The latest news from the TV beat

THE WAGES OF SYNDIE Judge Judy Sheindlin certainly has impeccable timing. She successfully renegotiated her current contract with syndicator Big Ticket TV just as the latest sweeps results showed her numbers growing by 60 percent since February 1998 — she notched an impressive 7.5 rating (each rating point represents 994,000 viewers).

”She’s a juggernaut,” says media analyst Marc Berman of Seltel, a TV consulting firm. For reference sake, the next-highest-rated court show — Ed Koch’s The People’s Court — only mustered a 2.9.

Syndicated talk shows certainly didn’t pack as big a punch as Judy. Although The Jerry Springer Show remains at the top of the heap, his 7.2 rating marks a 10 percent dip from February ’98. The Oprah Winfrey Show is down 18 percent and The Rosie O’Donnell Show lost 16 percent. Quasi-talker Martha Stewart Living took a whopping 20 percent drop. ”She should be looking for a recipe to stop audience erosion,” cracks Berman. The lone bright spot (and it’s a stretch) is The Maury Povich Show, which at least managed not to lose any viewers from a year ago. As for the new yak-fests — The Roseanne Show, The Howie Mandel Show, and Donny & Marie — they still can barely crack a 2 rating. Berman attributes the all-around grim numbers to a cluttered market.

Xena: Warrior Princess still reigns over the syndicated action genre, but even her devoted following dipped 29 percent, which left her sharing the crown with Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

The game shows and entertainment magazines remained relatively stable, but — in a sign that there is still hope for the Western world — TV tabloids Inside Edition and Hard Copy plummeted 24 and 36 percent, respectively.

CASTING CALLS Ice-T will try his hand at TV again, in UPN’s The Disciples, a drama pilot about ”an ensemble of martial-arts experts” who take on sensitive investigations (translation: karate detectives). Jay Mohr and Illeana Douglas have been tapped for Fox’s Action, a racy dramedy about a crazed Hollywood producer. And word is Law & Order alum Dann Florek may resurface in the spin-off Sex Crimes.

AND SO ON Everybody Loves Raymond‘s Peter Boyle, who is recovering from a heart attack, is expected to return in time to film the sitcom’s season finale.