Sarah Palin is not a judge, but it looks like she’ll be playing one on TV. The former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate has signed a deal with Montana-based production company Warm Springs, whose other shows include titles like Friends of NRA and Log Cabin Living, to film a pilot of a courtroom TV show.
Howard Bragman, Chairman of 15 Minutes, the public relations firm representing Warm Springs, confirmed to TIME that the timing of the pilot is currently being worked out and that the show’s team includes Larry Lyttle, an executive who Bragman says “reinvigorated” the courtroom TV format with shows like Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown. Making a pilot doesn’t guarantee the show will get picked up for a full run, but if all goes well, the syndicated daytime program will debut in the fall of 2017.
“The fact that she’s got this huge built-in audience, the fact that her personal demographic of people who respond to her dovetails very nicely with the daytime audience, [that] she’s not afraid to have an opinion—these all work in her favor,” explains Bragman.
The former Alaska governor may not be a lawyer, but her appeal as a public figure cuts across the spectrum of political views, from those who vehemently agree with her to those who find her personality and sometimes controversial views amusing. The show represents a return to the small screen for Palin, whose reality show Sarah Palin’s Alaska aired for one season on TLC, from late 2010 into early 2011.
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