Judith Sheindlin, a.k.a. Judge Judy, is speaking candidly about her illustrious career — and what parts stand out above the others.
While attending Keep Memory Alive’s The Power of Love Gala in Las Vegas on Feb. 22, the attorney, 82, revealed whether she thinks family court or court televised for the masses is better.
Despite being known across the globe as the no-nonsense Judge Judy, Sheindlin said her pre-fame job as a family court judge was far more meaningful.
“Being a judge in a courtroom in the family court … it’s probably the most worthwhile work that you do,” she told PEOPLE exclusively.
Sheindlin’s long-running syndicated TV gig, she said, however, was way less stressful. “Television judging is a lot more fun, a lot less work, and you take a lot fewer Tylenol than you do in family court,” she explained.
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Judge Judy aired for 25 seasons, premiering in September 1996 and concluding in July 2021. The series garnered an audience of millions of viewers, and, in 2017, Sheindlin reportedly sold her TV library to CBS for a reported $100 million.
The cases she faced in the series, Sheindlin told PEOPLE, weren’t really shifting the world like her family court days, where she presided over 20,000 cases for 14 years.
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“What you do in the family court has to do with children and their future and their lives, and whether they make it and whether they don’t, or whether a family makes it or doesn’t make it,” she said.
TV judging, on the other hand, was more about “having fun every day and just deciding, sort of, fun cases that are not life-altering and also having a good time getting dressed up, having people take your picture.”
Check your local listing to watch Sheindlin’s latest court series, Judy Justice.
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