Exclusive: Todd Yasui Promoted to EP of SPT’s ‘Queen Latifah’

Todd Yasui (pictured) has been promoted to executive producer of Sony Pictures Television’s The Queen Latifah Show, while Jack Mori and Ianthe Jones move up to coexecutive producers as the show heads into season two.

Joining the show are Amy Coleman as consulting producer and Fernita Wynn as supervising producer.

“As we look ahead to our second season of The Queen Latifah Show, we are proud to be able to elevate the key members of our team who contributed greatly to our initial success and we look forward to building on that success with the fresh energy and depth of expertise that Amy and Fernita bring to the staff,” said Holly Jacobs, SPT’s executive VP, syndication and reality programming, in a statement.

Queen Latifah’s original executive producer, Corin Nelson, is departing.

Yasui joined Queen Latifah in season one after serving as the executive producer of the Australian primetime talk show, Rove LA. Prior to that, he was executive producer of The Late, Late Show with Craig Kilborn. Yasui also was senior VP of late-night programming at Fox for five years, and he’s executive produced several comedy, late-night and variety shows for Oxygen, ABC and Fox. He also spent five years as a booker and segment producer at NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Yasui started his career at The Washington Post, working as an assistant to Pulitzer Prize-winning TV critic Tom Shales and rising to assistant editor of arts and entertainment.

Mori came to Queen Latifah after working on The Oprah Winfrey Show for more than 15 years, while Jones was previously a senior producer for Dr. Phil.

Coleman most recently executive produced CBS Television Distribution’s The Jeff Probst Show, after working on Oprah for 16 years, eventually climbing to supervising producer.

Wynn joins Queen Latifah from NBCUniversal’s The Steve Harvey Show, where she was senior producer. Prior to that, she was a talent executive, and worked as a producer on The Sharon Osbourne Show, The Jenny Jones Show and Sally Jesse Raphael.

The Queen Latifah Show stars Queen Latifah and is produced and distributed by Sony Pictures Television. Latifah and Shakim Compere’s Flavor Unit and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith and James Lassiter’s Overbrook Entertainment also produce.

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.