TV Station Reveals Reasons for Ending 13-Year MC Role of Shigeru Joshima

As the spring reorganization renewed the news and live wide-ranging appearances on all stations, TV Asahi was the one that changed the most. One of the changes was the end of Shigeru Jojima’s (53) “Weekly News Leader,” which had aired for nine years on Saturday mornings.

The program had been low in viewer ratings and was little talked about by the public, but the reorganization brought relief to TV Asahi’s news-related departments,” said a director of a production company.

Jojima’s program had been running for nine years.’ In October 2011, “Shigeru Jojima’s Weekend Navi Cocoico! began in October 2011, and was changed to “Asa Navi” in April of the following year, which also handled news coverage. It later became “Minna no Doubts: News Why Taro,” and in April 2003, “Weekly News Reader” was launched. In other words, he was the “face” of the program for about 13 years. During this time, there were many twists and turns.

The popularity of Yoshizumi Ishihara, who is a certified weather forecaster, kept “Weekly News Leader” going for a while, but the other three programs were all short-lived. However, the other three programs were all short-lived. The reason for this lies in Mr. Jojima’s MCing style. He struggled quite a bit with being an MC in the studio and was not the type who could clearly express his own comments and arguments. I got the impression that the program was continually struggling to get into him somehow.

As a result, he was not the type of person who could make his comments or assertions clearly! DASH! (NTV’s “DASH Village”), he was often interviewed on location. However, I heard that there was some difficulty in continuing to do so because of the extra production costs involved. To be honest, some of the staff members said they wished he would be a little more aware of current news and trends in the world.

(A former TV Asahi employee says that there is a reason why TV Asahi could not cut off Jojima even though he was still working for them.

The reason was that the cooking variety show “Ai no Apron,” which ran from 1999 to March 2008 and enjoyed high viewer ratings, was well received by the viewers. Jojima was able to handle the male guests who tasted a dish prepared by a female celebrity who was not a good cook and criticized it harshly. In other words, he was a great contributor to TV Asahi, and “Shigeru Jojima’s Weekend Navi” was launched in the same slot. For this reason, he was switched from the news bureau to the production bureau.

In October 2005, Noriyuki Higashiyama (57) became the MC of “Sunday LIVE! started in October 2005, “Sunday LIVE!” was the show’s MC, and the “Johnny’s Relay” from Jojima to Higashiyama continued on weekend mornings. In the past few years, the show had to deal with the sexual assault issues of President Janney Kitagawa, in addition to the departure of junior members of the office.

But Jojima’s comments were not memorable. In fact, he often skipped over the topic. Of course, I think he was unable to comment because the Johnny’s office “asked” him to do so…. It was also a topic of conversation that Sho Sakurai, a member of Arashi, remained silent for several weeks on “news zero” (NTV) because Higashiyama’s comments were given top priority as the “eldest son” of the family. Mr. Jojima, who also remained silent, failed to make his presence felt and was forgotten by the viewers.

Another reason for the end of the program was that Higashi retired from show business at the end of last year, and upon assuming the position of president of his office, he stepped down as MC of “Sunday Live! was also a major factor in the program’s demise.

“TV Asahi was thinking of having a set of Johnny’s programs on Saturdays and Sundays in the morning. I think it was easier for them to tell Jojima-san and his office to end the program because of Higashiyama-san’s demotion.

The Saturday edition of “Good Morning,” which began in April to replace “Weekly News Leader,” is now the MC of the new show! Morning,” which began in April in place of the Weekly News Leader, is anchored by Naoyuki Hiraishi, 49, who has been with the company for 28 years.

He is also the MC of “Sunday LIVE! He has appeared on “ABEMA Prime” debate programs and other programs, and has been trained by the debaters. The quality of the program has obviously improved, and the cost has gone down. The announcers don’t need to be paid no matter how much they spend. The production site is now rejoicing that ‘Weekly News Leader’ is over and they can finally have a proper news program,” said a former TV Asahi employee.

What will NTV, which still heavily relies on Sho Sakurai (42) and Kazuya Kamenashi (38) as newscasters, think when they see this? There may be similar changes in this fall’s reorganization.

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