Cristina's Revenge! Second nomination for canceled Emmy-winning courtroom show

Cristina's Court and its star Cristina Perez won the first-ever Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program last year, even though the category was created so Judge Judy would get a statuette and the hot blonde Cristina's program was only in its second season. Fox stations group boss Roger Ailes rewarded Cristina and crew by canceling the show with the intention of replacing her with a scandalized Republican party political hack who was doing half the ratings with a court show on the CW but also did his bidding on his Fox News and sought the nomination to run for Senate against Hillary Clinton.

Tonight, Cristina's got her revenge, with a second Emmy nomination.

The nominated episode:

“CRISTINA’S COURT” NOMINATED FOR 2009 DAYTIME EMMY

FOR "OUTSTANDING LEGAL/COURTROOM PROGRAM"

2008 Daytime Emmy Winner Looks for Back-to-Back Wins

LOS ANGELES, May 15, 2009 – “Cristina’s Court,” hosted by Cristina Perez, was nominated for its second Daytime Emmy. In its debut year, Cristina’s Court became the second highest-rated new show in U.S. syndication. In only its second year, Cristina’s Court won the first-ever Emmy award for Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Show. Cristina’s Court is poised to once again prove that quality is golden.
Regarding the announcement, Cristina commented, “We are very excited! What a privilege to be named along with the other nominees. I’ve had an opportunity to work with amazing people that brought their personal best everyday to Cristina’s Court. We appreciate the academy’s recognition of that quality hard work. Personally, I am blessed that I’ve been able to make a strong connection with viewers.”

“Cristina’s Court” is executive produced by court veteran Peter Brennan, who launched “Judge Judy” and “Judge Joe Brown.” Peter Brennan stated, “This is wonderful. Cristina is amazing. She brings a special life to each show and has the uncanny ability to bring out the best in all people before her. Her on-air presence, engaging personality, legal expertise and ability to relate to people brought a new dimension to the court genre.”

Cristina is considered an ultimate crossover host, who while being a hip, professional, multicultural woman, always seeks to introduce traditional values into the lives of people young and old. Consequently, she appeals to young and old audiences everywhere. With a passion for law, family and culture, Cristina was the first television judge ever to crossover from Spanish-language to English-language television and previously hosted Telemundo’s highly-rated “La Corte de Familia,” which was one of the highest rated Spanish-language programs in the U.S. She made her television debut with “La Corte Del Pueblo” (“The People’s Court”), on Los Angeles’ KHWY-TV. A 2008 Syndicated Network Television Association survey ranked Cristina second (behind Oprah Winfrey) among adults age 18-34 as the “most trustworthy” host on TV. In the “most influential” category, she is ranked fourth in two separate demographic groups. Cristina is ranked in the top 20 or better in all of the demographics surveyed, proving her ability to transcend gender and age in attracting viewers. Cristina is in development for several fresh, new programming concepts and is writing her second book (Penguin Books) which is expected to be released in early 2010.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT:
www.cristinaperez.tv

No fluke: Canceled Cristina's Court wins second Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Courtroom Program

Cristina's Court has won the Emmy award for Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program for the second year in a row.

The show starring Cristina Perez and produced by (tabloid) television legend Peter Brennan picked up the statuette last night at a ceremony at the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles.

Cristina's Court stunned the television world when it picked up the first-ever Emmy Award for Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program a year ago. That win was the biggest news to come from last year's Emmy Awards, because it was the first court show Emmy, and generally assumed to have been created in order to give Judge Judy a prize.

Last night's announcement proved that Cristina's Court's first Courtroom Program Emmy was no fluke. The win was suspected a few weeks ago when the Emmy producers decided-- after the votes were counted-- to remove the popular category from tonight's televised awards show and stick it with the the technical awards that were handed out hours ago.

The second Emmy does come with bittersweet cheer. The Fox Television Stations Group canceled Cristina's Court in February to make room for a court show featuring Republican politician Jeanine Pirro, which had been running to lower ratings on Fox's CW Daytime lineup. Republican adviser and Fox News president Roger Ailes is also chairman of the Fox Stations Group.

Cristina's executive producer Peter Brennan, who created the tabloid television genre with A Current Affair, was the original producer of Judge Judy.
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Celebration for A Pit Bull: Cristina's Court's dog story beats Judge Judy for first court show Emmy

Cristina's Court, the syndicated daytime courtroom series starring blonde Telemundo crossover Cristina Perez, beat Judge Judy, Judge Hatchett, the People's Court and gay judge David Young tonight for the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences' first Emmy for Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program.

In a nice twist, Cristina's executive producer is Peter Brennan, the godfather of tabloid television and the original producer of Judge Judy (who was widely credited for guiding the court show queen to her initial success).

The episode that was judged and which won the Daytime Emmy award was Requiem for A Pit Bull, the story of the life and death of the two-year-old family dog that demonstrated Brennan's unique gifts for finding and telling stories that strike a personal and universal nerve. The power of the story ws such that influential animal rights groups like PETA and Last Chance for Animals joined the Hollywood crusade to see the segment, the producers behind it, the courtroom TV star who fronted it and the show that featured it, get the award they deserved.

It was "a hair-trigger episode that divided much the nation and pitted two of the country's most intense lobby groups head to head on the case --the gun lobby versus animal rights.

"It stemmed from an incident that took place on an average street in Austin, Texas one day last summer....and a dog named Capone...

"The 911 call told a story":

911: "What's your emergency?" Caller: "A pit bull for about the fifth time just chased me and my dog inside my house...he's very vicious. He growls his teeth and he charges you."

911: "Is anybody hurt?"

Caller: "No but I just killed the dog."

He was a young pit bull named Capone. Was he a playful, friendly pup, motherless and hand fed from the day he was born, as his owner described? Or a vicious, aggressive potential killer on the loose, as described by the man who shot him.

The decision was up to Judge Cristina Perez in TV's Cristina's Court.

Allen Saadeh, 20, and his mother were suing neighbor Louis Cross for killing their family pet with a .22 rifle. Cross, 40, who told Judge Cristina one of his hobbies was hunting, admitted he pumped five .22 caliber bullets into Capone the day he caught him in the yard of his Austin, TX. home.

"It was aggressive, showing it's teeth." Cross said.

"Are you scared," asked the judge.

"I am scared."

Cross said he had previously warned Saadeh about the dog being loose. "I said listen, this is the last time I am coming to you about your pit bull in my yard. I am going to shoot it."

Saadeh said he never took the threats seriously. "He was a very good dog. He was like a little boy to me."

The judge asked Cross to describe the shooting.

Cross said he found Capone in his side yard and the dog growled at him and his weiner dog. He then went back inside the house and took a .22 rifle from his gun cabinet.

"I shot him twice in the head and he stood there and looked at me," said Cross.

"What did you do next?"

"I shot him three times right there (pointing to his ribcage), and he died."

"You shot him five times?"

Saadeh said he searched for his dog for three days before Cross admitted to him that he had shot Capone and thrown the body in a dumpster.

"You murdered that dog," said Judge Cristina.

The winners:

Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program

CRISTINA'S COURT
SYNDICATED

PETER BRENNAN, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
LISA BRENNAN, SUPERVISING PRODUCER
ROBIN CRAIG, COORDINATING PRODUCER
DEAN MANIBOG, SENIOR PRODUCER
WANDA HENLEY, PRODUCER
LESLIE BROWN, PRODUCER
LISA WILSON, PRODUCER
MICHELLE FITZGERALD, PRODUCER
GYLLIAN CARTER, PRODUCER
JUDSON TOUBY, PRODUCER
SANDRA GIN, PRODUCER
CRISTINA PEREZ, HOST

Fox cancels winner of first courtroom series Emmy to make room for Republican politico talking head with scandal-plagued background & worse ratings

We read today that Warner Brothers Television has sold its courtroom strip series, Judge Jeanine Pirro, to the Fox Television Stations for next fall. The show had been running on Fox's CW Daytime lineup, and news isn't earthshaking at all-- until you read between the lines and realize what's been sacrificed to make way for the new arrival.

We've learned that the Fox Television Stations Group has canceled another courtroom strip show to make room for the former Westchester County DA and legal expert on Fox's recently-canceled The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet. They've given the axe to Cristina's Court, the series featuring crossover Latina star and legal eagle Cristina Perez.

Cristina's Court was doing a 1.1 household rating.

Judge Jeanine Pirro has been doing a 0.6 household rating.

Last year, Cristina's Court won the first-ever Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Legal/Courtroom series-- beating out Judge Judy (for whom the category was carved out).

Judge Jeanine Pirro is a dyed-in-the-wool Republican politico.

Cristina Perez is a rare crossover star from the Spanish-speaking Telemundo network, the first Hispanic TV judge to cross over to English-language television.

Jeanine Pirro is the former district attorney for Westchester County whose political career was burdened and often flummoxed by the philandering escapades, mental problems and criminal acts of her now ex-husband, Albert. She was still married to Albert when she announced in 2005 that she would seek the Republican nomination to challenge first-term Senator Hillary Clinton.

Cristina's Court generated buzz with its "Sex on the Bench" ad campaign.

Jeanine Pirro's unsuccessful run as Republican candidate for New York Attorney General was complicated by a federal probe when it was revealed she'd wiretapped her then-husband because of his philandering.

According to the Syndicated Network Television Association, Cristina Perez ranked as one of the most trustworthy and influential syndicated hosts on television, ranking second behind Oprah Winfrey among adults 18 to 34 years old.

Republican adviser and Fox News president Roger Ailes is also chairman of the Fox Stations Group, and calls the shots on what runs on the stations.

Wouldn't it be a nice twist for Cristina's Court to pick up another Emmy?

Cristina's Court snatches third Emmy from beyond the grave

Three Emmys in a row.

Cristina's Court, the syndicated courtroom show starring Latina Cristina Perez and produced by television legend Peter Brennan, has made daytime television history with another award for Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program-- a year and half after its cancellation!

The show stunned the room at the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown LA once again last night as it completed a clean-sweep hat trick in the category that had been created three years ago to give Judge Judy an award.

It is the third time the team has stunned the syndicated world.

The first was in 2008 when the freshman show scooped up the first-ever Emmy for Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program in 2008, especially because the category was assumed be a cakewalk for Judge Judy, a show that Brennan had produced in its intitial success.

The win by Cristina's Court last year was bittersweet in light of the show's cancellation several months earlier by the Fox Television Stations Group, to make room for a court show featuring Republican politician Jeanine Pirro (GOP adviser and Fox News president Roger Ailes is also chairman of the Fox Stations Group).

Pirro was among the disappointed losers last night as the Cristina's team literally snatched the Emmy from beyond the grave.

How did a show that had been canceled before its last Emmy won manage to do it?

When Fox announced the cancellation of Cristina's Court, enough shows had already been recorded that at least one was aired for the first time within the recent qualifying period. And that show was better than anything anyone else had to offer.

For the second year, the award for the popular Courtroom category was handed out during the Creative Arts ceremony rather than the main, televised event tomorrow at the Beverly Hilton.

Exclusive! The top dog behind Cristina's stunning, in-your-face Emmy upset over old Judge Judy

The stunning Emmy upset night as the upstart syndicated Fox show Cristina’s Court beat old standby Judge Judy for the first-ever Daytime Emmy award for Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program is made all the more tasty because Cristina’s executive producer Peter Brennan basically created Judge Judy as a show and a character as Judy's first EP, guiding her in the new arena while his staff, headed up by Cristina Emmy winner Lisa Brennan, found the cases that put the show a class above the rest— until they moved on.

Weeks before the debut of Cristina’s Court in September 2006, we told you that “Judge Judy’s genius has a new star,” and pointed out that

“…Brennan tells stories like no other, and his team knows the key to a successful court find cases that may not be earth-shattering but are crucially important to the people who are pressing them. They also know to find litigants who don’t look like they were scraped off the floor of Jerry Springer’s waiting room.”

Well, that team, including senior producer Dean Manibog— Katy, Texas’ first Emmy winner (we want to be there for the parade), are polishing Emmys this morning, and must be chuckling that Judge Judy sat stewing at the next table at the Kodak Theatre last night.

As we told you last night, the episode that clinched Cristina’s Court’s prize concerned the shooting of a pit bull.

An animal story. Odd, no?

Not at all. This excerpt from Tabloid Baby, describing the early years (1987-90) of tabloid television, shows how Peter Brennan used the same tried-and-true formula to great success nearly twenty years ago:

Animal stories and tabloid TV go back to the genre’s roots in Australian and British tabloid newspapers... Animal stories attracted calls and letters. They made up for the other sins you put on the screen.

Our most memorable animal story at A Current Affair was about an old dog named Smoke in a town somewhere down south. One day, Smoke ran down the railroad tracks, smack into the path of an oncoming train. When Smoke’s distraught owner went out to see if there was anything left of his old hound, he found an ear, a leg another leg, the tail, a scrap of fur—that was about it.

That would have been the end of the story, except that a week or so later, Smoke picked himself up from wherever he was carried several miles up the track and came hobbling home, minus that the ear, tail, fur and those two legs. It was inspirational, all right. Brennan wanted to run it just so he could write in the promo:

“It was the day the train kept a rollin'… ON TOP OF OLD SMOKIE.”

More photos! Cristina's Court's Emmy night

Cristina Perez moments aftr her winning her second Emmy

So is anyone still talking about the Daytime Emmy Awards? In the case of the Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program, the answer is resoundingly "Yes." The second win in a row by Cristina's Court not only is giving new attention to judge Cristina Perez and the show's production team--but has a lots of execs pointing fingers for canceling the show midway through its second championship season!

Senior supervising producer Lisa Brennan and executive producer Peter Brennan

Our favorite story is the one about the Fox exec who uttered these immortal words when he got the news: "Oh, sh#$!!"

Cristina with fellow two-time Emmy winner Dean Manibog, who produced and did most of the field camera work for the award-winning episode.

We've got more exclusive photos. Why stop the party now?

Jerry Kupcinet, Cristina & Peter Brennan

2009 Daytime Emmy Award
Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program

Cristina's Court

Host: Cristina Perez
Executive Producer: Peter Brennan
Co-Executive Producer: Jerry Kupcinet
Senior Supervising Producer: Lisa Lew
Senior Producer: Dean Manibog
Senior Show Producer: Terry Powell
Coordinating Producer: Robin Craig


Producers:
Sandra Gin
Judson Touby
Monique Stinson
Patrick Harris
Trisha Boyd
Danette Kubanda
Richard Velasquez
Dione Calderoni
Megan Hundahl
Michele Fitzgerald
Jeannine Sullivan
Co-host: Reynard Spivey

Bailiff Reynard Spivey holds court-- and Judge Cristina!

Exclusive! 3-way lesbian attack in Cristina's Court!

The video is ominous. The headline is serious. And the potential charges sound grave:

SURVEILLANCE VIDEO TO BE SHOWN IN COURT MONDAY (NOV. 6) CAPTURED A YOUNG WOMAN’S VIOLENT RAGE IN THE CAR PARK OF A DETROIT SHOPPING MALL.

It’s sure a chilling sight, the shapely figure walking through a pair of automatic doors with a baseball bat dangling at her side. A second camera catches her outside in a parking lot, as she approaches a small car— and bashes in the windshield in broad daylight.

What’s going on? Well, considering that TV Sweeps kicks off tomorrow, this violent act of rage can’t be anything else but a sexy, enraged lesbian who’s out for revenge after finding out she’s the third wheel in a hot and steamy all-girl love triangle!

Now we know how the new syndicated courtroom series Cristina’s Court beat Geraldo At Large last week. It’s not enough that the show features a sexy young Latina TV judge who’s made history by making the jump from Telemundo to mainstream American television, but the producers know how to find and ignite those hot-button issues we can all relate to.

Like lesbian love triangles!

Gotta love the femme-loving victim of the attack. She didn’t press charges, but decided to duke out in a court of TV law. And it’s quite the showdown. The alleged-- aw, come on, she did it-- admitted bat girl stands tall when Cristina puts her feet to the flame (actually, she’d probably dig that).

“That’s what happens when you got a lot of animosity,” 22-year-old fiery lesbian Jennifer Gretsinger, testifies. “It felt awesome when I broke that windshield!”

“Did you know what part of the car you wanted to hit?” asked Judge Cristina Perez.

“I really just wanted to hit Michelle,” said Jenny. (Michelle is 19-year other girlfriend of gal siren and Jennifer’s secret lover LaTyra Goodwin-- who does look a little like Snoop from The Wire).

“After three times of hitting the car what do you say to yourself?” blonde Cristina asks.

Jenni-fur: “Haaah!!”

The cuckolded lesbian bat wielder then pleads not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. Yeah, crazy in lesbian love!

The case and verdict airs Monday, November 6. Check your local listings—before you wreck yourself!

Here’s the story in a “nut” shell:

Legally Blonde: Judge Judy's genius has a new star

Here's the next big daytime TV hit, and the next multimillionaire daytime TV judge, brought to you by the man who invented tabloid television, revolutionized morning news shows, created Judge Judy, and then brought Judge Joe Brown to TV riches.

Peter Brennan’s latest brainchild is Cristina’s Court, starring Spanish television star Cristina Perez, familiar to our Latin friends from her show, ‘Corte de Familia’ on Telemundo and soon to be the first Latin legal star to make the crossover to the American mainstream.

September 11th is the debut date for Cristina’s Court (see the sales tape above). The geniuses who do the scheduling probably forgot it’s the fifth anniversary a big event (and the day that 9/11 hero , becomes Father Michael Judge is eligible for sainthood), so there are bound to be pre-emptions, but it will be worth catching up with.

Brennan tells stories like no other, and his team knows the key to a successful court find cases that may not be earth-shattering but are crucially important to the people who are pressing them. They also know to find litigants who don’t look like they were scraped off the floor of Jerry Springer’s waiting room.

Young, blonde and from Colombia (though most viewers assume she's Mexican), Cristina is bound to be the next big TV judge.

Australian-born Brennan’s role in the rise and fall of tabloid television is well-documented in Tabloid Baby. He was at the helm of last year’s ill-fated relaunch of A Current Affair, which was cancelled abruptly when Fox News boss Roger Ailes took over the Fox stations and stuffed his pet Geraldo in the timeslots (Ailes actually copped the Fox News template from the tabloid television formula, taking the basic principles and injecting ugly right-wing warmongering politics into the mix).

Coincidentally, another player from the early days of tabloid television is succeeding behind the scenes with a female TV star. Big Gordon Elliott, famed for his TV “doorknocks” on Brennan's Good Day New York and A Current Affair (and other exploits recounted in Tabloid Baby), in recent years could be found on the Food Network and Campbell’s Soup ads. He discovered a Southern cooking lady named Paula Deen, whose “Paula’s Party” launches September 29, and is said to be the network’s new hope.

The reinvented Gordo has avoided us since Tabloid Baby was published at the end of 1999 (he features in some great stories, but nothing to be ashamed of!), so if you see him, send him Tabloid Baby’s best wishes!

Exclusive! Now it's a Daytime Emmy revolt as TV Academy cuts Courtroom category out of live televised show!

While the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has bowed to protests and reversed its plan to move some major Emmy Award categories off the live CBS telecast on September 20th, an equally significant slight has been engineered by producers of the Daytime Emmy Awards.

Producers, talent and agents alike are in an uproar over the decision by the geniuses at the TV Academy and The CW to cut the Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program category-- the most controversial, sensational and talked-about in last year's Daytime Emmy show-- out of the August 30th live broadcast!

Last year's 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, broadcast on ABC, was the inaugural year for the Legal/Courtroom Emmy. A national prime time audience saw the upstart Cristina's Court and its star Cristina Perez take the top prize in what was considered a major upset. Many believed the category had been invented in order to give Judge Judy a statuette, after years of being lumped in with talk shows-- and losing.

With both shows-- and both women-- nominated again this year, their competition was anticipated as the major grudge match of the 36th Daytime Emmy show. Adding to the drama between the sexy blonde Latina and the crusty New York City jurist was the shocking fact that Cristina's Court had been canceled by Fox midway through its victory season-- and replaced by a bencher starring boss Roger Ailes' GOP political pal Jeanine Pirro.

As popular as the courtroom programs may be-- they out-rate the soaps-- the Legal/Courtroom category has been moved from the big show at the Orpheum Theatre to a nontelevised ceremony at the Bonaventure Hotel the night before. Already, conspiracy theories are floating:

* All the votes are in. Do the producers know the results and want to spare Judy Scheindlin the embarrassment after her disappointment was caught on camera last year?

* Do they want tio avoid embarrassing the suits who canceled Cristina?

* Or are they simply boneheads?

We hear Judge Judy is boycotting the prime time telecast. There's still time to set things right.

Developing...

Cristina's Court's historic Emmy three-peat

The Emmy for Outstanding Legal Courtroom program has been handed out three times in the history of the Daytime Emmy Awards. As of last night in Los Angeles, Cristina's Court, starring Latina Cristina Perez with television legend Peter Brennan behind the scenes as executive producer, has won all three-- despite being cancelled by the geniuses at Fox months before it took the prize for the second time.

Sex On The Bench!!??

We premiered the outrageous and sexy new promo for Cristina's Court, the syndicated television show that snatched the Outstanding Courtroom Show Emmy from the grasp of Judge Judy. Now if there's any doubt that the latest hit from tabloid television creator Peter Brennan is taking the genre to new levels check out the new promo for the promo.

Cristina courts a Daytime Emmy, doggedly

The Daytime Emmys have come out with a new "Outstanding Legal/ Courtroom" category, finally recognizing the special nature of "courtroom shows," the staple of daytime television pioneered (and re-invented) by Tabloid Baby pal and mentor Peter Brennan of A Current Affair, Hard Copy and Judge Judy fame. And chief among the potential nominees has got to be this entry from Latina crossover superstar Cristina Perez:


Cristina's Court is produced by Peter Brennan himself. Man does know his tabloid.

Watch the episode here.

And, thanks to a new twist in Daytime Emmy rules ("...for the first time, all of those entered into the Daytime competition will have their achievements viewed by judges..."), you might even be able to vote for it. Find out more here.

Check out the sexy new promo for Cristina's Court!

Exclusive photos! Cristina's Court wins second Emmy in a row! Best Courtroom Program! Canceled????!!!!

Sandra Gin