Sony, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith Developing Talker for Queen Latifah

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Sony Pictures Television is developing a talk show starring Queen Latifah for fall 2013, the company confirmed. 

Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith's Overbrook Productions will produce, in partnership with Latifah's Flavor Unit Entertainment. Executive producers include Shakim Compere, co-founder of Flavor Unit, Overbrook's Miguel Melendez, Overbrook's James Lassiter, as well as the Smiths and Queen Latifah.

Queen Latifah and the Smiths have known each other for years. One of Latifah's earliest TV appearances was on Will Smith's Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1991 and 1992, and she starred in the film Set It Off with Jada Pinkett-Smith in 1996.

Latifah previously starred in her own talk show, which aired for two seasons, premiering in September 1999 and finishing its run in 2001. Telepictures produced that show with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution distributing.

Paige Albiniak
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.