A Q&A with Judge Judy in this weekend's New York Times Sunday Magazine revealed that the queen of daytime court TV makes $45 million dollars a year and works only five days a month - which breaks down to roughly $865,000 per working day.

The interview with reporter Andrew Goldberg comes weeks after Judge Judy Shiendlin extended her contact with CBS through 2015.

The oddly combative interview - at least from Goldman's angle - seemed more concerned with displaying the bees in Goldman's bonnet than really getting to know Judge Judy. Shiendlin demurred some of Goldman's more pointed questions - regarding the acreage of her residential property in Connecticut, and her ratings vs. Oprah Winfrey's (until Winfrey retired her show this year, the two shared a timeslot).

Ask Nielsen, Shiendlin said when Goldman brought up the fact the Judge Judy had out-ranked Oprah during her final season. Goldman called her bluff, arguing that she mentioned it in a press release announcing the contract extension.

I didn't put it out, Shiendlin responded, adding: You're not supposed to beat your own chest. You're always better off letting somebody else say things about you.

Shiendlin began her career as a corporate counsel for a cosmetics company, but soon left to raise children and returned to work as a family court prosecutor, where she handled child abuse, domestic violence and juvenile court cases. She worked her way through the New York City court system until 1996, when she retired. The same year, she published her first book Don't Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It's Raining and accepted an offer from CBS for her own syndicated courtroom series.

Judge Judy has an average of 10 million viewers per episode.

[Source: New York Times]

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