<figure id="attachment_416587" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-416587" style="width: 830px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="7e1d52e1"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/6b56a837261bbaaa033b060a41730f6a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-416587" class="wp-caption-text">In 2006, &#8220;Itte Q&#8221; also caused a stir due to allegations that a &#8220;festival project&#8221; was a hoax, forcing then-president Yoshio Okubo to apologize. The Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization (BPO) pointed out that this was a violation of broadcasting ethics.</figcaption></figure>
<h2> The &#8220;replacement of the program four hours before airing&#8221; is a startling fact.</h2>
<p> Do you remember the trouble that occurred in the February 2 episode of NTV&#8217;s popular variety program &#8220;Sekai no Hattou de Itte Q! A location shoot in Korea was cancelled due to the fact that the collaborator was an organization related to the former Unification Church.</p>
<p> Aside from the reason for the replacement, what shocked many TV people was the sudden change of content &#8220;four hours before the broadcast. The surprise was even greater than the public had been led to believe.</p>
<p> A mid-level broadcaster who had been in charge of variety programs at Nippon TV in the past even told me, &#8220;I feel like I have seen the dark side of Nippon TV. What does this mean?</p>
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<p> The staff members shoot and edit the program and deliver it to the station as a &#8220;complete packet. The station&#8217;s producers and legal staff check the final version, and only those that are judged to be &#8220;OK&#8221; are broadcast. A broadcaster mentioned above said, &#8220;If a replacement is made four hours before the broadcast, it is not a problem,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The fact that the film was replaced four hours before the broadcast means that it had not been &#8220;completely packaged&#8221; until just before that time. In other words, they were editing until the very last minute before the broadcast, right?</span></p>
<p> He says, &#8220;Yes, that&#8217;s right. The person in charge of planning and directing &#8220;Itte Q&#8221; is Mr. A, who is known as the number one person at the station when it comes to variety shows. He has planned and directed other popular programs such as &#8220;Monday Night Fakashi.</p>
<p> A director who has worked with him once said, &#8220;He is a man who never compromises his work.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He never compromises his work. If he thinks something is boring, he will tell you to go back and reshoot it, even if it is just before the deadline. The results of his persistence are reflected in the numbers, so he tries his best to live up to the expectations of the production staff.</span></p>
<p> It is a highly enthusiastic work environment. That&#8217;s all very well, but the director laughed bitterly, saying, &#8220;Depending on how you look at it, it&#8217;s a bit of a black eye.</p>
<p> When you are checking the program on the day of broadcast with little time to spare, you may miss problems or not have enough time to deal with them. It raises a question mark in terms of crisis management.</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The payoff comes later."></div>
<figure id="attachment_416591" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-416591" style="width: 1170px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b7ed16a6"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/6ffb608f3dcdfb72d924ba681f23945f.png" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-416591" class="wp-caption-text">Official X of the &#8220;Itte Q&#8221; program notifies the audience of the replacement four hours before the broadcast.</figcaption></figure>
<h2> &#8220;We&#8217;ve decided to terminate the contract this month.</h2>
<p> And while this is true of any station, a broadcaster laments, &#8220;We broadcasters are often told after a program has finished airing, &#8216;Your fee is ³,000.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> We often don&#8217;t know how much we are being paid for this work. For special programs, it is not uncommon to start work six months in advance, but even so, the fee is usually presented after the program has aired. &#8216;I worked for six months and this is it?　If you convert it to a monthly basis, it is sometimes less than a freelancer&#8217;s part-time job.</span></p>
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<p> A veteran freelance broadcaster who worked on programs for a major commercial TV station in the Kansai region said, &#8220;In mid-November last year, I was suddenly told that I had to leave the station,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8220;In mid-November of last year, I was suddenly called by the producer of the production company and told that my contract would end at the end of this month,&#8221; he confessed.</span></p>
<p> He confessed. According to the new freelance contract law, a 30-day notice must be given and both parties must agree to the termination of the contract. This veteran broadcaster protested, &#8220;No matter how much &#8230;&#8230;</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The director wants to cut you off, too. I&#8217;m sorry, but we have already found a new writer.</span></p>
<p> He was told that his contract had been unilaterally terminated. He was shocked to hear that he had been in charge of the program for so long and that he had contributed so much to the program for so long only to have it cut off like this, but he gave up on the idea that he would only lose his TV job if he exposed this incident.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I can&#8217;t forget the way his shoulders slumped as he said, &#8220;I felt empty, wondering what the new freelance law was all about.</span></p>
<p> I will never forget the way his shoulders slumped.</p>
<p> Now that Fuji Television&#8217;s problems have been exposed, triggered by Masahiro Nakai&#8217;s troubles with women, and the state of TV stations is being reevaluated, now is the time to take action to improve this kind of black structure. Otherwise, other TV stations may follow in Fuji Television&#8217;s footsteps.</p>
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 Hisashi Niisa (Broadcaster)

 Kyodo News

 The replacement fiasco caused by the popular variety show "Itte Q to the Ends of the World! The TV crew was astonished at the timing, "four hours before the broadcast," as well as the reason for it. What was the reason for the "shock" as they described it?

 The unprecedented "replacement fiasco" that occurred in February...... broadcaster takes a look behind the scenes.

A TV writer finds out the dark side of &#8220;Itte Q&#8217;s&#8221; &#8220;last-minute replacement&#8221; that is &#8220;several times worse than what people think.

A TV writer finds out the dark side of “Itte Q’s” “last-minute replacement” that is “several times worse than what people think.

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