Judge Joe Brown, the second highest-rated court show in television syndication after Judge Judy, has been cancelled by CBS Television Distribution after 15 years according to The Hollywood Reporter. The news about the cancellation came about earlier this week.

The cancellation comes after negotiations on a new contract broke down, apparently over Brown’s salary. He reportedly has been making $20 million a year, but CBS Television Distribution (CTD) was looking to trim his compensation in line with a decline in his ratings.

In the recent February sweeps, Judge Brown had a 2.5 household rating, down 17% from the prior February. He attracted an average of 3.4 million daily viewers (down from an average of 4.1 million last February '12). In the key demographic for a daytime show, which is women 25-54, Brown had a 1.1 rating, down 15% from a year earlier.

Sources say that, Judge Brown has been second to Judge Judy in the ratings for the past 739 weeks. Both shows are distributed by CBS Television Distribution. But the decline in his ratings have hurt what they can charge for advertising, so CBS Television Distribution wanted to pare his salary.

At this point, Judge Brown is scheduled to run in original and repeat episodes on the Fox Network owned stations until September 2013, when they will have the opportunity to reprogram his time periods.

Judge Joe Brown debuted on the air in 1998. Before that, he was a real life criminal courts judge in Shelby County, TN. He started his career as a lawyer and was the first African-American prosecutor in Memphis, TN earlier in his career.