As if there wasn't enough news to cover now, NHK has started sending reporters back in time on the variety show "Time Scoop Hunter" (NHK-G, Tues., 10:55 p.m.). Journalists use "warp technology" to travel to different eras to collect information about how people really lived in the past.

This week, ace reporter Sawashima (Jun Kaname) goes back to 1908, when a major American news organization decided to hold the first international beauty pageant. In Japan, a local newspaper company called Jiji Shinposha assigns a young writer to oversee the selection process to find a Japanese representative. He solicits the most attractive women throughout Japan and carries out the contest. Sawashima is surprised that none of the contestants actually show up for the pageant. The judging is carried out using photographs only.

Given current trends, by 2030 or thereabouts, every single Japanese TV personality will be the son or daughter of an earlier Japanese TV personality. That is the meta-theme of this week's installment of "Za Sekai Gyoten News" ("The World Astonishing News"; Nippon TV, Wed., 9 p.m.), hosted by rakugo storyteller Tsurube Shofukutei and SMAP leader Masahiro Nakai.