Checking in with STEVE HARVEY

Series television has had its share of judges, but Steve Harvey maintains he first thought of joining that parade long ago.

The comedian and “Family Feud”: host is in his second season of “Judge Steve Harvey,” the ABC series that sees him take the bench and mete out his distinctive brand of justice to those who enter his courtroom. The show moves to Wednesdays starting June 14, and as unlikely as it may seem for Harvey to be in that role with his caustically humorous bent, he deems it a natural fit for him.

He says the “Judge Steve Harvey” concept originated with him more than a decade ago, and “I just never told anybody. I never sat in a pitch room about it. I never met with a network about it. I never discussed it with my team, my production company, nothing. I just had this idea.

“We were on a Zoom call during COVID with, I guess, about eight execs from ABC, and they were very high-level people. They had got on the phone to pitch a scripted show for me, a sitcom. And they got through talking; and it was a great idea, but I wasn’t that enthusiastic about doing a sitcom anymore. So, the president of ABC said to me, ‘Well, Steve, what would you like to do if you could do anything?’”

Given that opening, Harvey took it: “I said, ‘Well, I always wanted to be a judge on TV’ And the Zoom got kind of quiet. They went, like, ‘A judge?’ Everybody was looking at me, trying to figure out where that came from. And I told them I wanted it to be funny. I wanted it to be insightful. I wanted it to be not about the verdict, but about the story. And the next day, they greenlit it.”

Birthdate: Jan. 17, 1957

Birthplace: Welch, West Va.

Current residence: Los Angeles

Marital status: Married to third wife Marjorie; has seven children