One of the great additions to NHK World’s sumo coverage is a new program that is filmed and broadcasts prior to each basho entitled “Grand Sumo Preview”. This 30 minute program features the NHK on-air sumo personalities and commentators providing an overview of the state of sumo just prior to the tournament, along with one or two in-depth examinations of subjects around sumo. The one prior to Nagoya featured one of the hosts joining the queue to get “day of” tickets outside the Kokugikan in May.
The program airs Friday and Saturday Japan time, with the first showing being tonight at 12:30 AM Eastern / 9:30 PM Pacific in US time.
Just watched this all the way through. Hiro Morita signs off by saying, “Arigatō for watching and sayōnara.” I know many English-speaking watchers won’t know that “sayōnara” has a connotation of a long-term or final parting but I was a bit surprised nevertheless.
When will the November basho preview air?
The NHK website has a countdown saying 11 days 3h 34min but I think that is for live coverage. That would be roughly noon here Sunday, just before the tourney? I think 11:30am if I’m calculating right for Daylight Savings time.
These preview programs tend to air the Friday before the basho. So I am going to say November 10th US time / November 11th Japan time.