The World's Astonishing News
The World's Astonishing News began airing in 2002. The majority of the episodes are produced by Sean Traynor, E. Paul Dimartino Jr., and directed by either Yuki Gouroku, Shunsuke Morita, or Naoko Yamada. The show is produced under Duo Creative Communications, a San Francisco-based company, and is distributed through Nippon Television Network (NTV), where the program receives its distribution through Japan and many other Asian countries. The show is filmed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area as well as in Japan, and episodes air every month or so throughout Asia. The episodes are shot in documentary-style formats, to preserve the investigatory aesthetic, with English subtitles.
Plot
Episode topics have included stories such as the ones of Aileen Wuornos, psychic Kathlyn Rhea, and Nadya Suleman "octomom", and of the Wendy's Finger-in-the-chili incident. Episodes story lines also include those of Alexander Graham Bell, Gale St. John, and Lisa Marie Nowak.
Characters
Characters include Ross Turner as serial killer James Koedatich, David Alan Hodges as Brent Hicks, David Pearl as Detective, Big Spence as Jimmy, Jaime Soria as Autistic Classmate, Alexi Torres as (teenage) John Wayne Gacy, Kyle Scudiere as Detective Brown, Sean Rader as Elijah Solomon, oldest son of Nadya Suleman "Octomom'".