<figure id="attachment_228238" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1000px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-228238"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="fed59cad"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/02/edc672f620686356b62e2753c7445328.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-228238" class="wp-caption-text">Un-jash&#8216;s Ken Watabe returns to Chiba TV. The key stations were reluctant&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
Un-jash&#8216;s Ken Watabe, who has been refraining from his activities due to his infidelity, is officially &#8220;coming back.
According to Chiba TV, Watabe will appear on &#8220;Black and White Un-jash&#8221; (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), which is scheduled to air on February 15. This will be his first public appearance in a year and seven months since the news of his affair in June of the year before last.
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
The show, which is local to the Kanto area, was launched in October 2004 as the duo&#8217;s first show. After Watabe took a break from the show, his partner Kazuya Kojima was the sole host of the show.
 This is the origin show for the duo. Even though he didn&#8217;t know when Watabe would come back, Kazuya kept the Un-jash name and continued the show. I think he was trying to keep a &#8216;place to come back to&#8217; for his partner,&#8221; said a TV station insider.
Chiba TV is also a good test for the future. According to the person mentioned above
 As an independent local TV station, it is easier to move than the private key stations. They probably want to see how the local stations react to the program.
He said. His wife Nozomi Sasaki is very busy with her acting career, and Watabe, who has too much time on his hands, has been ridiculed as a &#8220;housewife. The reaction on the Internet has become much softer than the year before.
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
 I can&#8217;t defend the affair itself, but as expected, she was beaten up for too long. I can&#8217;t defend the affair itself, but he&#8217;s been beaten up too much for too long, and some people in the industry have been saying, &#8216;It&#8217;s time to bring him back.
NTV has been watching Watabe&#8217;s &#8220;departure&#8221; with bated breath.
At one point, it was thought that Watabe&#8217;s return would not be to Chiba TV, but to a variety show on NTV called &#8220;Matrix no Naru Sodanjo.
 It&#8217;s true that they were actually working on it. It is true that they were working on it, but we heard that they had to give it up due to conflicts with sponsors,&#8221; said an ad agency official.
Watabe&#8217;s move will also affect &#8220;that program&#8221; on Nippon TV. This is the &#8220;Laugh It Up&#8221; series by Down Town, a tradition on New Year&#8217;s Eve.
Last year, the series took a &#8220;break&#8221; and was replaced by &#8220;Laugh and Pass the New Year!　Laughing New Year&#8217;s Eve&#8221; was aired instead, but it failed miserably with an average viewer rating of 7.2%. Laughing New Year&#8217;s Eve&#8221; was aired instead, but the average rating was a dismal 7.2%, down 10 points from the previous year, and the station was filled with people who said, &#8220;It has to be Downtown after all&#8230;&#8221;.
 The reason for the &#8220;pause&#8221; last year was largely due to Hitoshi Matsumoto&#8217;s decision to have the BPO (Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization) deliberate on painful laughter. The BPO (Broadcasting Ethics and Programs Improvement Organization) has made painful laughter a subject of its deliberations, and I wondered if &#8220;Laugh It Up&#8221; had been swallowed up in that wave, but I was wrong. I believe that the year before last, when Watabe&#8217;s appearance on the show was first exposed in a women&#8217;s magazine, this had a greater impact on the show. It means that there is a &#8220;leaker&#8221; among the people involved in the program. It can&#8217;t be helped if a sense of distrust grew from that.
Watabe held a press conference at the end of the year when the affair was reported. However, when it was reported that he was going to appear on &#8220;Laugh It Up&#8221; just before the press conference, the color of the press conference itself changed. It also caused a backlash.
 The scene of Mr. Watabe&#8217;s appearance was put on hold. It&#8217;s all because the information about his appearance was leaked before the press conference. Matsumoto and the others were heartbroken that they ended up &#8220;destroying&#8221; Mr. Watabe.
Matsumoto and others were heartbroken that they had &#8220;crushed&#8221; Watabe.
It was against this background that the news of Watabe&#8217;s return came out. A source at Nippon Television Network Corporation said
 &#8220;First of all, let&#8217;s hope for peace and quiet&#8230;&#8221;
It&#8217;s no wonder that the people at NTV are hoping for a peaceful return. If Watabe is accepted by TV viewers, the hurdles for other stations will be lowered dramatically. Eventually, there may be a &#8220;co-starring&#8221; scene with Matsumoto.
For Nippon TV, Watabe&#8217;s move is a major concern that will affect the resumption of &#8220;Laugh It Up&#8221;.

 Sota Shima

 Un-jash" Ken Watabe is reported to be returning to TV after a year and seven months with a program on Chiba TV. It is said that his partner Kazuya Kojima has been working hard behind the scenes, but it seems that it will be a battle that he cannot afford to lose in order to return to the key stations...

Why NTV is “watching with bated breath” the return of Un-jash Watabe

Access Ranking