<figure id="attachment_392565" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 800px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392565"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="3eeaf6d8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/e446774a44d67f834b7deb1912848e6a-2.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-392565" class="wp-caption-text">Yumiko Udo (right), Shinya Ueda (middle), and Matsuko Deluxe (left), who belong to the entertainment agency &#8220;Natural Eight</figcaption></figure>
<p>Yumiko Udo, 55, a freelance announcer, will be the main anchor of &#8220;Udo Times&#8221; (TV Asahi), which will start on October 6.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The concept is to entertain viewers on Sunday nights with the aim of creating a completely new creative news and information program. The regular commentator is Morio Chizaiwa, the station&#8217;s Political Affairs Department&#8217;s Prime Minister&#8217;s Office cap. He will be joined on an irregular basis by Toru Tamagawa, who is very popular for his &#8220;Shinichi Hatori Morning Show.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The weather corner will be led by Nobukazu Kataoka, a meteorologist who appears on the &#8220;Morning Show,&#8221; and a distinguished lineup of well-known morning wide-show personalities, including Maya Ki, Mitsuki Mukuma, and Yukino Yamamoto,&#8221; said a wide-show staff member.</span></p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<h3>The president of the office to which Arikawa belongs is a &#8220;strong-armed&#8221; person.</h3>
<p>It is said that the station will back up Utomo with all of its resources. Incidentally, for the first feature, Takahide Tomoyori, a.k.a. &#8220;Nas D,&#8221; director of the station, and Mr. Udo will team up for the first time. They will cover the &#8220;Grand Circle,&#8221; a group of nature parks in the Midwest.</p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p>Speaking of Udo, he has just started his first music program &#8220;with MUSIC&#8221; (Nippon TV) as MC in April 2012, after he himself left &#8220;news zero&#8221; of Nippon TV, in order to &#8220;expand his possibilities. Although he invites splendid guests each time and is a topic of conversation, his reputation among viewers is neither good nor bad. Viewer ratings are also sluggish. So, he decided to start a new program called &#8220;Natural Eight,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The president of his agency, Natural Eight, and TV Asahi executives have been making a move, according to a staff member.</span></p>
<p>The rumor is that &#8220;the president of their agency, &#8216;Natural Eight,&#8217; and executives of Teresa are behind it. The agency was established in 2009 by a woman who had been the manager of the comedy duo Kurimu-Chu. In the same year, she scouted Matsuko Deluxe, who was looking for an agency. Arifumi, who was a close friend of Matsuko&#8217;s, had been asking about joining the company since her days at NHK.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="Matsuko also said, I am the person I am today thanks to the president."></div>
<p><span class="strongInContent">She used to have a president&#8217;s corner on &#8220;All Night Nippon&#8221; (Nippon Broadcasting System), which was hosted by Shinya Ueda and Teppei Arita of &#8220;Kurimu&#8221; fame, where her mistakes and misstatements would get laughs. She was treated as a popular character for her natural-like episodes, but she is known to be quite rigid in her sales, negotiating directly with the top management herself.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> For example, before joining the firm, Matsuko dropped out of a series of programs due to scheduling problems. At one point, she was the only regular on TOKYO MX&#8217;s &#8220;5 o&#8217;clock! on TOKYO MX. However, when she joined the same agency in 2009, the president of the agency was able to get around her. He made direct requests to the executives of each station and obtained a number of regular programs.</span></p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<h3>I am not where I am now.&#8221;</h3>
<p>It is a well-known story that Matsuko said in her radio program &#8220;Shofukutei Tsurube: Sunday no Sore&#8221; (Nippon Broadcasting System) in 2003, &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t be where I am today if I hadn&#8217;t met the president of my agency.</p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The three MCs of the show, including Ueda, Matsuko, and Arifumi, now have a strong influence in the TV industry. Thanks to a female president who is known as the &#8220;cut-throat leader&#8221; of the office, the staff is a small elite group of trustworthy people who are able to communicate well with each other. Other offices are envious of her.</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="Arifumi said, The first pitch will be the last. ..."></div>
<p>Incidentally, the only other talents belonging to the company are the comedy duo &#8220;Eight Bridge&#8221; and movie personality Tsukasa Kotobuki. About such an office situation,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> On September 13, &#8220;The momentum of Matsuko and Arifumi is so strong that it is as if they have taken over the office.</span></p>
<p>Arita, who appeared on &#8220;Udo no Rajio&#8221; (Nippon Broadcasting System) as a substitute on September 13, said, &#8220;It&#8217;s like they have taken over the office. On the same day, Arita, who appeared as a pinch hitter due to a bad throat condition of Udo, self-deprecated, saying, &#8220;The point is that I&#8217;m from the same office as Udo-san,&#8221; which drew laughter.</p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<h3>Yumiko Arido&#8217;s first pitch</h3>
<p>Three days later, on September 16, Arido appeared on the first pitch before the Hanshin-Yakult game at Koshien. Yuko, who professes to be a Tiger fan, performed beautifully on the mound at Koshien for the second time in her career.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The last time he made his first pitch debut was in June 2010 at the Hanshin-Nihon Ham game, and he said, &#8220;This is the first and last time,&#8221; but this time the game was broadcast live on the Mainichi Broadcasting System (TV Asahi). This may have been another set-up by the president for &#8220;Arifumi Times. The new program is originally a stage in which Udo excels, and with TV Asahi&#8217;s strong backup, it is sure to be a success,&#8221; said a producer of information programs.</span></p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p>If the influence of working for TV station is this strong, there is a possibility that Arita will take over the office in a &#8220;natural&#8221; way as she says.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="The three giants of the &quot;Natural Eight&quot; entertainment agency"></div>
<figure id="attachment_392585" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 672px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392585"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="7e9a160b"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/0a5a9885f15908936aa449a9b206dc13.png" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-392585" class="wp-caption-text">Yumiko Udo&#8217;s new show &#8220;Udo Times&#8221; will start in October, and the momentum continues to build.</figcaption></figure>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<figure id="attachment_392586" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2500px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392586"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ed21fcd7"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/37ad7f12d8763fa3c9979d55354a5185-1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-392586" class="wp-caption-text">Shinya Ueda of &#8220;Curimuchu,&#8221; who is said to be one of the best variety show MCs in Japan today.</figcaption></figure>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<figure id="attachment_392587" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1000px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392587"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="723dde54"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/2dca67e5a23b4374428b8e8c9bc7473b.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-392587" class="wp-caption-text">Matsuko Deluxe, who has maintained high viewer ratings for all of the programs she has MC&#8217;d.</figcaption></figure>


 Ippei Hara (Yumiko Arito), Shinji Hamasaki (Shinya Ueda)

 Yumiko Arido's "Arido Times" started in October. This new program follows "with MUSIC" that started in the spring, but the momentum is so strong that Arita of "Kurimu," a member of the same agency, laments that "the agency is being taken over...

Arida from “Cream” Ecstatic as Ueda and Matsuko React to Agency President’s Influence

Access Ranking