Fuji TV and NHK Cut Back on Regular Programs Featuring Former Johnny’s Talents – Uncertain Future Looms for Fan-Favorite Shows

Snow Man’s “Sore Suno,” which was promoted to Golden last April and is now the only GP-band show by a former Johnny’s talent, is available at?(2020 Jan.)

“Last autumn, the sexual misconduct scandal involving the late Johnny Kitagawa, founder of the former Johnny & Associates (now SMILE-UP.), caused a huge uproar in Japan. Timing-wise, it was expected to have no immediate impact on the January reshuffle of TV stations, but was anticipated to greatly influence the April reshuffle. However, a harsh reality has been thrust upon Johnny’s former talents.”

NHK, as well as various private TV stations, have been announcing their April reshuffles one after another. NHK, which excluded Johnny’s talents from its year-end “Kohaku Uta Gassen ” last year, has made it clear that it will exclude them not only from NHK General but also from other channels. The termination of eight programs has been announced, including two on BS such as “New Generation!” (formerly “The Shonen Club”) featuring “Juniors” (former Johnny’s Jr.), four on E-Tele such as “The Truth of Value” by SixTONES, and two radio programs including “STUDY! With Us and Everyone’s Radio” by A.B.C-. 

Fuji Television, which was also the former workplace of Julie Keiko Fujishima (57), former president of the former Johnny & Associates, announced the end of “KinKi Kids’ BUNBUBOON” and “TOKIO’s TOKITABI,” as well as “SUPER EIGHT’s After All, It’s Up to You” and “Hey! Say! JUMP’s Thank You High Jump.” JUMP’s program will be renamed and a new program is scheduled to be broadcast in the late night slot. Furthermore, “K7◎×Bu” hosted by Arashi’s Masaki Aiba (41) will be renamed to “Aiba◎×Bu” and moved from Thursday 7 p.m. to Saturday 4:30 p.m., a local time slot in the Kanto region.

Nippon TV will discontinue the Monday late-night drama slot “Dhindora,” which has been starring former Johnny’s talents, in addition to taking over the time slot of Arashi’s flagship show “Arashi ni Shiyagare” to start 1.3 Billion People’s SHOW Channel in 2021, with Sho Sakurai (42) as the host.