Court TV Returns - Just in Time For Up Coming Trials

bigwave · May 9, 2019

Court TV Pounds Gavel Again as All-Trial Channel Is Reborn

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.

"We're not jumping in for a minute here, 20 minutes there," said Scott Tufts, a veteran producer who long coordinated trial coverage for CNN and now joins Alleva as a vice president and managing editor for Court TV. "These are compelling stories of human events that will attract a large, and we believe dedicated audience."

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."

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/california/articles/2019-05-07/court-tv-pounds-gavel-again-as-all-trial-channel-is-reborn