In 2023, Warner Bros. canceled The People’s Court after 26 seasons, blaming the daytime syndication market. Marilyn Milian had been presiding over it for 22 years — longer than anyone else ever had, including Joseph Wapner.
She was on a rival network with her own show within months. And in July 2026, that show picked up its second Daytime Emmy nomination in a row.
So much for retirement.
Updated September 2026
What is Marilyn Milian doing now?
Presiding over Justice for the People with Judge Milian, produced and distributed by Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group.
It was announced in April 2023 — weeks after her old show ended — and premiered that autumn. It was nominated for Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Series at the 53rd Daytime Emmy Awards, announced on 14 July 2026, and at the 52nd the year before that.
It isn’t going anywhere, either: in May 2025 Allen Media renewed all nine of its courtroom shows, hers included, for two more seasons, through 2026-27.
Byron Allen’s line on it: “Judge Mathis and Judge Milian are outstanding, charismatic, and iconic television judges.”
Why did The People’s Court end?
It wasn’t her decision — that’s the thing people tend to assume.
Warner Bros. cancelled both The People’s Court and Judge Mathis in 2023, citing “the challenging market in the daytime syndication landscape.” The final episode aired on 21 July 2023.
She’d taken the bench on the show on 12 March 2001 and stayed 22 years across 28 seasons — the longest tenure in the franchise’s history, and the first Latina to preside over an English-language nationally syndicated court show. Across her career she’s had 16 Daytime Emmy nominations and five wins.
And then it was taken away from her in a corporate restructuring.
Who is Marilyn Milian’s husband?
John Schlesinger. They met at a gathering of prosecutors in Miami — they were both prosecutors at the time — and he proposed roughly fifteen months later, without a ring box.
They married on 4 April 1993.
Is Marilyn Milian’s husband still a judge?
Not a sitting one. Schlesinger served on Florida’s Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court, in the family division, from 2005 until he retired in April 2020. Before the bench he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney, including a spell as Deputy Chief of Major Crimes.
So they’re both retired judges now — a rather neater symmetry than the one usually reported.
What happened to John Schlesinger’s health?
In 2020 he suffered a silent heart attack and needed an emergency stent.
Milian has described what that was like from her end: she received what amounted to a goodbye voicemail from him, left from his hospital bed. They talked about it publicly the following year.
He recovered.
Does Marilyn Milian have children?
Three daughters, all grown now. The family lives in Coral Gables, Florida.
What did Marilyn Milian do before television?
She was a prosecutor, and then a judge — in that order, and for roughly two decades before a camera was ever pointed at her.
She was born in Manhattan on 1 May 1961 to Cuban immigrant parents, her father a general contractor. She grew up in Astoria, Queens, and moved to Miami at eight. Psychology at the University of Miami, then Georgetown Law. Janet Reno hired her into the Dade County State Attorney’s Office, where she prosecuted for about ten years. In 1989-90 she spent a year at Harvard Law School directing the Guatemala Project, training judges and lawyers there.
She was appointed to Miami County Court, and in 1999 Governor Jeb Bush appointed her to the Miami Circuit Court’s criminal division.
Then she left that bench for television — which, at the time, plenty of people thought was a strange thing to do.
How old is Marilyn Milian?
She was born on 1 May 1961 in Manhattan.
What is Justice for the People with Judge Milian?
Her current courtroom series, produced and distributed by Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group. It was announced in April 2023, weeks after The People’s Court was cancelled, and premiered that autumn.
In May 2025 Allen Media renewed all nine of its courtroom shows, hers included, for two more seasons — through the 2026-27 broadcast season. It has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy in each of the last two years.
Is Marilyn Milian Cuban?
Cuban-American. She was born in Manhattan to Cuban immigrant parents, grew up in Astoria, Queens, and moved to Miami at eight. She is bilingual, and she was the first Latina to preside over an English-language nationally syndicated court show.
What did Marilyn Milian do at Harvard?
She spent 1989 and 1990 at Harvard Law School directing the Guatemala Project, training judges and lawyers in Guatemala.
It is an unusual line on the CV of a television judge, and it sits alongside the rest of a legal career most viewers never knew about: ten years prosecuting in Miami for an office run by Janet Reno, then two separate appointments to the bench, the second by Governor Jeb Bush in 1999.
