In this Thursday, May 2, 2019, photo, Court TV’s Yodit Tewolde, from left, Vinnie Politan, Seema Iyer and Julie Grant pose at the Court TV anchor desk, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)LOS ANGELES (AP) — Court TV is ending its long recess.
The channel for legal junkies that thrived during the trial-crazy 1990s comes back from the dead after more than a decade Wednesday amid a crime-story craze that its backers hope will launch it into a long new life.
“The timing could not be better,” said John Alleva, a lawyer and producer on the former Court TV who now is its vice president and managing editor. “The interest in true crime and this type of programming has reached a fever pitch. We’re in a perfect situation.”
The new Court TV, available over the air and on some cable providers depending on the market, will look a lot like the old. The new owners bought Court TV’s name, logo and library, and will revive its practice of airing trials virtually in their entirety for much of the day while talking about trials and all things legal for the rest of the day.
And one of its former stars, Vinnie Politan, will be the face of the new channel as its primetime anchor.
Like many involved with Court TV, the 54-year-old Politan was a lawyer before he was a journalist, and lives to combine the two specialties, something that the dismantling of the old channel left him unable to do.
“I should play you back some of the recordings of my therapy sessions as I tried to recover from it,” Politan said with a laugh. “This is the job I want to do. This is the only job I want to do. So for me, this is like being reborn.”
Politan talked to The Associated Press by phone from the Court TV studios in Atlanta. He’s spent the last several years there working for the local NBC affiliate, his love of the law limited to segments that lasted little over a minute.
Now, as host of “Closing Arguments” from 6 to 9 p.m. Eastern, he can go long.
“It’s the deep dive,” Politan said. “To be able to get into a story, to follow a story from beginning to end, to own the story is absolutely amazing.”
The original Court TV was launched by a conglomerate of owners in 1991. Its popularity rose during the 1994 Menendez brothers’ trial and soared during its airing of the 1995 O.J. Simpson trial.
Time Warner bought it in 2006, and in 2008 rebranded it as truTV, with an emphasis on reality shows aimed at a younger audience. Its court coverage slowly phased into oblivion.
The most devoted of Court TV’s employees, including Alleva and Politan, had always wanted it back.
The intervening years have seen a popularity surge in podcasts like “Serial,” TV trial reenactments such as “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” and a slew of Netflix crime documentaries including “Making a Murderer.” Katz Networks, a division of the E.W. Scripps Company, which has a long history in journalism, is taking a shot that the public’s interest will take hold for Court TV once again. Katz Networks CEO Jonathan Katz, who was instrumental to the revival, will also be chief executive of Court TV.
The revived channel’s online component will include a livestream of its telecasts, access to its library of older trials, and the ability to quickly catch up with an ongoing trial.
Court TV will seek to lead the national conversation on high-profile cases. Producers plan to go all-in on the forthcoming Harvey Weinstein sexual assault trial, set to start in New York in September.
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As of July 8th Court TV is up and streaming and it IS available in Canada. Click HERE.
Weinstein aint no OJ. Just wait till Hillary gets her day (many days ) in court That will be TV worth watching