Sony Pictures Television Announces Senior Producing Team for The Queen Latifah Show

CULVER CITY, Calif., March 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Pictures Television announced today the senior staffing of its new daytime talk series The Queen Latifah Show, with a mix of top writers, producers and filmmakers from a wide-range of backgrounds including daytime, late night, news, comedy and reality television.

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Joining The Queen Latifah Show's five-time Emmy-winning, Executive Producer and show runner, Corin Nelson (Chelsea Lately, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, The Nate Berkus Show) will be Co-Executive Producer Todd Yasui (The Tonight Show, The Late, Late Show With Craig Kilborn, ROVE LA) and Supervising Producers Jack Mori (The Oprah Winfrey Show), Catherine McKenzie (Good Morning America), David Harte (The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson) and Sierra Lindsey (MTV, Obama Campaign).

"These producers bring tremendous experience, diversity of background and some of the most creative minds in this business to our show," said Holly Jacobs, Executive Vice President, Syndication and Reality Programming, Sony Pictures Television.  "This dream team, combined with the multi-talented Queen Latifah and powerhouse producing partners Flavor Unit and Overbrook Entertainment, position us for an incredibly strong launch and a long, healthy run."  

Co-Executive Producer Todd Yasui most recently executive produced the Australian prime-time talk show ROVE LA.   He was Executive Producer of The Late, Late Show with Craig Kilborn, where he spent five years as show runner of the World Wide Pants-owned show.  After Kilborn's departure, Yasui helped re-start the program with new host Craig Ferguson before being recruited by Fox to start up a late night division at the network where he served as Senior Vice President of Late Night Programming for five years.   He has been executive producer of several comedy, late night and variety shows for Oxygen, ABC and Fox, and spent five years as a talent booker and Segment Producer at The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.  Yasui began his career in journalism at The Washington Post, starting as an assistant to Pulitzer Prize-winning TV Critic Tom Shales, rising to Assistant Editor of Arts and Entertainment.

Supervising Producer Jack Mori was a Senior Producer for The Oprah Winfrey Show, where he spent over 15 years producing shows featuring everything from A-list celebrities and newsmakers, to large-scale remote events such as "Oprah and Gayle's Big Adventure," musical performances, reunions and compelling emotional stories.   Mori was also responsible for bringing in Dr. Mehmet Oz and developing his franchise on The Oprah Winfrey Show.  Mori most recently worked for Nigel Lythgoe Productions, developing shows for Network and Cable.

Supervising Producer Catherine McKenzie was most recently senior broadcast producer at ABC News' Good Afternoon America and a senior producer for Good Morning America, since 2009, where she was responsible for leading teams to create a daily, two-hour broadcast.  She was senior producer of special projects and live events for WABC-TV/ New York where she produced segments on the New York City Marathon, the Super Bowl, the Oscars, the Bush and Obama presidential inaugurations and 9/11 coverage, for which she won a Peabody Award.  McKenzie began her career as a producer in local news, with Emmy-winning stints at WITI-TV in Milwaukee and WFRV-TV in Green Bay, WI.

Supervising Producer David Harte most recently held that same position at Attack of the Show, G4's live, daily, comedy/variety series. Prior to that, he held a variety of writer and producer positions for shows including Lopez Tonight on TBS, Last Call With Carson Daly on NBC and The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson on CBS. 

Supervising Producer Sierra Lindsey was most recently producer lead for President Obama's campaign, responsible for producing and directing the President for his campaign videos and Obamacare health care videos.  She conducted interviews and direct-to-camera tapings with the President, covering topics including Jay-Z, the President's faith, his love for Iowa, and Michelle Obama as a mother.  She also produced the President's "48 Hour Forward Tour" tumblr vlog.   Prior to that, Lindsey produced for a variety of MTV shows including MTV's True Life series, It's On with Alexa Chung, Unplugged featuring Adele and Silversun Pickups, Video Music Awards and MTV NEWS (2008 Election Coverage).

The Queen Latifah Show, a multi-topic, daytime entertainment talk show launches in September 2013.   Hosted by multi-talented entertainer Queen Latifah, the show is produced by Flavor Unit, Overbrook Entertainment and Sony Pictures Television. The Queen Latifah Show is cleared on major station groups around the country, including the CBS Television Stations.

Sony Pictures Television (http://www.sonypicturestelevision.com), a Sony Pictures Entertainment company, is one of the television industry's leading content providers. It produces and distributes programming in every genre, around the world and for a multitude of platforms.  In addition to one of the industry's largest libraries of award-winning feature films, television shows and formats, Sony Pictures Television (SPT) boasts a current program slate that includes top-rated daytime dramas and game shows, landmark off-network series, original animated series and critically acclaimed primetime dramas, comedies and telefilms. SPT has 18 wholly-owned or joint venture production companies in 15 countries outside the U.S. and also maintains offices in 32 countries. SPT's worldwide television networks portfolio includes 124 channel feeds available in 159 countries, reaching more than 800 million households worldwide.  SPT also creates original content for and manages SPE's premium video website, Crackle. Additionally, SPT owns production company Embassy Row and is a part owner of cable channel Game Show Network (GSN), 3D channel 3net, premier horror/thriller website and VOD service FEARnet and national U.S media sales company ITN Networks, Inc.  SPT advertiser sales is one of the premier national advertising sales companies and handles the commercial inventory in SPT's syndicated series as well as in U.S. digital businesses including FEARnet, DrOz.com and PlayStation. 

Flavor Unit Entertainment is a production company owned and operated by Queen Latifah and her partner, Shakim Compere.   Flavor Unit Entertainment, which started in New Jersey and is now based in Miami, is quickly establishing itself as one of the most important production companies in the film industry. They began by executive producing Disney's box office # 1 hit Bringing Down the House and then continued with Beauty Shop for MGM and The Perfect Holiday for Paramount. They have also produced The Cookout with Lion's Gate, as well as the film Just Wright with Fox Searchlight. On the small screen, they executive produced HBO's critically acclaimed film Life Support which garnered a number of awards including an Emmy nomination and Golden Globe win for Queen Latifah . Flavor Unit Entertainment made a multi-year deal with BET to create new original programming including the original movie The Cookout 2 and its first-ever scripted romantic comedy titled Let's Stay Together which premiered with 4.4 million viewers. In 2011, Flavor Unit Entertainment's original film Single Ladies, was expanded into VH1's first hour-long scripted series with approximately 3 million viewers throughout its two season run.  Flavor Unit produced Latifah's film Joyful Noise. Most recently, Flavor Unit produced Lifetime's Original Movie, Steel Magnolias which stars Queen Latifah, Phylicia Rashad, Jill Scott and Alfre Woodard. The movie premiered in October 2012 as the third most-watched telecast ever on the network, averaging 6.5 million total viewers.  Currently, Flavor Unit Entertainment is producing the CW show The Next: Fame is at Your Doorstep.  The show is a new take on the music competition genre and includes superstar mentors Gloria Estefan, John Rich, Nelly and Joe Jonas.   Flavor Unit is also currently producing the thriller, House of Bodies, which Latifah will be starring in alongside Terrence Howard and Peter Fonda.  

Overbrook Entertainment, founded by partners James Lassiter, Will Smith and run along with partner Jada Pinkett Smith, is committed to offering the highest quality entertainment focused in film and television and has produced a diverse slate of both critically acclaimed and blockbuster feature films, which have generated more than $2.5 billion dollars in worldwide box office receipts and even more in home video sales.  Some of Overbrook's most successful films include Ali, Hitch, Pursuit of Happyness, I Am Legend, Hancock, Secret Lives of Bees, and most recently, The Karate Kid.  Overbrook's next feature project is After Earth, which is set for a June 7^th, 2013 release.

SOURCE Sony Pictures Television