A couple of points of fact here:
First, “Judge Judy” is one of the most popular syndicated shows of all time.
Second, Judy Sheindlin brilliantly owned her rights and become a gazillionaire.
Third, her personality of being stone-cold on the show appears to translate to life.
Now some background: the production of ‘Judge Judy’ ended after a 25 year run. Sheindlin is set to launch a new show on IMDB, called ‘Judy Justice.’ Petri Hawkins Byrd — the bailiff that was with her for the entire show run — was not even given the opportunity to join the new show.
WHAT?!?
“My assumption is if you were going on to do something else, that you were at least going to ask me if I wanted to have the opportunity to audition for the role,” Byrd told EW.
“I didn’t inquire as to why, that’s her choice. But she did inform me that fundamentally, I was priced out as the new bailiff on her new show,” Byrd continued. “My salary would have been too much. I was curious: How would she know? She didn’t ask me. She didn’t give me an opportunity to have accepted a lower salary.”
Whatever his salary was is now going to go to Kevin Rasco. Who is that? Well that is the guy who was Judge Judy’s personal bodyguard for a number of years.
CoolCoolCool…. but… what in the actual fvck. Because this gets worse.
Byrd said that after production wrapped in April on the final season of “Judge Judy,” he shifted his attention to the brain surgery scheduled for his wife Makita Bond-Byrd. Oh, Bond-Byrd… she was a longtime producer for the show.
JUDY… FVCK.
You dipped out on your bailiff, who was with you forever, AND his wife… who was a producer for the show… while she was dealing with brain surgery.
Judy, for her part, sort of responded.
In a statement to EW that was provided by her spokesperson, Sheindlin said, “Byrd is terrific and we had a great 25-year run. This is a whole new program with a whole new cast and an exciting energy.”
Oh… that’s all? A quarter of a century with this man and his family and he gets a whole two sentences.
“That’s just the way it went,” Byrd concluded. “I just know that God has something else for me.”
I sure as shit hope so, my man. Judy did you dirty.
