I haven't watched too many episodes of Judge Judy, actually it is rather boring, but I do remember her saying 'Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining'
The US tv 'reality' show that shocks me is Hoarders, or maybe Storage Wars, I mean the idea of stuffing your house full of stuff, so much so you need to buy extra space, and then never using it. You can't fit any friends or family in your house, it's too full of your stuff. For health and safety reasons, people that do this need to be evicted...! And all their stuff taken to the tip, but then they can't bear to part with it, so would rather live in their own tip.
Can't survive alone without your stuff? I am sure Jesus said a lot about that in the Bible.
Well that's the beauty of sites like this.
Here you can get to know real, actual Americans living in the USA -- and I think you'll find that we're a lot different than what's portrayed just on Judge Judy or Hoarders.
Sure, there are some people like that, but it's like every other country -- we have some... outliers... but we're mostly just regular everyday people.
I know you've said you've spent some time in the USA, but like any place, all we one really gets when traveling is just a small snapshot (sample size) of what life and the people are like -- unless they live there for an extended time.
And even then, in a place as big as the USA, things vary widely from region to region, or even from town to town.