COURTROOM TELEVISION NETWORK

COURTROOM TELEVISION NETWORK

The Courtroom Television Network (Court TV) is a cable network devoted to explaining law to the layperson. Founded in 1991, this novel venture in television programming was a long shot: few thought a twenty-four-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week diet of live trials and legal analysis would succeed. Within two years, though, the network ranked fourth in the Nielsen Company’s daytime cable ratings. It built this record with gavel-to-gavel coverage of civil and criminal trials, including a string of highly publicized cases in the early
1990s, as well as with a mixture of regular programs that examine in simple language how the legal system works. This nuts-and-bolts approach coincided with—and, to an extent, helped influence—controversial changes in legal journalism.
Lawyers, judges, and the media are divided over whether the public is served or misled by the
Court TV approach, and this debate only intensi-
fied after comprehensive coverage of the O. J.
Simpson murder trial in 1995.
Changes in the media and the law paved the
way for Court TV. From the 1960s to the 1980s,
reporting on legal affairs was largely the business
of two markets: specialized publications for
lawyers and daily newspapers. The former was
highly detailed; the latter took a broad, general
approach. Television took the most sparing look
at the law, usually in small slices of news broad-
casts. But as state laws increasingly permitted
television cameras in state courtrooms, the role
of television increased. At the same time,
another trend shook up television itself: the
public’s appetite for so-called reality program-
ming, a format popularized by shows such as the
National Broadcasting Company’s Unsolved
Mysteries and the Fox Network’s Cops and Amer-
ica’s Most Wanted. Cheaper to make than dramas
and sitcoms, this programming subsequently
glutted the airwaves in the form of cops-and-
criminals shows, tabloid journalism, and “info-
tainment” (the combination of information and
entertainment).
Court TV was created by legal publisher
Steven Brill. Known as an innovator, Brill had
founded American Lawyer magazine in 1978.
Neither as technical as law journals nor as cur-
sory as the mainstream press, the trade maga-
zine critically profiled attorneys and law firms,
dealt with matters such as how juries reach decisions, and generally modeled its methods on investigative journalism. It emphasized the
inner workings of the law—taking an approach
that, ten years later, television was avidly pursu-
ing with law enforcement. In July 1991, with the
financial backing of Time Warner, Brill
launched Court TV. The network initially
broadcast an obscure Florida murder trial but
soon had high profile cases to cover, including
the prosecution of murderer-cannibal Jeffrey
Dahmer and the trials of accused parent mur-
derers Erik and Lyle Menendez. Court TV’s
viewership slowly increased.
In addition to essentially live trial broad-
casts—delayed by ten seconds to preserve confi-
dential information about jurors, witnesses, and
attorney-client privilege—Court TV developed
legal affairs programs. In Context, an analysis
show hosted by Arthur Miller, a Harvard Law
School professor, was an intellectual look at legal
and social issues. Instant Justice, in contrast,
turned its cameras on the often emotional
scenes played out in night courts by problem
drinkers and traffic violators. Other programs
condensed entire trials into two-hour highlights
(Prime Time Justice) or followed accused per-
sons from jail to court (The System) in what the
network called “the ultimate lesson on how the
judicial process works, outlining legal failures
and successes through the lives of those who are
players in the system.” Its also featured a weekly
debate program, Washington Watch, which fea-
tured guests such as U.S. attorneys general JANET
RENO and EDWIN MEESE III.
Steven Brill’s decision in 1997 to sell his
stake in Court TV to his partners, Time Warner
and Liberty Media, changed the direction of the
channel. CEO Henry Schleiff decided to expand
into new areas, worried that the network’s
reliance on trials was turning it into a niche net-
work like C-SPAN or the Golf Channel. He also
disliked that ratings were dependent on the
availability of a “hot” trial. For example, ratings
dropped dramatically after the O.J. SIMPSON
TRIAL ended—down 80 percent by 1997.
Court TV moved to purchase programming
from the broadcast networks to syndicate to its
viewers. Homicide: Life on the Street and NYPD
Blue were two of its early acquisitions. Schleiff
also hired Catherine Crier away from Fox News
Channel to host her own news and talk show.
Court TV also decided to get more into orig-
inal programming. In 2000, the network intro-
duced Forensic Files, which profiled actual
criminal cases and the scientific sleuthing done
by the coroners, medical examiners, and physi-
cians who solve them. The launch of Forensic
Files occurred at the same time that CBS televi-
sion premiered its fictional forensics-based hit
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The resulting
public interest in all things forensic made Foren-
sic Files a smash hit by CABLE TELEVISION stan-
dards. The series became so popular that NBC
“borrowed” it for its own network schedule.
Buoyed by its success with Forensic Files,
Court TV expanded its original programming.
Among the new shows it introduced was
Dominick Dunne’s Power, Privilege and Justice, a
look at cases involving people from high society
hosted by the noted author, and From the Case
Files of Dayle Hinman, a real life criminal pro-
filer. It also began to show original movies,
based on one of the many crime documentaries
Court TV produces each year.
As a result of all this, five years after Brill’s
departure, Court TV’s ratings had increased 10-
fold. It had moved from being available in 30
million homes to being available in 70 million
homes. And advertising revenue grew to $64
million, from $15 million in 1998.
Despite this success, Court TV did not completely abandon televising court trials. In 2002 it went to court in a failed effort to televise the trial of terrorist suspect Zacarias Moussaoui. Trial broadcasts and analysis still make up a substantial part of its programming for the 2002–03 season, including its entire schedule from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. on weekdays. Schleiff has promised this will continue. Trial analysis is “what distinguishes Court TV,” he says. “The combination is what makes us different.”
Although Court TV continues to broadcast
programming around the clock, many local
cable affiliates only air its programming during
particular times of the day, such as during prime
time, day time, or early morning hours.
FURTHER READINGS
Court Television Network. Available online at (accessed November 20, 2003).
Johnson, Steve. 2002.“Even as It Seeks Terror Trial, Court TV
Looks Beyond the Gavel.” Chicago Tribune (January 7).
Larson, Megan. 2002. “Out-of-Court Settlement: Ratings,
Sales Improving as Court TV Moves away from Trials,
Acquired Shows.”Mediaweek (July 29).
CROSS-REFERENCES
Broadcasting; Cameras in Court; Simpson, O. J.