'Judge Judy' Gets Its Own Streaming Channel With 'Jeopardy!' and 'Wheel of Fortune' to Follow Suit

Judge Judy is heading to streaming and just like Judith Sheindlin's new show, there will be no subscription fees to access it. The long-running CBS courtroom show now has its own dedicated channel on Paramount's Pluto TV free streaming platform. Sheindlin stopped making new Judge Judy episodes in July 2021 and now stars in Judy Justice for Amazon's free ad-supported Freevee platform.

The new Judge Judy channel will be part of Pluto's efforts to bring viewers even more non-stop, 24/7 daytime show channels. The game shows Let's Make a Deal, Jeopardy!, and Wheel of Fortune will also get dedicated channels, reports Deadline. The Wheel and Jeopardy! channels will debut on Aug. 1. Game shows, reality, and other daytime TV shows have been "incredibly popular" among Pluto users, the platform said.

The Pluto news comes a few months after Sheindlin joined Paramount's CBS in a successful legal battle against an early Judge Judy producer and the estate of another producer. Producer Kay Switzer and the estate of Sandi Spreckman sued Sheindlin, CBS, and other defendants in January 2018 over unpaid royalties from syndication. The legal battle ended with a victory for Sheindlin and CBS, Deadline reported in March.

Pluto launched in 2013 and is available on most streaming devices. The platform features 24/7 streaming channels, some dedicated to one show or franchise. In addition to the Judge Judy channel, Pluto also has channels dedicated to Iron Chef, CSI, Baywatch, the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise, and the Star Trek shows. The platform boasts 68 million monthly active users and has a library with over 43,000 titles. Pluto reached $1 billion in annual revenue last year.

"We are always looking for ways to improve our programming offering and make it easier for the audience to find what they are looking for. Not only is this expansion driven by viewing habits we can see, we spoke directly to our audience to gain feedback on suggested changes before they were made," Pluto TV SVP of Programming Scott Reich said Monday. "Everything we do puts the audience first and this optimization is the latest step to maintain our market leadership in partnership with our audience."

Sheindlin now stars in Judy Justice, which follows a format almost identical to Judge Judy. The show was picked up for a second season and co-stars retired Los Angeles probation officer Kevin Raco as the bailiff, stenographer Whitney Kumar, and Sheindlin's granddaughter Sarah Rose as the law clerk. The series is available for free on Amazon's Freevee, formerly known as IMDb TV. Freevee will also be home to the upcoming Tribunal, featuring Sheindlins' son, former Putnam County, New York District Attorney Adam Levy, and former Judge Judy bailiff Petri Hawkins-Byrd.