Judge Judy Sheindlin has made it official: She is stepping down from the bench and away from the camera after 30 years spent adjudicating spats on national television.
The 83-year-old jurist will broadcast bark barbs and mete out small-scale justice for the last time on Oct. 22, the season finale of “Judy Justice,” which is the latest incarnation of what passes for courtroom drama in the land of you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up.
The time was right for both her and her son, Adam Levy, Sheindlin told the hosts of “Good Morning America” on Wednesday’s edition. His “Adam’s Law” premiered Monday and airs locally at 3:30 p.m. on CBS, with Sheindlin producing.
“A couple of good reasons,” she said. “First of all, he was ready.”
At 58, Levy is just a few years older than his mother was when she stepped into the role with the premiere of her show back in 1996. By now he has amassed enough experience to pick up where she leaves off.
“He’s a great lawyer,” Sheindlin said. “He was a fabulous district attorney. He had tribunal justice for three years. So, he got a taste of what it’s like to be on the bench and to be on the other side of the bench.”
Sheindlin is not going to kick back quite yet. There’s lots of work to be done behind the camera as she fashions herself into the “Benjamin Button of court,” she told “GMA.” And she’ll go out with a bang, feted with a CBS special, “Judge Judy: Unfiltered, Unforgettable,” on Sept. 22.
Sheindlin’s television career was launched 30 years ago after profiles of her in the Los Angeles Times and on “60 Minutes” back in 1993 got her noticed by a production team that enticed her away from family court in Manhattan, where she had started first as a prosecutor and then worked as a judge.
The Brooklyn native graduated from New York Law School in 1965 and gravitated toward family court after leaving a corporate cosmetics firm legal job to raise Adam and her daughter, Jamie. She served as a prosecutor for several years, then caught the eye of the equally sharp-tongued then New York City Mayor Ed Koch, who tapped her as a criminal court judge. She became a supervising judge in Manhattan four years later.
Over 25 years and 20,000-plus family court cases Sheindlin saw it all and honed her no-nonsense style. That made her a perfect fit to pass judgment on the squabbles of folks who would normally end up in small claims court. It both uncluttered the lower courts and gave people a fair chance to have their say and take personal responsibility for their actions — a mission Sheindlin has long held dear.
For 25 seasons Sheindlin reigned over daytime reality TV as “Judge Judy,” quippily quashing quarrels and holding quibblers accountable before nine to 10 million daily viewers, raking in Emmys along the way. On Wednesday she aimed the jabs at herself as she unveiled her other reason for switching camera sides — literally, to save face.
“And you know, I’ve aged pretty well over the years,” Sheindlin joked on “GMA.” “Reasonably, I look better than my grandmother did at my age, which didn’t take a lot.”
For his part, Levy said Sheindlin has guided him throughout his law career and the development of his show, in characteristic form.
“She said, ‘Uh, be yourself and don’t screw this up,’ ” Levy said, cracking up those on set. “Very on brand. On brand and direct.”
While he hasn’t yet come up with signature zingers matching Sheindlin’s “Don’t spit on my cupcake and tell me it’s frosting,” or “Do you come from a long line of idiots?” Levy does already have some small-screen cred. After working in private practice and serving two terms as the Putnam County, N.Y., District Attorney, Levy spent three seasons as a member of the panel of judges in Prime Video’s “Tribunal Justice” in 2023, according to People.
“Maybe eight years ago he wasn’t ready,” Sheindlin told People last week. “He’s ready now.”
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