According to the Fuji TV website, the next installment of Iron Chef will be a 2 hour special airing on Friday, October 26th starting at 7:00 PM. I’ll keep my eyes open for any other news about the show. Hopefully, we’ll hear more about it as the date approaches. I’d love to get someone to record it for us. (Worst case scenario, I’m up at 5:00 AM that day and watching a small, pixellated window in KeyholeTV.)
http://www.fujitv.co.jp/b_hp/ironchef/index.html
UPDATE (10/15): Thanks to a comment below, we now know the new Chairman and announcers. The chairman will be actor Hiroshi Tamaki. (I know him mainly as Chiaki from Nodame Cantabile.) You can see more images of the new chairman HERE. The new announcers will be Mizuki Sano (You can see Sano in this Beyond Kitchen Stadium clip.) from Fuji TV and Yurika Mita. (She apparently sings, too. You can buy her single.) It looks like Ota is being replaced with comedian Daisuke Miyagawa.
Here are the links and stories from around the web and our comments section:
http://www.tokyohive.com/2012/10/tamaki-hiroshi-to-host-the-new-iron-chef-on-fuji-tv/
http://orendsrange.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/hiroshi-tamaki-is-iron-chefs-new.html#.UHvDnG9kQwA
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-10-14/new-iron-chef-chairman-is-nodame-cantabile-tamaki
http://www.sanspo.com/geino/news/20121015/oth12101505050010-n2.html (This story says they will not announce the Iron Chefs until the broadcast.)
VIDEO and VIDEO of Mita winning an arm wrestling matches against another female announcers.
VIDEO of Mita co-hosting Mitapanboo.