This is Later with Lee Matthews, The Lee Matthews Podcast more What You Here
weekday afternoons on the Drive. Julie Grant has a license attorney and former prosecutors.
She brings a blend of journalism, experience and legal expertise to Court TV's
newest show called Opening Statements with Julie Grant, and it's weekdays between eight and
nine Eastern Julie, what are we going to see on Opening Statements? Hi?
Lee, You're going to see you all when it comes to what is
going on in the world of true crime and trials. And so, just
like opening Statements at a trial get the jury crimes for the evidence, we're
getting our audience at Court TV Primes for the day of Court TV Live.
And so at nine am that typically reports start all across America. Our cameras
are in position ready to broadcast the various trials. And so what we get
to do in that special hour of Opening Statements, we were that unique content
that we aren't able to get to during the day because we don't have time
to do the deep dives. And so we're gonna have special guests, leading
voices and true crimes experts and everything from forensics, medicines, law, you
name it. We're going to invite them on the show. Anybody who's a
leading voice or authority in that world of criminal justice and true crime, we
want to hear from them. And we're also going to invite on survivors witnesses.
Want to hear people's stories and do them justice by giving them time to
do a deep dive. So it's a unique show, very high energy lass
of cold debating. We have a social sidebar lead where we get our viewers
involved. We ask them to sound off, send this little videos of what
they think of the cases. So it's very interactive as well as informative and
fun and fascinating. If you love true crimes, well, I was going
to say, true crime seems to have really exploded in the last oh,
I guess five years on our own iHeartRadio app more there most of the more
popular podcast our true crime podcast, You're rightly and it's funny and a lot
of those podcasters you know, of course you're true crime offictionatos themselves. They
love Court TV and so they love coming on and being guests. And it's
great because we get to share a lot of information and a lot of times
that they've done and you meet interview or something, they want it to be
spotlighted, and so go say, hey, would love to come on your
show, and you know, we've put it out there on Court TV.
And then a lot of them will then ask us in turn, hey we
come on the podcast and talk because you know, we're looking at cases differently,
right as legal analysts, and I like to say, we're kind of
like ESPN for trials. We're going to do the play by play in the
color commentary, explain things and also weigh in with opinion, you know,
root and backs and law, and so it's cool to talk to those podcasters
and have those it's almost like your friendships forming. Really some of them you
have become friends of mine, and it's cool. It's cool to meet new
people technology as you know, I mean, of course, you know with
your showy and other work you do in broadcasting. I mean it's it's like
the sky's the let that nowadays with who you can talk to people all around
the world at any time, right, Yeah. Opening Statements with Julie Grants.
It's week days at eights Eastern on Court TV, and Julie Grant is
with us what is it about true crime? Is it? Is it all
amateur sleuthing? You know. It's funny, ily, I never realized until
I really got into my hosting work at Court TV, just how many people
really believe they're detectives, you know. And that's cool. I mean,
like I love it. You know, everybody watching at home wants to solve
the case and so and I feel like, hey, you know, the
more guys the better, right You know, when when I was a prosecutor,
I would see things, you know, from that lens, right that
that was my lens through which I would look at things, and I would
you know, you talk to your detectives as the experts. You're relying on
them, maybe your lab analyst, everybody involved in your case. And then
you go into the world of true crime, as you said, which has
exploded and it's having such a moment right now. If you hear about all
these people that they're at home and they just love listening and want to figure
it out, and some of them get hung up on really interesting details.
And I feel like the more eyes are better, because sometimes you can look
at something in a vacuum, you know, if you're an investigator, it
can be easy to maybe close yourself off to decide that isn't favorable, you
know, if you really believe strongly in something, and so when you have
more objective eyes, I think it's fantastic if people want to be detective.
When I go to Crime Cut, it's funny. I'm going there a couple
of days and they sild these shirts. The last year. I thought everybody
was walking around in them. They said, I'm basically a detective, and
I think that's a lot of the true crimes fields feel that they are court
TVs. Julie Grant's opening statements is hurt show and Julie. I also think
it has a lot to do with some of these true crime stories are far
more bizarre and intriguing and involved than anything that could be written down from any
of the I don't want to slam the writer, the television writers, but
a lot of times these stories are beyond anything they could come up with.
Surely, you're spot on. Sometimes truth is really stranger than fiction. And
when you hear these cases, you know, it's almost like, you know,
it's funny. I always say this. My great uncle, he was
a sheriff's deputy, and you know he passed away long before I ever worked
in the same courthouse as a prosecutor, but I knew some of the deputies
that were younger that worked with him, and they used to sail Your uncle
Art used to say, boy, you think you've seen it all today,
just come to work tomorrow. You're getting to see something even a while then.
And and it's very true. Some of it is just beyond comprehension.
Some of it it's really it's hard to wrap your mind around. I mean,
we've thought so many different cases right now that are on the docket that
we're watching, and and every time it's like, you've got to be kidding,
You've got to be kidding me. Somebody's actually accused of doing this?
Who does this? And then you go through a trial and you find out,
Wow, this person actually did be unthinkable. So it really kind of
rocks your world sometimes when you hear about some of the allegations it does.
It can be kind of sickening, you know, and thankfully it's just it's
a small minority of people in our world who do crimes like the ones we
show on Court TV. Opening Statements with Julie Grant on Court TV weeknights at
eight o'clock and you're a prosecutor, and our legal system can be full of
minutia and painstakingly slow and at times very boring. So do you have to
spend a lot of time kind of cutting through the minutia. That's a great
question, Lee, Thank you for that. Yes, And I really try
to on my show and when we go into our court be live broad because
and I've been hosting Quartivy Life since I was part of the Quartvy network relaunched
in twenty nineteen, and then I just moved to get my own jowel opening
statements recently, as you know. And thank you again for having me on
to talk about it. But I try to when we're live and when we're
watching the trial, to never waste the viewer's time, right, you know.
For instance, sometimes when we have let's say, an expert witness and
they've put this really impressive curriculum vitae of qualifications, and they've done a million
things, and during really doesn't want to hear about all those things, and
our viewers certainly does either. They just want the experts espinion. They know
they're an expert, they know they're more than qualified, and so so sometimes
we'll dip away from from that and bring on against let's say, to try
to give the viewers some more value and kind of cut to the chase and
then go back into the live coverage to hear the opinion or sometimes you know,
jury instructions that can be very tedious. Nobody wants to sit there and
it's like in paint drive. So well, we'll do an interview and do
something. We're exciting when that happened. That was one of the weaknesses of
court TV in the early days. I remember watching it and going, wow,
this is a root canal. When is this going to end? It's
funny, yeah, you know, and and I'm going to tell you something.
You'll appreciate this, you know, being such a pro at broadcasting week
when when we we broadcast trials, those of us who are travel lawyers and
we know that in the court room they're going to be natural positive. But
in radio or in television, you know, a positive like oh my goshd
of dead air. And so it's funny like I'll be sitting there in the
desk and the producers look at my air. Do you want to talk to
you? Let's go out. They're like you know having a offense because it's
ten seconds with nothing said. But it's just the way it is. Yeah.
Opening statements with Julie Grant. You can see it week days at eight
a m. Eastern. UH and Julie Grant WI. Thank you for bringing
us the story and for bringing us the show and for joining us today.
A Lee, thank you for letting me on to your show. Appreciate your
time today. Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews
Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to
seven. And iHeartMedia presentation