Star Jones Heads to Court TV

Court TV signed Star Jones Reynolds, who was ousted from ABC’s The View last summer, to host a new daytime talk show.

The network, which dedicates most of its daytime programming to coverage of sensational trials, said the program will debut sometime later this year.

Reynolds drew headlines in June when she took her co-hosts on The View by surprise by announcing during a live broadcast that she was leaving the program.

“The show is moving in another direction for the 10th season, and I will not be returning as co-host next year,” Jones said on the June 27 episode of The View.

ABC, which replaced Jones with comedian Rosie O’Donnell, was apparently surprised by the move and pulled Jones from the air the next day.

“We didn’t expect her to make the statement yesterday,” The View host Barbara Walters told viewers June 28. “She gave us no warning and we were taken by surprise. But the truth is that Star has known for months that ABC did not want to renew her contract and that she would not be asked back in the fall.”

Court TV said Reynolds will host a one-hour, live daily show, which hasn’t yet been named. Reynolds, a former Brooklyn, N.Y., prosecutor, began her TV career as a legal commentator for Court TV in 1991.

Court TV executive vice president Marlene Dann said in Wednesday’s announcement that the new program will “offer a fresh perspective to the day’s most-talked-about crime and justice stories from the news and pop-culture arenas.”