Judge Maria Lopez
US television program

Judge Maria Lopez is an American arbitration-based reality court show, presided over by Maria Lopez. On the show, guests themselves presented and argued small claims civil actions before the judge. The half-hour series, produced and distributed by Sony Pictures Television, debuted in the United States and Canada on September 11, 2006. It was Sony Pictures' second court show. The show was taped at the Metropolis Studios in New York City. Prior to joining the series, Lopez was a judge in the Massachusetts Superior Court.
International viewing
Judge Maria Lopez debuted in the same week as another syndicated courtroom show featuring a Latina judge, Cristina's Court. In January 2007, SPT renewed the series for a second season despite being the lowest rated court show of the 2006–07 season, averaging a 0.9 rating. However, in February 2008 reports indicated that due to two seasons of low ratings, Sony Pictures Television was cancelling the series and the show ended on May 23, 2008, along with Judge Hatchett.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6302593. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2006, 2007 and 2008.
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This entry incorporates text from “Judge Maria Lopez” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.