The drama is a hot topic… but the future of Sho Sakurai, the new “news zero” anchor, is worrisome.

The NTV drama “New Airport Occupation” starring Sho Sakurai (42), a member of the popular group “Arashi” and actor, has become a hot topic every time it is broadcast.

The drama is a sequel to “Daihyoin Seppuku” (Occupy the Great Hospital), which aired on the same station in the January season of last year. It is a battle suspense in which the main character Musasaburo, played by Sakurai, attempts to rescue hostages at a new airport that has been taken over by an armed group wearing animal masks. In the previous film, the enemies were masked as demons, but in this film, they wear the masks of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac and take on the more dangerous challenge of “exterminating beasts.

The average household viewer ratings for the first episode aired on January 13 through the fourth episode aired on February 3 were 7.5% (according to Video Research, Kanto region), 7.5%, 7.1%, and 5.1%, respectively.

In the fourth episode, Musashi once again confronts Yamato, played by Fuma Kikuchi (28) of “Sexy Zone,” who was the ringleader of the hospital occupation incident a year ago. And the beasts of the armed group, horse, cow, and boar, remove their masks in front of the hostages and reveal that Kaito Horie of “Horse” is played by Manabu Takeuchi (35) of the comedy duo “Kaminali”, Rumi Kakegawa of “Cow” by Saaya (28) of the comedy duo “La Land”, and Hitoshi Matsunaga of “Boar” by actor Takanori Goto (40). The selection of these too-surprising people became a topic of conversation. It is likely to get even more exciting toward the end of the season.

Sakurai is the Monday anchor of the station’s news program “news zero,” which will be replaced at the end of March by freelance announcer Yumiko Arido (54), who has anchored the program for five and a half years. It has already been announced that Yumiko Arido will be the MC for “with MUSIC,” a Saturday night music program that will start in April.

It was announced that Takahiko Fujii, 52, of “news every.” will replace Arido as the new anchor. Fujii will leave Nippon TV at the end of March, and it has since been announced that he will become a freelance broadcaster in April and form a business alliance with St. Force, a major entertainment agency.

“Currently, there are four “outsiders” who are not affiliated with Nippon TV, including Sakurai, of whom 36-year-old Yoichi Ochiai, an associate professor at Tsukuba University, has announced his graduation in March. However, it is said that Sakurai himself has a strong possibility of staying on as a newscaster, since he is very particular about his job as a newscaster and is treated as a VIP at our station.

However, when Keiko Fujishima Julie, then president of Johnny’s (formerly SMILE-UP.), apologized in a video on May 14 for the sex-abuse problem at the former Johnny’s office last year, Sakurai was criticized for not making any comment. On the other hand, he was lively only when covering the Rugby World Cup, which was held in the midst of the issue, and many questioned his qualifications as a newscaster.

When she was criticized for not commenting on the sexual assault issue, there were some reports that she would be dropped during the October reshuffle. However, Nippon TV clearly denied this. In fact, Mondays when Sakurai is on the show have better ratings than other days of the week. She will probably be on board for the Paris Olympics to be held this summer as an Olympics anchor from “zero,” which she has been doing since Beijing in 2008.

In the “Occupy” series, the actor’s struggle to act while being told that he was not good at action became so popular that a sequel was produced. That is why we would like to see more of his efforts as an anchor, which he says he is particular about.

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