TBS Announcers Sweep Popularity Rankings as Celebrity-Style Female Anchors Fade

An upset in the “Favorite Announcer Ranking”

An unexpected shift occurred in Oricon’s latest “Favorite Announcer Ranking.” In the men’s division, Masatoshi Nanba (37) and Ayumi Akaogi (44) took the top two spots, while in the women’s division Mako Tamura (29) and Ai Eto (40) also finished first and second—meaning TBS announcers dominated the upper ranks for both men and women.

“Except for Eto, all of them appear on the morning infotainment variety show Love it!. Their hardworking attitude on the program and their unique personalities have resonated with viewers and boosted their popularity. In the past, Fuji TV actively promoted its female announcers with things like the ‘○○-pan’ series, but with rising awareness of harassment and work-style reforms, selling announcers as talents has drastically decreased. There are hardly any popular programs left that allow announcers to show their individual character—Love it! is about the only one. It’s become difficult for popular announcers to emerge from networks other than TBS,” says a director at a production company.

The female announcer calendars that had been sold by Fuji TV, TV Asahi, and TV Tokyo until last year have also disappeared from merchandise sections.

“TBS stopped selling its announcer calendar after the 2022 edition. I believe other networks followed suit because of the series of issues at Fuji TV. Up through the Heisei era, female announcers were often cast beside veteran MCs in assistant roles, almost like hostesses. But the Fuji TV scandal brought up suspicions of sexual entertaining involving female announcers. Female viewers looked at this coldly, sponsors pulled away one after another, and Fuji’s management rapidly declined. Seeing that, people in television changed their mindset. Every network has become more cautious in how they handle female announcers,” says a key-station producer.

A mid-career broadcast writer also reveals that the “list of precautions” when using female announcers on variety shows has increased.

“The term ‘joshiana’ (female announcer) is NG. It’s not in the scripts, and we remind veteran talents not to use it. Announcers are company employees, not talents, so we don’t put them in projects they aren’t willing to do. More often, they’re asked to focus strictly on program hosting.”

While the burden on the announcers has been reduced, the downside is that their individual personalities have become harder to see, making it more difficult for widely beloved star announcers to emerge across generations.

“In that respect, TBS has live programs like Sunday Japon in addition to Love it!, where you can easily see the announcers’ individuality and humanity. The play-by-play role on the sports entertainment show SASUKE also brings out the character of the male announcers. Having highly capable figures like Shinichiro Azumi (52)—whom Chidori’s Nobu (46) has said he uses as a reference for MC hosting—remain at the company and rise through the ranks also helps boost the motivation of TBS announcers,” the same production company director continues.

Right now, the announcers attracting the most attention from TV insiders are, again, from TBS.

“Kyoko Nango (24), who also appears on Love it!. Cute photos of her from her student days went viral, so she has strong name recognition among younger generations. If her live broadcast hosting skills improve, she could become the next flagship announcer after Tamura,” says the broadcast writer mentioned earlier.

In an era when it is difficult to market announcers as celebrities, TBS announcers are entering a golden age.

From “FRIDAY”, January 30–February 6, 2026 combined issue.