Big Ticket Entertainment

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Big Ticket Television, Inc.
CBS Studios

Big Ticket Television, Inc. (also known as Big Ticket Entertainment and Big Ticket Pictures) is an American production company. Big Ticket is a subsidiary of CBS Studios (formerly CBS Paramount Television and CBS Television Studios), a division of Paramount Global. It is best known for producing the syndicated mainstay Judge Judy from 1996 to 2021.

History

The company was launched on October 21, 1994, under the

Blockbuster, Inc., but Viacom opposed the idea due to the chain's fate being unclear.[3] Viacom by that time owned Blockbuster Inc. and its 67% stake in Spelling Entertainment Group.[4] Lyttle chose the name "Big Ticket" by driving by a Blockbuster store and noting Blockbuster's "big ticket" logo.[3] Big Ticket was created primarily as an outlet for non-drama 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, until Worldvision was folded into Paramount Domestic Television, later CBS Television Distribution, and now CBS Media Ventures
.

In 1999, Spelling Entertainment was bought out by Viacom Productions, resulting in Paramount Domestic Television (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 the employ of Viacom.[3][5] In 2006, PDT became CBS Paramount Domestic Television and later CBS Media Ventures (formerly CBS Television Distribution) in 2007.

Productions

Main article: List of Paramount Global television programs § Big Ticket Entertainment

Big Ticket's most widely viewed productions are the courtroom series

Judge Judy Sheindlin
through her own production company, Queen Bee Productions.

Big Ticket also produced the sitcom

David Morse and Wolf Lake created by John Leekly & starring Lou Diamond Phillips 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 Night Stand with Dick Dietrick 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 to Los Angeles
and shared a studio with Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown.

The company's most recent program is The Drew Barrymore Show, which launched on September 14, 2020. As of the 2022–23 television season, Hot Bench and The Drew Barrymore Show are the only programs under Big Ticket management remaining in production.

References

  1. ^ "Los Angeles Times" October 21, 1994 Spelling Names Execs to Head New TV Comedy Unit articles.latimes.com, Retrieved on September 9, 2013
  2. ^ Coe, Steve "Highbeam Research" Blockbuster's next TV move is Big Ticket. (Big Ticket Television) (Brief Article) highbeam.com, Retrieved on September 9, 2013
  3. ^ a b c Paige Albiniak and John Eggerton 6/29/2003 Paramount Grabs Its Big Ticket broadcastingcable.com, Retrieved on September 9, 2013
  4. ^ "Viacom Completes Merger With Blockbuster". techagreements.com. Archived from the original on 2015-06-17. Retrieved 2013-09-09.
  5. ^ Michael Schneider "Variety" Par to close Big Ticket variety.com, Retrieved on September 9, 2013
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