After years without representation, the Daytime Emmys have added court shows as a category in the annual kudosfest. With the numbers of court shows rising year after year, the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences will no longer relegate them to catch-all categories, which pitted shows like Judge Judy against MTV's Made and TLC's Baby Story, Variety says. Michael Rourke, who exec-produces two court shows for Sony Pictures TV, explained, "For a long time, people didn't really know what to do with court shows.... The genre was an orphan." Poor Judy!Now that the initial wave of The People's Court has come and gone — and the genre has remained strong — the gavel's getting an acknowledgment of its own. The Daytime Emmy nominees will be announced April 30, with the awards telecast airing June 20 on ABC (8 pm/ET). Is it time that court shows found a place in the awards limelight? Have you pondered their absence in the past? What's your verdict? — Anna Dimond
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Sam Raimi (the Spider-Man movies) is bringing his flair for fantasy to television. He'll exec-produce a new syndicated series called Wizard's First Rule, based on the best-selling Sword of Truth books by Terry Goodkind. Sword tells the story of a woodsman-cum-wizard and a mysterious woman who team up to combat an evil tyrant.... A bright spot amidst all of the strike Sturm und Drang: CBS is producing new television! The Eye has ordered 13 episodes of Flashpoint, a cop drama about a city's Strategic Response Unit, starring Enrico Colantoni (Sheriff Mars!), Hugh Dillon and David Paetkau.... Judge Judy will be sticking around the judicial airwaves for at least another four years; a two-year contract extension will keep her gavel a-bangin' through 2012. — Mickey O'Connor
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