Judge Judy is an incredibly successful TV show host, well known for her quick wit and no nonsense attitude as a judge on daytime TV.
This role has earned her hundreds of millions, which we will talk about in this article today. Let’s take a look at judge Judy’s net worth.
Post Contents
Judge Judy Net Worth 2024
Her role as a judge on the screen has earned her the title as the wealthiest woman on US TV. Judge Judy is now worth an estimated $440 million.
She is known for giving hard hitting legal advice to people with real life legal issues, while the cameras watch.
How Did Judge Judy Grow Her Wealth?
Back before she was famous for being on TV, she dealt with small claims in family court, and was known as one of the most stoic family court judges in America.
Her chance to become more than this came in 1993, when the LA Times published an article about her.
Then 60 minutes picked up on her, and she was offered a book deal with Harper Collins.
After this, a couple of talent scouts sensed that they had a goldmine on their hands and as a result they asked Judge Judy in 1995 if she would like to be the start of her own series presiding over cases on TV, which she accepted.
Judge Judy believed that this show would onely last for a couple of seasons, but she was wrong about this.
With her at the helm, the show was incredibly successful, and after a healthy 25 seasons, it stopped airing in 2021.
However, you can watch reruns of her show all the time on daytime TV.
As the show was starting to wrap up, Judge Judy was making upwards of $47 million per year.
According to her contract, she only had to work 52 days out of the year, when the producers filmed between ten and twelve cases.
A week’s worth of episodes were filmed within a day, which means that she earned almost $1 million a week being a judge on TV.
She has even earned herself a title in Guiness World Records for her stint on TV as the world’s longest reining judge. Recently, the title of the show has changed, and become Judy Justice.
What Has Judge Judy Spent Her Money on?
Judge Judy has been pretty smart with her money, which comes as no surprise considering her shrewdness in court.
She has a healthy real estate portfolio, including a couple of properties in Naples, a penthouse that cost her $11 million, and another penthouse that cost her $8.6 million.
As far as her current residence goes, this cost her $13.2 million in Greenwich, which boasts nine bedrooms.
She also has a home in Beverly Hills like so many other American celebrities that are well off, which a five bedroom condo costing her $10.7 million.
Judge Judy spends a lot of time in her condo in LA, traveling from her home in New York frequently.
She also has a home that is known as the Bird House, because it is in Newport, perched on the highest point.
With all of these properties to check in on and maintain, it’s no wonder that Judge Judy has a private jet to help her get around.
What’s really interesting about Judge Judy is that she’s had her time in court as well, being involved in a number of countersuits and suits over the years.
She doesn’t represent herself in these situations; instead, she opts for the best legal counsel that money can buy.
She also has 13 grandchildren, so it’s safe to say that she spends a fair amount of money on them too.
If you’re wondering if she has any other assets to her name, she also owns a yacht that she sold for more than $6 million.
Despite the fact that Judge Judy has so many homes to spend time in, she also loves to go out and socialise.
She has a number of different famous friends that she likes to spend her time with, from Amy Poehler to Samuel L. Jackson.
What might be most surprising about Judge Judy is what she likes to eat.
You would think that somebody who has as much money as her would spend a lot of money on her favorite foods, but her favorite food is actually quite affordable.
Every morning when she filmed the show, she ate a McDonald’s Egg McMuffin.
Even the rich lose sometimes, though, and as a result of Hurricane Ian hitting Florida, Judge Judy had to part ways with a couple of her favorite cars.
She didn’t have to worry for too long, though, because she’s still got a Lexus and a Bentley convertible to make her way around in when she’s in LA and New York.
How Did Judge Judy Negotiate Her Salary?
Of course, when thinking about Judge Judy net worth, the TV station didn’t just offer her $47 million right off the bat – she had to negotiate this deal.
You might be wondering how she did this.
Well, the first thing she did was right her desired amount down on a piece of paper.
Then, she put this piece of paper in an envelope, and handed it to the CBS executive who was in charge of making the final decision.
The last thing that she did was not take no for an answer. This is how she managed to start making a whopping $900,000 a week.
She has also managed to amass a lot of her wealth thanks to reruns of her show that run on daytime TV frequently.
Judge Judy was born in New York, and when she went to college for law, she was the only female in her class – the rest of the 126 students were male.
She passed the bar in 1965, and immediately got a job as a lawyer for a cosmetics company.
However, she was unimpressed with the work, and left after a couple of years to focus on having her children.
Once she had done this for a while, she served in family court as a prosecutor for more than 17 years.
It’s fair to say that when thinking about Judge Judy net worth, Judge Judy has earned her colossal paycheck, and has put a lot of time into the court system.
With her no-nonsense attitude, it’s no wonder that people love watching her, reruns or not.
