David Theodosopoulos Named ‘Hot Bench’ EP

David Theodosopoulos has been named executive producer of Hot Bench, the syndicated courtroom program. The announcement was made today by Hot Bench creator Judge Judy Sheindlin.

“David is a brilliant lawyer with a keen sense of storytelling. Hot Bench is thriving under his guidance,” said Sheindlin.

Theodosopoulos has been at the helm since March when Hot Bench started taping its fourth season.

Before joining Hot Bench, Theodosopoulos was SVP of business affairs and legal for CBS Television Distribution (CTD) where he oversaw business affairs relating to the division’s first-run productions such as Judge Judy, Entertainment Tonight and Hot Bench, as well as CTD’s projects in development. His responsibilities also included all business affairs and legal work related to licensing CTD’s first-run programming and CBS’s off-network programming in cable and SVOD.

He joined Paramount Pictures in 1992 as director of legal for the domestic and international television divisions. In 1995, he was promoted to vice president of legal for CTD predecessor Paramount Domestic Television and in 1998 was promoted to vice president of business affairs and legal.

Prior to Paramount, Theodosopoulos was an associate at entertainment law firm, Cooper, Epstein & Hurewitz.

He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Southern California in 1988 where he was the Student Bar Association president.  He received his Bachelor of Science in business administration from USC in 1985.

Additionally, this season, Belinda Jackson has been named co-executive producer of Hot Bench. Previously, Jackson was the co-executive producer of Divorce Court. Prior to that, she was senior supervising producer for Swift Justice.

Jackson spent 11 years at Judge Joe Brown, from 2001 to 2013, where she was senior supervising producer. She was a producer for Judge Judy from 1999 to 2001 and was a producer/writer for Leeza from 1995 to 1999. 

Jackson started her career in television as an assignment editor at KMOV St. Louis.

During the 2016-2017 season, Hot Bench was the #3 first-run program in daytime television, delivering 3.2 million daily viewers. Additionally, it continues to be the No. 2 court program, behind only Judge Judy.

Hot Bench is produced by Big Ticket Pictures and Queen Bee Productions. It is distributed by CBS Television Distribution.