Producers of TV shows often try out their new creations during the wee hours and if they attract enough viewers the show is bumped up to prime time. That¡¯s the case with ¡°Obosan Variety: Butchake-dera¡± (¡°Buddhist Priest Variety: In-a-nutshell Temple¡°; TV Asahi, Mon., 7 p.m.), whose prime time premiere is a 3-hour special. It¡¯s a show featuring Buddhist priests talking about their work, which most people don¡¯t really understand since they only have contact with priests when a loved one dies.
Comedy duo Bakusho Mondai are hosting the show, and during the special the duo¡¯s taller half, Hikari Ota, tours Zojoji Temple ¡ª one of the biggest in Tokyo. In another segment, actor Koji Matoba goes shopping for a grave for himself and a priest comes along to offer common sense advice.
Last July, TBS aired ¡°Zensekai Kyokugen Sabaibaru¡± (¡°Worldwide Extreme Survival¡°), a special reality program that sent four male TV personalities to ¡°extreme¡± natural environments where they had to fend for themselves for a set period of time. It proved to be very successful, so the same four men are going to do it again this Tuesday at 7 p.m. for a 4-hour special.
Tatsuya Ueda of the boy band KAT-TUN, who prides himself on his physical stamina thanks to a strict boxing regimen, is sent to the far north of Canada, where the temperature is frequently below zero. Former track star So Takei spent several days in a dense jungle last summer and this time he¡¯ll be dropped onto an uninhabited island that is only 200 meters in diameter. Actor Tetsuya Sugaya is dispatched to a desert in Oman, where the difference in temperature between night and day is 40 degrees. And Wakki of the comedy group Penalty has to spend 100 hours in a jungle in Venezuela populated by poisonous snakes and dangerous wild cats.
CM of the Week: Eneos
Most people should know by now that next year they will be able to choose an energy provider, which is the theme of a new ad for oil company Eneos. A newscaster is seen hurrying around her office barking orders to subordinates and expressing indignation when they give her information. ¡°I know everything,¡± she says.
On the air, she explains Eneos¡¯ plan to provide electricity to schools and businesses directly. ¡°Didn¡¯t know that,¡± she says to herself after the broadcast, which draws cold stares from her crew.
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