Editing Judge Mathis (section)

===Outlasting other court shows and TV judges===
By the 2014–15 television season, ''Judge Mathis'' made it to its 16th season, making Mathis the longest-serving [[African Americans|African American]] and [[Black people|Black]] court show arbitrator, surpassing [[Joe Brown (judge)|Joe Brown]] (''[[Judge Joe Brown]]''), whose program lasted 15 seasons. Moreover, Mathis held the record for second-longest serving court show arbitrator ever, just behind [[Judy Sheindlin|Judge Judy Sheindlin]], the presiding judge of the court show ''[[Judge Judy]]'' and its spin-off series ''[[Judy Justice]]''.<ref name="ChicagoTribuneArticle"/>

''Judge Mathis'' entered its milestone 20th season on Monday, September 3, 2018, and the 24th season of the program was its last. (2022–23).<ref name="ChicagoTribune">{{cite web|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/tv/ct-ent-judge-mathis-season-20-0903-story.html|title=Judge Mathis recalls highlights from his Chicago-filmed TV show ahead of Season 20 premiere |website=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=30 August 2018 |access-date=2 September 2018}}</ref> The success of ''Judge Mathis'' was particularly noteworthy in that, generally speaking, [[court show]] programming had a very limited [[shelf life]]. The programs in this genre [[Court show#List of present-day traditional court shows|are lucky to make it past a few seasons]]. ''Judge Mathis'' was the fourth longest-running courtroom series behind ''Judge Judy'', ''[[The People's Court]]'' (2nd longest running), and ''[[Divorce Court]]'' (longest running). Though both ''Divorce Court'' and ''The People's Court'' have experienced a series of cancellations/revival reincarnations and shifting arbitrators, ''Judge Mathis'' had not. Consequently, of the court shows with a single production life, ''Judge Mathis'' was the second longest-running (second only to ''Judge Judy'' by three seasons).

During its final 2 seasons, it reigned as one of the longest running court shows (having premiered in 1999) with only 2 other programs: ''Divorce Court'' (1957) and ''The People's Court'' (1981). Of these three court shows, only ''Judge Mathis'' had not suffered temporary cancellations amid its series run. Also of the three, Mathis was the only arbitrator to have hosted his program for the entirety of its series run.