Judge Judy's Salary Leap

A story about how Judge Judy built a personal monopoly and became the highest-paid person on TV.

"Judge Judy is probably the greatest example of building a personal monopoly. She was the highest-paid person on TV for a number of years, making $47 million a year for about 50 days of filming. That's about $900,000 a day filming the show.

Before that, she was a judge making $113,000 a year. She went from the commodity skill of being a judge to building her personal monopoly - the show was called Judge Judy. She transformed $113,000 a year of pricing power into $47 million a year.

Then CBS bought the back catalog of Judge Judy for $100 million, so she's still making royalties without working anymore. It's tremendously interesting - seems like these people are replaceable, but the economics of Hollywood show they're not."