Judge Joe Brown

Judge Joe Brown
Genre	Reality Court Show
Starring	Joe Brown Holly Evans (1998-2006) Sonia Montejano (2006-2013) Jacque Kessler (1998-2010) Jeanne Zelasko (2010-2013)
Narrated by	Ben Patrick Johnson (1998-2005) Rolanda Watts (2005-2013)
No. of seasons	15
Production
Location(s)	Sunset Bronson Studios Hollywood, California
Running time	60. minutes
Production company(s)	Big Ticket Television
Distributor	Worldvision Enterprises (1998–1999) Paramount Domestic Television (1999–2006) CBS Paramount Domestic Television (2006–2007) CBS Television Distribution (2007–2013)
Release
Original network	First-run syndication
Picture format	SDTV 480i (1998-2012) HDTV 1080i (2012-2013)
Original release	September 14, 1998 – September 6, 2013

Judge Joe Brown is an American arbitration-based reality court show starring former Shelby County, Tennessee, Criminal Court judge Joe Brown. It premiered on September 14, 1998 and ran through the 2012-13 television season. Joe Brown was the second highest paid daytime television personality behind Judge Judy during the time the show was running. The first-run syndication series entered its fifteenth and final season on September 10, 2012, also regularly airing in high-definition for the first time beginning in that same season as well.

Joe Brown is the first African American male to preside over a courtroom television show and the first African American person to preside over a long-running courtroom series. However, former New York prosecutor Star Jones is the first African American person to preside over a court show (Jones and Jury 1994-95).

With all of its seasons having aired consecutively, solely under Brown, Joseph Brown was the second longest running television jurist for many years prior to his cancellation, just behind Judith Sheindlin. While there are court shows that outnumber both Judge Joe Brown and Judge Judy in seasons within the judicial arena, namely Divorce Court and The People's Court, they are also programs with multiple lives and multiple "judges" in their histories.

The set of Judge Joe Brown was directly beside the set of Judge Judy within the same facility, Sunset Bronson Studios. After Judge Joe Brown's 2013 cancellation, however, the space was used for the courtroom series Paternity Court for a season (2013–14), followed by the court show Hot Bench (2014–present). As Judge Judy was and still is, Judge Joe Brown was both produced by Big Ticket Television and syndicated by CBS Television Distribution (CTD), the successor company to their previous distributors: Worldvision Enterprises, Paramount Domestic Television, and CBS Paramount Domestic Television.

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