Dan Abrams Pummels New Court TV Ahead of Relaunch: It Has ‘No Value to a Modern Audience’

Dan Abrams, founder of Law&Crime Network and one of the original anchor/reporters for Court TV, took a swipe at the network set to relaunch on Wednesday.

Scripps is funding the revival of “New Court TV” after buying the rights to the network’s name following 10 years of dormancy. In a biting comment to The Hill, Abrams — also the founder of Mediaite — rolled his eyes at the network’s revival, pointing out his live trial network already has the market covered.

“We always anticipated that after seeing our success re-inventing the old Court TV for the new multi-platform era with Law&Crime Network, that others would try to imitate our model,” said Abrams. “It seems they spent big money for an outdated name that we actually passed on. Despite my nostalgia, it really has no value to a modern audience.”

Court TV CEO Jonathan Katz responded to Abrams with his own statement about how there are plenty of reasons to be confident in the network’s return.

“There is no significant other player in the space with the scale, the resources, the experience, the brand recognition and the polish that the new Court TV will bring to the country,” Katz said. “For these reasons and many others, we are confident Court TV will be very successful and we can’t wait for people to see it.”

Despite Court TV’s generous coffers, the network is facing an uphill talent battle against Mediaite’s sister network Law&Crime, which already boasts a roster of high profile anchors including Abrams, who is also Chief Legal Analyst for ABC News and the host of Live PD on A&E, former ABC News Correspondent Brian Ross, Aaron Keller of Making A Murderer, and regular cable news fixtures Bob Bianchi and Heather Hansen among others. Court TV is launching with a group of relatively unknown reporters and anchors.