I was intrigued by last week’s rankings of the most popular daytime television shows in America.  For the first time in over a decade, “Oprah” had fallen from the top.  Perhaps the appeal of the long-time queen of daytime television is in decline.  What replaced Oprah’s smarmy, ingratiating patter?  My goodness, the most popular daytime television show is now “Judge Judy.”

The staying power and influence of “Judge Judy” are noteworthy, especially for those of us in the law.  The show premiered in 1996, and Judy’s aggressive pontificating has inspired literally a dozen copy-cat shows.  Large numbers of Americans love to watch the good Judge and her ilk, and in Milwaukee it is literally possible to watch daytime judge shows continuously from breakfast to dinner.  Dasha Slater, writing in “Legal Affairs,” has dubbed the most avid viewers of these shows not “couch potatoes” but rather “court potatoes.”

Is there cause for concern?  On the one hand “Judge Judy” and the other daytime judge shows are only fleeting entertainment, but on the other hand they project and endorse a particular variety of courtroom justice.  It is meted out without the help of counsel and refined procedural rules by authoritarian figures prone to intense and stinging moral condemnation.  Maybe we’d be better off if people turned back to “Oprah.”