VIDEO 60 Minutes profile launched Judge Judy’s television career, also find out how much money she makes

Judge Judy, a.k.a. Judith Sheindlin got her career start after being profiled on 60 Minutes in 1993 back when she was a 51-year-old. By 1996, Judge Judy was on the air, and the world would never be the same.

In 1993, Judge Judith Sheindlin was working as Family Court Judge in the Bronx in NYC. Family court has no jury, and relies on the parties in the room to work out something in the best interest of the children. Judge Judy dealt with some issues far more severe and depressing than most of the stuff she deals with in civil court on television right now, and today on Katie, she admitted that she’s happy to be free from dealing with some of the darker things.

Her often shrill, almost always sarcastic hard edge that her television audience loves was used to scare young people into making better life decisions, or bring cold, clear logic into emotional situations. At some point in the nearly 15 minute clip below we see Judge Judy tell a mother:

“This baby was born drug addicted, and if you keep using drugs the other baby will be born drug addicted, and I’m telling you right now that you will not take this baby home from the hospital because The Commissioner’s not gonna let you.”

She later explains to Morley Safer why she tries to scare kids:

“I scared him not only by what I said to him verbally, but by the fact that when he was originally in the court he was arraigned by another judge, and he was told to go a particular program, an all day school. And he didn’t go. I said to him “We’re not playing games with you. This is the rule. You were told you were going to be paroled if you went to the alternative detention school. You didn’t go the school, you go to detention. If we’re going to make orders, we better be prepared to enforce them, otherwise everyone laughs at us, and thinks that we’re full of baloney, right?”

As for her own five children (Gregory, Jamie, Adam, Jonothan and Nicole,) Judy says they stopped listening to her and employ their own brand of Jewish guilt on her because she’s always been a working mom. Judy has 2 kids (Jamie and Adam) with her first husband of 12 years Ronald Levy. They divorced in 1976, and the next year she married Jerry Sheindlin, with whom she had three kids (Gregory, Jonothan, and Nicole.) Judy and Jerry also divorced briefly in 1990 during a stressful time, but remarried the next year.

Now 70, Judge Judy is just as fierce as she always was, and her syndicated show has killed in ratings after an initial slow climb. By season four, she was pulling in numbers higher than Oprah, and she continues to win the ratings game in season 17, getting about 10 million viewers every single day. Those types of ratings should pay off, and they do. Forbes estimated that she earned $45 million a year last year.

UPDATE – Judge Judy’s sizable salary was later confirmed in a lawsuit! Click the link to find out more.

Educational background:

Judy attended James Madison High School in Brooklyn, attended college at American University in Washington, D.C., where she got Bachelor of Arts majoring in government. She then enrolled as the only female student at the Washington College of law at American University, and became a Juris Doctor in 1965 at New York Law School.