For the past week or so commercial networks have been launching their new fall shows, and the ones attracting the most attention are on TBS, which seems to be cornering the market on what it calls "nonfiction" programming. There are at least four new shows that have been promoted using this English term, which suggests to viewers that they lean toward a news show format: in-studio discussions about topical subjects interspersed with documentary-like reports.
One of these shows will be hosted by Hiroshi Kume, who changed Japanese news forever with TV Asahi's "News Station," which he anchored for two decades starting in 1985. Not a trained journalist but a seasoned showbiz emcee and radio announcer, Kume brought a brash everyman inquisitiveness to the staid and bland TV news format, which until he showed up was in the NHK mold: newsreaders relating the days events with occasional footage about the stories they were reading. This was and, to a certain extent, still is the model of "objective" news reporting, even if every commercial news show with the possible exception of TV Tokyo's "World Business Satellite" has gone the Kume route, meaning opinionated anchors, guest pundits and "special reports" that get to the heart of particular stories.
TBS's initial contribution to this livelier type of news reporting was "Broadcaster," which recently ended a weekly Saturday night run that lasted 17 years. The show aimed to provide an overview of the previous week's news, and though major issues were examined in depth, the program also directed the same close attention to human interest, sensational crimes and celebrity scandals. At the heart of the show were two regular capsule features: "7 Days," which grouped secondary news stories into rapid-fire briefs centered around a clever theme; and "Otosan no Tame no Wide Show Koza" (Wide Show Theater for Dads), a roundup of that week's most covered stories on the tabloid-style daytime wide shows. In addition, guests from the worlds of finance, arts, literature, academia and show business would comment on the news being presented.