Judge Judy’s former bailiff Petri Hawkin-Byrd says he is shocked she has not invited him to reprise his role in the spinoff series “Justice Judy.”
“My assumption is if you were going on to do something else, that you were at least going to ask me if I wanted to have the opportunity to audition for the role,” Byrd said.
He said he “didn’t have time to think about or ask about ‘Judy Justice,'” because his wife was scheduled to have brain surgery.
He says he later received a call from Judge Judy.
“She informed me I was not being asked to come along on the project,” he said. “I didn’t inquire as to why, that’s her choice. But she did inform me that fundamentally, I was priced out as the new bailiff on her new show. My salary would have been too much,” he said, adding, “she didn’t give me an opportunity to have accepted a lower salary.”
Byrd said, “I don’t think she understood how confused and dismayed I was after being there for 25 years, from the beginning of her career, and not being at least given the opportunity to say whether or not I wanted to continue that relationship.”