A
court show (also known as a
judge show,
legal/courtroom program,
courtroom show, or
judicial show) is a television programming subgenre of either
legal dramas or
reality legal programming. Court shows present content mainly in the form of legal hearings between
plaintiffs and
defendants presided over by a pseudo-judge. At present, these shows typically portray
small claims court cases, produced in a simulation of a small claims courtroom inside of a television studio. The genre began in radio broadcasting in the 1930s and moved to television in the late 1940s, beginning with such TV shows as
Court of Current Issues,
Your Witness,
Famous Jury Trials, etc. Court programming first arose in the United States and is still predominantly found in this country.