Careers
Controversial MA Judge Struggling on TV
Posted Jul 24, 2007, 02:59 pm CST
By Martha Neil
After Maria Lopez's first courtroom gig came to an end, a second judicial career beckoned to the controversial former Massachusetts jurist. She was invited to host her own television show as "Judge Maria," a role in which she is touted for telling it like it is.
Now, however, the 53-year-old Cuban native's television career is threatened by low ratings, reports the Boston Herald. Of nine syndicated judge shows, hers finished last after its first year on the air, averaging a little more than 1 million households as viewers.
“If her ratings do not increase in the second year, I don’t think there will be a third season,” Marc Berman, a Mediaweek analyst, tells the Herald. “In order for it to survive, it needs to pick up some steam.”
Lopez stepped down after 14 years as a Massachusetts judge, as controversy swirled over the probationary sentence she gave a transgender man accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old. Her courtroom behavior, which allegedly included shouting at a prosecutor, also resulted in a Commission on Judicial Conduct finding that she abused her office.