Judge Judy’s annual salary is greater than Cristiano Ronaldo’s and Lionel Messi’s combined

You too can earn more money than the greatest footballers on the planet by berating criminals on reality television.

TV judge Judith Sheindlin has just signed a new contract with American broadcasting behemoths CBS, and she's set to make an absolute killing. Under the terms of the new deal, she'll bank the handsome sum of $47.2 million (€44.5m) a year. While that may seem like an astronomically high wage, when you compare her contract to those of the world's highest paid professional athletes, you really get a sense of how lucrative it is. For example, when you exclude endorsements and prize money. she earns more than Cristiano Ronaldo (€21m) and Lionel Messi (£22m) combined. In fact, if she was an athlete, she'd be the world's fourth best-paid.

1. Sebastian Vettel, Formula One, $80 mil per year
2. Floyd Mayweather, Boxing, $72 mil per year
3. Kimi Räikkönen, Formula One, $51 mil per year
4. Judith Sheindlin, “Judge Judy”, $47.2 mil per year
5. Clayton Kershaw, Baseball, Los Angeles Dodgers, $30.7 mil per year
6. Max Scherzer, Baseball, Washington Nationals, $30 mil per year
7. Miguel Cabrerra, Baseball, Detroit Tigers, $29.2 mil per year
8. Wayne Rooney, Manchester United, $26 mil per year

Not bad for a 72-year-old, who only films one day a week. Hat-tip to SportsGrid