The first name on the list to break the $30 million (£22.2m) earnings mark is none other than TV icon Judge Judy Sheindlin. Her original courtroom series, Judge Judy, ran for 25 seasons until 2021, consistently drawing over 10 million viewers a day at its peak and generating massive advertising revenue for CBS. Her biggest payday came in 2017 when she sold the show’s entire library to CBS for a reported $95 million (£70.7m).

Even after Judge Judy ended, Sheindlin hasn’t slowed down. Her follow-up series, Judy Justice, continues to perform well on Amazon Freevee, where it’s one of the platform’s top-performing original titles. In 2025, she also launched a spin-off project, Justice on Trial, expanding her courtroom empire across streaming and syndication.

The highest-paid TV hosts, ranked