in second place during its entire run, typically just above The People's Court and significantly below Judge Judy.[3] Consequently, Judge Joe Brown was the highest rated male-arbitrated television series during its run