Rino Sashihara
Overview
This show brings together top female entertainers like Rino Sashihara and Asako Ito for lively interviews that reveal unknown sides of their guests and leading to engaging discussions about love, life, and career in the spotlight.
Seasons
- Status
- Returning Series
- Seasons
- 2 seasons
- Episodes
- 9 episodes
- First aired
- Nov 18, 2020
Cast
Reviews
4 min readThe Unscripted Throne: How Talk Queens Turns Gossip Into a Contact Sport
I’ll admit it: I came for the tea and stayed for the knives. Talk Queens, Fuji TV’s late-night talk show fronted by Rino Sashihara and Asako Ito, isn’t just another celebrity chatfest—it’s a gladiatorial arena where the currency is humiliation, the weapon is a well-timed side-eye, and the prize is the kind of viral infamy that keeps fans refreshing their timelines at 2 a.m. This isn’t The View with softer lighting. This is The View if the hosts had spent their formative years in the cutthroat trenches of Japanese idol culture, where a single misplaced word could end a career.
The show’s genius—and its most uncomfortable trick—is how it weaponizes the illusion of intimacy. The Queens don’t just interview their guests; they interrogate them, often with the kind of invasive questions that would get a Western talk show host dragged for "punching down." But here’s the twist: the guests sign up for it.
Boy bands, actors, comedians—they all walk in knowing the rules. The Queens will ask about your dating life, your financial troubles, that one time you got drunk and cried on national TV. And if you squirm?
Even better. The camera lingers on your discomfort like a predator savoring its prey.
Take the infamous M!LK incident. When member Hayato Sano sat down for what was supposed to be a lighthearted segment, his bandmates immediately turned on him, roasting his "so cold it’s dead" sense of humor with the kind of precision that suggested they’d been waiting years for this moment. The Queens, rather than playing peacemakers, leaned in—literally, their chairs creaking as they scooted closer—egging the pile-on on.
Audience Opinions
Audience 7.2/10
"A lively and engaging talk show that shines with its charismatic hosts and candid guest interviews."
Viewers appreciate the chemistry between hosts Rino Sashihara and Asako Ito, which brings a refreshing and often humorous dynamic to the show. The interviews are praised for revealing unexpected sides of guests, making discussions about love, life, and careers in the spotlight feel personal and relatable. latestnetflix.com's take is that however, some find the format occasionally repetitive, and a few episodes lack the energy that makes the best moments stand out.
What viewers praise
- Charismatic hosts Rino Sashihara and Asako Ito’s chemistry is frequently highlighted as a major strength, making the show feel lively and engaging.
- Candid guest interviews Guests open up in unexpected ways, leading to revealing and often heartfelt conversations about personal and professional topics.
- Relatable discussions The show’s focus on love, life, and career resonates with audiences, making the content feel relevant and authentic.
Common complaints
- Repetitive format Some viewers note that the show can feel formulaic, with certain segments or topics recurring too often.
- Inconsistent energy A few episodes are criticized for lacking the spark that makes the best installments so enjoyable.
Recommended for
Talk show enthusiasts Fans of candid interviews Followers of Japanese variety shows Those who enjoy celebrity gossip Viewers who like lighthearted discussions
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsNine women, one guest, and a late-night ambush
Koki Kusanagi walked into Fuji TV's experiment in November 2020, looked at the circle, and muttered that it felt like hell. Rino Sashihara immediately asked if he had cut his hair because she could see his eyes. He said he had dressed cleaner because he would be surrounded by women. The other first-week guest was kabuki actor Ukon Onoe. Sashihara and Asako Ito shredded his hair and clothes and barely reached the A-plot. latestnetflix.com's take is that Sashihara yelled that they could not even get into the main show.
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Talk Queens started as two 30 minute Wednesday NEXT pilots in late November 2020, airing after midnight. TV listings put Onoe on the 18th and Kusanagi on the 25th. Wikipedia's table slides those same 0:25 starts onto the 19th and 26th, the calendar Thursday after midnight. The gimmick is the interview before the interview. Staff do not shoot the pre-tape. The women do. First Summer Uika pulled Onoe on who should hold power in a romance, what his ideal proposal looks like, and whether he knows why a girlfriend of more than a year dumped him. Chinatsu Wakatsuki told him to write a book. In another clip Onoe said he wanted to give Ito "a woman's face." After taping he showed the sweat on his forehead and called the hour tense even if it was fun. , ,
The first circle was nine deep. Sashihara and Ito as the loud center, plus Miyu Ikeda, Sanji no Heroine, Meru Nukumi, First Summer Uika, and Wakatsuki. Ito later said the on-air cut would be a sliver of how noisy the room actually was. Sashihara said it felt like a girls' night, not a show they had to score jokes on. She also joked that after the broadcast, nobody would want to walk into that studio.
A Thursday slot nobody in the room expected.
Four specials later, Fuji parked the format in the Thursday 23:00 COOL TV hole on April 7, 2022, as the successor to Out x Deluxe after about nine years. The regular opener ran long, 22:00 to 23:34, with Shotaro Mamiya, Shinnosuke Mitsushima, and Katsunori Takahashi as the first weekly guests. Sashihara told Natalie she was shocked it became a regular at all. She said everyone leaves taping exhausted. Ito promised to eat more because a weekly show is a weekly show. TV Guide printed Sashihara asking male guests not to be scared of them. , ,
Netflix later carried the Fuji series in some territories as a Japanese talk show, with Sashihara, Wakatsuki, and Mika Ahn billed on the Japan title page. The 2020 run is those first late-night pilots. Working comedians and models do the reporter job, then trap the guest in acrylic and questions until he sweats on camera.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.