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Amazon’s Freevee Embraces the Judge Judy Universe



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In 2021, Judge Judith Sheindlin, the razor-tongued court show star, decamped from the dying medium of daytime broadcast syndication and joined Amazon for a streaming-era experiment.Fewer people were watching traditional daytime television, including programs like “Judge Judy.” Was it because they were tired of the content? Or was the decline — as Amazon suspected — more about convenience and the delivery route? To find out, the company hired Judge Sheindlin to produce and star in a new court show, “Judy Justice,” and made it available on Freevee, a little-known, free streaming service supported by advertising.“It was a risk,” Judge Sheindlin recalled over lunch this month, “but one that intrigued me.”“Judy Justice” quickly became Freevee’s No. 1 original show, racking up more than 150 million hours watched over two years, according to Amazon, and recently prompting the company to give Judge Sheindlin, 80, two spinoff shows and a fourth unscripted show that is still under wraps. Some people inside Amazon Studios, which is in Culver City, Calif., have been jokingly referring to Judge Sheindlin’s programming expansion as the Judy-Verse, a …

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