TBS Denies Omakase Cancellation, Raising Questions About Its Future and Akiko Wada’s Rumored Move
TBS strongly denies “termination reports
At a regular press conference held by TBS on September 25th, Takashi Goda, a member of the TBS team, strongly denied reports that his program “Akko ni Omakase! at TBS’s regular press conference on September 25, TBS Senior Managing Director Takanobu Goda denied the report , saying, “It’s not true at all. I would like to strongly state that it is not true at all,” he denied .
In early September, the web version of “Josei Jishin” (Women’s magazine) (published by Kobunsha) reported about the program’s termination in the coming spring. Akiko Wada (74), a TV personality who has been called into question for her numerous problematic comments, is in talks to terminate the program after her comments on the August 11 broadcast became the decisive factor.
Wada’s comment in the August 11 broadcast, which is said to have been the decisive factor, was directed at Haruka Kitaguchi (26), who won the gold medal in the women’s javelin throw at the Paris Olympics. In response to a video of Kitaguchi eating a sponge cake on her stomach during a break, Wada said, “It looks like a sea lion lying down. It ‘s cute. This caused a firestorm on the Internet.
At the beginning of the following week’s broadcast on the 18th of the same month, Wada’s voice trembled and he said with a mysterious look on his face , “In last week’s broadcast, I made an inappropriate comment comparing him to an animal. I apologize. He then revealed that he had been cheering for Kitaguchi, saying, “I myself love her and wish her the best, and then she won the gold medal, which I had longed for, and I was really, really happy to see her on TV.
For many years, Ms. Wada was known as the “opinionator of the entertainment world,” speaking freely at events and during interviews, and her programs were supported by viewers in that vein. In recent years, however, his comments have been received more harshly by viewers, and he has frequently been criticized online. In this case, he was shocked because he was truly rooting for Kitaguchi. This also contributed to strengthening the credibility of the censored report.
Furthermore, in recent years, in the battle for average household viewer ratings among private key stations in the same time slot, the TV program “School Revolution! and is competing with TV Asahi’s “Beat Takeshi’s TV Tackle. If it had dominated the other stations in viewer ratings, these stories would not have come out.