think differently. In the first season of the Judge Mathis show, Leslie (Pallotta) Merrill, a former news anchor for WPGH Pittsburgh became the show's court reporter. Her role was to interview the litigants after Judge Mathis passed judgment and rendered his verdict on each case. She left the show after season 1. For the reminder of the series, Judge Mathis did not have a court reporter. Crossovers and other media personalities In a 2005 episode, Mathis goes toe-to-toe with performance artist Max Geller about whether Geller is technically a father for donating to a Feed the Children campaign. In a September 2014 Rickey Smiley Morning Show interview, Judge Mathis expressed praise towards his courtroom rivals. In the interview, he was asked what three other court show judges he'd most enjoy sharing a meal with. For his first choice, he answered "Are you kidding? It would be Judge Judy at the head of the table. Oh, my goodness, that Judge Judy is something else." His second choice was Judge Marilyn Milian, and his third was Judge Mills Lane. On October 29, 2015, during a 17th season episode of Judge Mathis, People's Court arbitrator Judge Marilyn Milian made a surprise appearance on Judge Mathis, interrupting one of Mathis's courtroom proceedings. In the episode, she entered through the door to the left of the bench that Judge Mathis uses to enter and exit the courtroom and states, "Hey, hey, hey! Excuse me! Let a real judge do this." Following that, she exchanged greetings and hugs with Judge Mathis, who responded, "That's right. She taught me all I know, the best judge on The People's Court. I'm going to get some consultation from her in the back." In response, Judge Milian stated, "The realest [sic] judge I know." In a January 2018 interview, Mathis suggested that he tried emulating Judge Judy early on and received input that his gender and race made this approach short-lived. In speaking in the early days of his courtroom series, Mathis stated:I tried to be like Judge Judy. And she was mean all the time. And then ultimately [my] producers said, ‘Well, no, an older white woman can talk to white folks like that, but a young black man can't.’ So I learned that lesson early on. White folks love to see black people sing and dance. So instead I decided to just be myself. Judge Mathis also took