THE MC3 to Continue Without Masahiro Nakai—But Will It Avoid the Fate of Canceled Shows?
Other TBS programs featuring Nakai also terminated
On March 7, TBS Television held a press conference to announce programming changes for the April 2025 season. During the event, it was revealed that the variety show THE MC3, in which retired entertainer Masahiro Nakai (52) had been a host, would continue airing.
At the end of December 2024, Nakai was embroiled in a female-related scandal, and on January 23 of the following year, he announced his retirement from the entertainment industry. Given that he had numerous regular TV shows, networks scrambled to respond.
“Nakai Masahiro no Kinyoubi no Smile-tachi e (Kinsuma, TBS), Nakai Masahiro no Doyoubi na Kai (TV Asahi), and Dareka to Nakai (Fuji TV) were all canceled. Meanwhile, The! Sekai Gyoten News (Gyoten News, Nippon TV) and THE MC3 continued without Nakai. However, while Gyoten News has aired post-Nakai episodes since February 11, THE MC3 has not aired a single episode since December 9, 2024—over three months of hiatus,” said an entertainment journalist from a sports newspaper.
THE MC3 premiered in October 2024 in the Monday 9 PM slot. Hosted by Nakai, Koji Higashino (57), and Hiromi (60), the show’s concept was “Japan’s most unnecessary but intriguing variety show,” where they investigate how people are perceived by others and relay the findings to their guests. However, since Nakai’s scandal surfaced, the show has faced tough times.
“Special editions of variety show Crazy Journey and music program CDTV Live! Live! were aired instead. TBS had taken similar measures for the Kinsuma slot, but recently, they have been struggling to keep enough special programs in stock. According to the press conference, Higashino and Hiromi will continue on THE MC3. However, when asked about the show’s future format, TBS only said they are currently considering how to proceed, without revealing specifics,” the journalist added.
Losing one of the three main MCs, a key feature of the show, has had a significant impact. However, the reason for the over three-month hiatus goes beyond that.
