Palin To Push Proposed Court Show At NAB

Sarah Palin will be at next week’s NAB Show in Las Vegas taking meetings to promote her prospective syndicated court show, TVNewsCheck has learned.

In addition, the formerly untitled show now has a name — Palin Rules — although it’s being characterized as a “working” title that could be subject to change, sources say.

According to multiple sources, Palin will be sequestered in a hotel suite where she is expected to meet-and-greet programming executives from station groups who will be in town for the annual National Association of Broadcasters convention.

The meetings will represent the first time that station programmers will get to meet Palin and, in the process, get to know her and size up her potential as a prospective TV judge.

Palin, 52, has partnered with a Montana-based TV producer — Missoula-based Warm Springs Productions — for this TV court show, which would premiere in September 2017, if it can earn the interest of stations and get clearances.

Since the news broke a little more than three weeks ago that Palin is eyeing a new role as a TV court show judge, few details about the show have been revealed. But sources say the Palin court-show scenario is taking shape.

Among other things, the show’s developers are considering having Palin be addressed on the show as “Governor” rather than “Judge Palin,” perhaps to play up her past role as governor of Alaska and play down the fact that she has no real-world experience as either a lawyer or a judge. To amplify that point, she might not wear judicial robes on the show either, sources say. This consideration might also be why the word “Judge” does not appear in the show’s working title. Whether or not her show’s set would resemble a courtroom, however, is still not known.

Distribution of the new Palin show is being handled by Barry Wallach, former president of NBCU Domestic Television Distribution, and Lee Villas, formerly of CBS TV Distribution. Producer Larry Lyttle, a veteran of TV court shows (Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown), is on board as the producer in charge of turning Palin into a TV court show personality.