SNAP JUDGMENT | Courtroom TV shows

Snap!: The People’s Court set the bar back in the 1980s. But it wasn’t until the mid- to late-1990s that the small claims courtroom genre of syndicated programming really took off. Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown are two of the most popular entries in this category, which has included about two dozen shows in the last ten years. Viewers can look to these shows for an entertaining vicarious courtroom experience. Ratings for Judge Judy continue to be stellar and Her Honor is under a multi-million dollar contract. A variety of personalities take to the bench, providing a court show for almost any audience.

Oh, Snap!: Syndicated courtroom shows are among television’s sleazier entries, ranking just above Maury’s paternity tests and Cheaters‘ own special brand of exploitation of human pain. Over the years, courtroom behavior (among litigants and jurists alike) has become cartoonish and ridiculous. What is the world coming to when the bizarre judge in the Anna Nicole Smith paternity case is shopping around L.A. to find a TV home for his antics? Television has the ability to entertain and inform, and that’s true of court shows as well. But the genre’s tendency to pander to a baser element is perhaps its most glaring shortcoming.

Judgment: Not all court shows are created equal. For every no-nonsense, ‘take responsibility’ message from Judges Judy and Hatchett, there’s an embarrassing public divorce on Divorce Court or a silly dispute settled in an unbelievable way on Eye for an Eye. The latest incarnation of The People’s Court is sort of a middle ground and an example of why it is difficult and generally unwise to judge a group by its weakest member. Judge Marilyn Milian, after all, is not responsible for what happens on Judge Mathis. And these shows do actually ease a small part of the burden on our legal system while hopefully deterring home viewers from frivolous legal claims. As they are entertaining, informative, and (at least theoretically) helpful to society, we find in favor of courtroom TV shows.

INSIDE THE BOX | An Easter tradition no more

Now more than ever, the television landscape is marked by change. The old rules don’t apply and everyone is trying to figure out a new playbook on their own. There were once three certainties in life: death, taxes and Law & Order. With the crime franchise’s ratings slipping this season, we are left with only two certainties. And other things we used to be able to count on are changing, too.

There was a time when Easter Sunday was a lost cause, TV-wise. We all knew the drill: ABC would air the Charlton Heston classic The Ten Commandments, the other networks would dutifully air reruns, and families had the option of watching the epic film or talking amongst themselves on the evening following Christ’s resurrection.

But a couple years ago, ABC quietly moved its traditional Easter film to Saturday night in favor of its suddenly popular Sunday primetime programming. This year, it’s game on, with all the broadcast networks except Fox airing new episodes of Sunday night series.

A repeat of America’s Funniest Home Videos leads off the night on ABC. The network has been promoting its Sunday lineup all weekend: new episodes of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (which is likely especially emotionally manipulative to capitalize on tomorrow’s holiday sentiments), Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters.

CBS has 60 Minutes, featuring an interview with presidential hopeful John McCain, followed by new episodes of Amazing Race: All-Stars, Cold Case and Without a Trace.

The CW, which mostly uses its Sunday lineup as a dumping ground for reruns anyway, will sandwich a new episode of 7^th Heaven in between repeats of One Tree Hill and America’s Next Top Model.

Fox has two episodes of likely-doomed sitcom The War at Home, followed by repeat episodes of The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Family Guy and American Dad.

NBC boasts a two-hour edition of Dateline as well as new installments of Deal or No Deal and The Apprentice: LA.

The days of Easter Sunday reruns are a thing of the past, and I don’t imagine this is the last we’ll see of the networks shedding their old conventions. With Variety reporting that rerun numbers are eroding anyway due to series’ availability online, the networks are scared.

This isn’t the first time networks have scheduled new episodes on holidays. NBC ran special holiday-themed episodes of Deal or No Deal on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve last year, with some success. Programmers are being forced to think creatively and find new ways to engage viewers. While there may be some growing pains along the way, this is ultimately a good thing.

Much of TV is steeped in tradition. Part of the key to the medium’s success is its reliability. Doing the same things over again each year creates an expectation – both within an organization and from the viewer. We expect to see a parade on Thanksgiving morning. We expect to see Charlie Brown and friends at Christmas. And, up until this decade, we expected to watch The Ten Commandments on Easter Sunday. But the expectation only works if both parties hold up their end of the deal. ABC kept showing us the same movie every year. Eventually, though, we stopped watching. The viewers are changing the rules.

First Thanksgiving, then Christmas and now Easter. It would seem that, in the TV business, nothing is sacred.

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