Judge Judy says not much has changed in all her years in the TV courtroom: 'Emotions remain the same'

Judge Judy Sheindlin has been in the business of TV courtroom drama for over 25 years, and she said she knows the formula that keeps audiences tuning in.

"First of all, a court program, in order to be sustainable, has to be entertaining," Sheindlin told Fox News Digital. "Because, after all, we are in the entertainment business. So court has to be interesting, which means that the people who are delivering whatever kind of justice is being delivered each day, have to be interesting to watch."

"And the truth is that the entertainment value and the fact that people are watching other people's distress, I think may be part of the interest," she added, laughing. "Court is a storytelling process. It's a once upon a time and the end." 

Sheindlin starred on "Judge Judy" for 25 years, before moving to "Judy Justice," which streams on Amazon Freevee.

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 L-R (Sarah Rose, Judge Judy Sheindlin, Whitney Kumar, Kevin Rasco)  (Michael Becker/Amazon Freevee)

It doesn't matter how intriguing the cases are, Sheindlin said, if the judge adjudicating is a snore.

"And you have to be able to deliver a story and bring your audience along with you so that they believe that in that period of time, you've not only entertained them – it's been entertaining – but that justice was served," Sheindlin said. 

"And, so I think that's why people watch court. I think they watch it for a lot of reasons. I think they watch it for the person who's delivering… And they like the beginning and the middle and an end. They don't get a 'to be continued' next week because you can finish it up and move on to the next project. You don't have to remember from one day to the next," she added.   

"So, lots of court programs have come and gone in the last almost 30 years since I've been in this business. More entertaining ones stayed on longer, and the less entertaining ones went away."

The judges who adjudicate cases on "Tribunal Justice," another Amazon Freevee show created and executive produced by Sheindlin, have also noted that audiences love the court drama because it offers finality.

"They bring finality right away, which I think is important," Judge Patricia DiMango told Fox News Digital of TV court cases. "I think people want to see cases resolved. We're living in a society where people are not held accountable for their actions."

Judge Judy Sheindlin starred on "Judge Judy" for 25 years.

Sheindlin's son Adam Levy, a fellow judge on "Tribunal Justice," agreed. 

"People want to see justice," he told Fox Digital. "People want to see the right thing happen. And unfortunately, we see it now, perhaps more than ever before. People have lost faith in that institution, the judicial institution. They've lost faith in the courts because, unfortunately, as I've seen over my career in 25 years, judges don't always do the right thing. Lawyers don't always do the right thing. Politicians don't always do the right thing."

"Tribunal Justice" Judge Tanya Acker added that TV cases draw audiences because they're so relatable. 

"All of these problems, everything that people see on these court shows, somebody has lived that," Acker said. "Everybody has a relative or a friend or an ex who borrowed some money and didn't give it back."

"We really show the full gamut of actual lived human experience," she later added.

In preparation for each episode, Sheindlin explains that she gets a complaint and an answer that is written by litigants. 

"With a certain amount of English correction, I guess by staff," she said. "But it's in their words. It's in the form of a deposition. And that's what I use to prepare. I don't review evidence before."

Sheindlin said she's no longer surprised by what litigants try to get away with in the courtroom, quoting the old adage, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

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Judge Judy stars on "Judy Justice." (Michael Becker for Amazon Freevee)

Technology may have evolved, she noted, but the emotions have largely remained constant.

"But the emotions remain the same," she told Fox News Digital. "And, so many of the cases that I see involve people who are intertwined emotionally. Ex-girlfriends, ex-boyfriends, ex-husbands, cousins, siblings. And those emotions between people don't change. Their dress may change, their hairstyle may change. The kind of computer that they use. The kind of phone may change." 

There are certain scenarios she's seen time and again.

"But I've often said, if your ex-husband comes to pick up children for a visitation weekend with a new girlfriend who is 20 years your junior, that doesn't make you happy," she said. "That doesn't change from decade to decade. If a parent sues a child and that child has sort of cut out of a parent's life, or vice versa, those emotions don't change. Of course there is always something new under the sun and you always wait for those ones because it's nice to have something fresh and unique. But a lot of the stories remain the same."

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"Judy Justice" streams new episodes on Monday, August 5.

One of the reasons Sheindlin has had such an ardent following over the years is her no-nonsense attitude in the courtroom and her knack for being able to tell when someone is lying. She explained some of the tics she looks for while presiding over cases during a recent sit-down interview with Fox News Digital.

"First of all, when someone's lying to you, they're not going to look you straight in the eye," she said. "They're going to try to deflect because the truth comes in the eyes."

"Women also get flushed right around here when they're telling a lie," she continued, pointing to the chest area. "That's very easy. Men often start to sweat, they get a little bit of a glistening, looking from side-to-side."

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"Judy Justice," which recently won its second Daytime Emmy for "Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program," premieres with four new episodes on Prime Video and Amazon Freevee on Monday. An all-new episode will premiere each weekday through October 25. Season 2 episodes of "Tribunal Justice" are also expected to start streaming on Amazon Freevee. Amazon has not yet announced a date.