Fuji TV Starts Actively Featuring ‘Atarashii Chizu’ Eight Years After End of ‘SMAPxSMAP’
Fuji TV has announced the appointment of former “SMAP” members Tsuyoshi Kusanagi (50) and Shingo Katori (47), now working as the joint project “New Map,” for its summer special programs in succession.
Kusanagi will appear in the August 15 broadcast of the variety special “Ozumou Room Rivalry! Kusanagi will be the first MC for a variety show on the station in eight years and four months, since “Kusanagi Tsuyoshi no Ganbatte Taisho” (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi’s Ganbatte Award) in April 2004. Katori also starred in one of the dramas in the annual omnibus-style horror entertainment “Really Scary Stories: 25th Anniversary Special (hereafter, “Honsaku”)” broadcast on the 17th of the same month. This will be his first appearance in “Honsaku”.
Incidentally, Goro Inagaki (50) of “New Map” is the leader of the “Honsaku” club, and this year marks the 20th anniversary of his appointment as the storyteller of “Honsaku.
The three members of “New Map” started working on this project after leaving the former Johnny’s office in September 2005. At the time, it was an unspoken understanding that if you left Johnny’s, you could not appear on terrestrial television. Therefore, Mr. Katori’s regular Fuji variety show “Ojamap! ended in March 2006.
However, Fuji continued to use Mr. Inagaki for “Honsaku” despite the discovery of the old Johnny’s. It is true that the “face” of the program was not the same as that of the old Johnny’s, but it was the same as that of the new Johnny’s. Indeed, he has become the “face” of the program, so Fuji must have considered the psychology of the fans of “Honsaku” and continued casting him.
After leaving the former Johnny’s, the three members quickly teamed up with ABEMA, an Internet TV station, and also made full use of SNS, which they had not made use of during their time with the former Johnny’s. However, in July 2007, a tremendous “tailwind” blew for the three members. In July ’19, a tremendous “tailwind” blew for the three.
