Cagan, Ushiyama Come Back to 'Arsenio Hall'

CBS Television Distribution's The Arsenio Hall Show has filled out its production ranks, with Claudia Cagan and Makiko Ushiyama reteaming with Hall as senior talent producer and producer, according to the show's executive producers Arsenio Hall, John Ferriter and Neal Kendall.

"The advantage of launching a new show with a production team that we have history with can't be underestimated," said Hall in a statement. "We can begin with the shorthand that it typically takes one or two seasons to find, giving us a real edge as we move forward."

Cagan returns to Arsenio after nearly eight years with E! News where she was a senior segment producer. She also has worked on CTD's Entertainment Tonight and Warner Bros.' Extra. Since 2005, Ushiyama has been a segment producer for NBCUniversal's Access Hollywood and Access Hollywood Live. Prior to that, she was a talent executive at E! Entertainment and KCET.

Arsenio Hall is fully staffed now, with Renee Henson and Luke Sader hired as talent producers, and Christopher McDonald joining as music producer. Holly Crosby and Stephanie Storie have come on board as coordinating producers. Sader, McDonald, Crosby and Storey previously worked with Kendall on Tavis Smiley.

Henson joins from BET's Don't Sleep hosted by T.J. Holmes, where she served as supervising producer. She has also served as a talent producer at Showtime's Stephen A! and produced NBCU's The Megan Mullally Show and Showtime's Penn & Teller: BS .

Sader most recently worked as talent producer for Tavis Smiley, a position he held since 2003. Prior to that, he was talent producer for Disney/ABC's The Wayne Brady Show and a talent booker at ABC's Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher.

McDonald served as senior producer for Tavis Smiley from 2003 through 2013, booking musical guests including Prince, Jay Z, Alicia Keys, Tony Bennett and Mary J. Blige. He also produced and developed programming for CNN and HLN.

Crosby produced Tavis Smiley for six seasons. Prior to that, she was a producer/writer forAnimal Planet's The Jeff Corwin Experience and coordinating producer for Starz! Movie News.

Storey was senior producer of Tavis Smiley for seven seasons, during which the show earned two NAACP Image Awards for outstanding TV news, talk or information series. In addition, she recently produced The Sundance Channel's The Writers Room.

The Arsenio Hall Show, which is being nationally syndicated in late-night, premieres Sept. 9. It is produced by Eye Productions Inc., in association with Arsenio Hall Communications Ltd. and Octagon Entertainment Productions, and distributed by CBS Television Distribution.

Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.