Big Ticket Television, Inc. (also known as Big Ticket Entertainment and Big Ticket Pictures) is an Emmy Award-winning American production company. Big Ticket is a subsidiary of CBS Studios (formerly CBS Paramount Television and CBS Television Studios), a division of

Paramount Global Paramount Global ( doing business as Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned and operated by National Amusements (79.4%) and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York. ...

. It is best known for producing the syndicated mainstay ''

Judge Judy ''Judge Judy'' is an American arbitration-based reality court show presided over by former Manhattan Family Court Judge Judith Sheindlin. The show featured Sheindlin as she adjudicated real-life small-claims disputes within a simulated courtr ...

'' from 1996 to 2021

History

The company was launched on October 21, 1994 under the

Spelling Entertainment Spelling is a set of conventions that regulate the way of using graphemes (writing system) to represent a language in its written form. In other words, spelling is the rendering of speech sound (phoneme) into writing (grapheme). Spelling is one ...

Group, who named former

Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of ...

and

Spelling Television Spelling Television Inc. was an American television production company that went through several name changes. It was originally called Aaron Spelling Productions, then Spelling Entertainment Inc. and eventually part of Spelling Entertainment Gro ...

executive Larry Lyttle to run the division. Lyttle wanted to name the company as Blockbuster Television, named after its parent company

Blockbuster, Inc. Blockbuster LLC, formerly known as Blockbuster Video, was an American-based provider of home video and video game rental services. Services were offered primarily at video rental shops, but later alternatives included DVD-by-mail, streaming med ...

, but Viacom opposed the idea due to the chain's fate being unclear.Paige Albiniak and John Eggerton 6/29/200
Paramount Grabs Its Big Ticket
broadcastingcable.com, Retrieved on September 9, 2013 Viacom by that time owned Blockbuster Inc. and its 67% stake in Spelling Entertainment Group since September 29. Lyttle chose the name "Big Ticket" by driving by a Blockbuster store and noting Blockbuster's "big ticket" logo. Big Ticket was created primarily as an outlet for non-

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

TV series from Spelling, which was largely known for hit dramas at that time. All of its programming was distributed by Spelling's syndication arm,

Worldvision Enterprises Worldvision Enterprises, Inc. was an American television program and home video distributor established in 1954 as ABC Film Syndication, the domestic and overseas program distribution arm of the ABC Television Network. They primarily licensed ...

, until Worldvision was folded into Paramount Domestic Television, later CBS Television Distribution, and now

CBS Media Ventures CBS Media Ventures, Inc. (formerly CBS Television Distribution, Inc. and CBS Paramount Domestic Television, Inc.) is an American television distribution company owned by CBS Studios, part of CBS Entertainment Group, a division of Paramount Glo ...

. In 1999, Spelling Entertainment was bought out by

Viacom Productions Viacom Productions (formerly Viacom Enterprises) was a television production arm of Viacom International. The division was active from 1974 until 2004, when the company was folded into Paramount Network Television 10 years following Viacom's ac ...

, resulting in

Paramount Domestic Television Paramount Domestic Television (PDT) was the television distribution arm of American television production company Paramount Television, once the TV arm of Paramount Pictures. It was formed in 1982 originally as Paramount Domestic Television and V ...

(which Viacom had owned since its 1994 acquisition of Paramount Pictures) becoming Big Ticket's distributor in June 1999. On June 29, 2003, Paramount Television combined Big Ticket Television's production operations with its network and syndication outputs after Lyttle left before his final year was over.Michael Schneider "Variety
Par to close Big Ticket
variety.com, Retrieved on September 9, 2013 In 2006, PDT became

CBS Paramount Domestic Television CBS Media Ventures, Inc. (formerly CBS Television Distribution, Inc. and CBS Paramount Domestic Television, Inc.) is an American television distribution company owned by CBS Studios, part of CBS Entertainment Group, a division of Paramount Glob ...

and later

(formerly CBS Television Distribution) in 2007.

Productions

Bruce Kerner and Mark Johnson worked on shows produced by Big Ticket from 1995 to 2002 when ''

Night Stand with Dick Dietrick ''Night Stand with Dick Dietrick'' is an American television comedy show that satirized American tabloid talk shows. The series was originally broadcast in first-run syndication from 1995 to 1997, as well as on the E! Entertainment Television n ...

'' premiered, Johnson also worked on ''

Wolf Lake ''Wolf Lake'' is an American supernatural drama television series that originally aired on CBS from September 19 to October 24, 2001. Nine episodes were produced, but only five aired before the series was canceled by CBS. The full series, inclu ...

'', Kerner also worked on '' The Terminator'' directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. From 2002 to 2004, Big Ticket produced ''

The Jamie Kennedy Experiment ''The Jamie Kennedy Experiment'' is a half-hour-long American hidden camera/ practical joke reality television series that debuted in 2002 and was broadcast on The WB. The host and star of the show is Jamie Kennedy, a comedian who presented a r ...

'' for

The WB The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on terrestrial television, broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture be ...

created by ''

Mad TV ''Mad TV'' (stylized as ''MADtv'') is an American sketch comedy television series originally inspired by '' Mad'' magazine. In its initial run, it aired on Fox from 1995 to 2009. After a one-off reunion show in 2015 to celebrate the twentie ...

'' creators Fax Bahr and Adam Small & starring

Blockbuster Entertainment Award The Blockbuster Entertainment Awards was a film awards ceremony, founded by Blockbuster Entertainment, Inc., that ran from 1995 until 2001. They were produced each year by Ken Ehrlich. Formation and first awards The awards were first held on J ...

winner

Jamie Kennedy James Harvey Kennedy (born May 25, 1970) is an American actor and comedian. He has played Randy Meeks in the ''Scream'' franchise (1996–2000) and a multitude of characters in '' The Jamie Kennedy Experiment'' (2002–2004) on The WB. His oth ...

who is best known for playing Randy Meeks in the ''

Scream Scream may refer to: *Screaming, a loud vocalization Amusement rides * Scream (Heide Park), a gyro drop tower in Soltau, Germany * Scream! (ride), a tower ride at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Six Flags New England * Scream! (roller coaster), at ...

'' franchise. ''The Jamie Kennedy Experiment'' was also a co-production with

Larry Lyttle also worked at

Warner Bros. Television Studios Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of ...

before joining

and running Big Ticket Television. Big Ticket's most widely viewed productions are the courtroom series ''

'' (ended in 2021) and ''

Judge Joe Brown ''Judge Joe Brown'' is an American arbitration-based reality court show starring former Shelby County, Tennessee criminal court judge Joseph B. Brown. It premiered on September 14, 1998 and ran through the 2012–13 television season for a ...

'' (ended in 2013), with the former debuting in 1996 and the latter in 1998. This left ''Judge Judy'' as the company's only program in the 2013-14 television season, although most of the production is done by CBS as the company has been largely a figurehead organization since the CBS takeover of Viacom's television unit. In Fall 2014, Big Ticket also began to produce the three-judge court show ''

Hot Bench ''Hot Bench'' is a nontraditional panel-based court show that made its debut in first-run syndication on September 15, 2014. The series is produced by ''Judge Judy''s Judge Judy Sheindlin, who also created the program and concept with executi ...

'', which is created and executive-produced by

Judge Judy Sheindlin Judith Susan Sheindlin (''née'' Blum; born October 21, 1942), known professionally as Judge Judy, is an American court show arbitrator, media personality, television producer, author, women's advancement philanthropist and former prosecutor an ...

through her own production company, Queen Bee Productions. Big Ticket also produced the sitcom '' Moesha'', its spin-off ''

The Parkers ''The Parkers'' is an American television sitcom aired on UPN from August 30, 1999, to May 10, 2004. A spin-off of UPN's ''Moesha'', ''The Parkers'' features the mother-daughter team of Nikki (played by Mo'Nique) and Kim Parker (played by Counte ...

'' and the stop-motion animated comedy ''

Gary & Mike ''Gary & Mike'' is an American adult animated buddy comedy sitcom that aired on UPN in 2001 and Comedy Central in 2003. It was Big Ticket Television’s first animated show. The show was produced in stop motion clay animation and lasted only on ...

'' for UPN, the dramas ''

Hack Hack may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * ''Hack'' (Unix video game), a 1984 roguelike video game * ''.hack'' (video game series), a series of video games by the multimedia franchise ''.hack'' Music * ''Hack'' (album), a 199 ...

'' created by

David Koepp David Koepp (; born June 9, 1963) is an American filmmaker. Koepp is the ninth most successful screenwriter of all time in terms of U.S. box office receipts with a total gross of over $2.3 billion. Koepp has achieved both critical and commercial ...

& starring

David Morse David Bowditch Morse (born October 11, 1953) is an American actor, singer, television director, and writer. He first came to national attention as Dr. Jack "Boomer" Morrison in the medical drama series '' St. Elsewhere'' (1982–88). His film c ...

and ''

'' created by John Leekly & starring

Lou Diamond Phillips Louis Diamond Phillips ( born Upchurch; February 17, 1962) is a Filipino-American actor and film director. His breakthrough came when he starred as Ritchie Valens in the biographical drama film '' La Bamba'' (1987). For ''Stand and Deliver'' (19 ...

for CBS (only five episodes of the latter aired on CBS before cancellation, but all nine were shown on UPN), and the talk show parody ''

'' for syndication. For the second (and final) season of the court series '' Swift Justice'', Big Ticket became the production company after the series moved from

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and shared a studio with ''Judge Judy'' and ''Judge Joe Brown''. The company's most recent production is ''

The Drew Barrymore Show ''The Drew Barrymore Show'' (often shortened to ''Drew'') is a first-run syndicated American talk show hosted by actress Drew Barrymore. The show is distributed by CBS Media Ventures and debuted on September 14, 2020. In April 2022, the show w ...

'', which launched on September 14, 2020. As of the 2021–22 television season, ''Hot Bench'' and ''The Drew Barrymore Show'' are the only programs produced by the company that are still in production. Plus on Pluto TV

References

{{Authority control Television production companies of the United States Paramount Global subsidiaries American companies established in 1994 Mass media companies established in 1994