The Core Viewership Battle Rankings” shows the “real power” of TV!

It has been a long time since core viewership ratings (ratings among men and women aged 13-49) became the most important indicator for TV professionals. The reason for this is that core viewer ratings have a significantly higher reach for advertising than household viewer ratings or program distribution, which have been more important in the past.

In the past, this magazine has introduced behind-the-scenes stories and data on each season’s drama series, and in the course of its coverage, TV people have often said, “When it comes to variety, NTV wins hands down.

For this report, we obtained core viewer ratings data for July and August from each station. The popular variety programs were ranked in order of highest to lowest core viewer ratings.

The winner was NTV’s “Sekai no Hatto de Itte Q! The core viewer rating during the survey period averaged over 8.4%, showing outstanding stability.

Mitsuyoshi Uchimura (58) of “UCCHAN NANCHAN” was also ranked among the top viewers for “Laugh God Suddenly…” and “THE Breakthrough File” (both on Nippon TV). This is probably due to the fact that he became a household name among the younger generation as the MC of a top TV program called “Itte Q! It is a rare existence that is widely known and not disliked by anyone. I would say that he is the strongest MC.

The following is a lineup of Nippon TV’s variety shows. Why is he so overwhelming?

“The programming strategy of introducing core viewership ratings in the mid-’10s, ahead of other stations, has won the battle.

This is the view of each station.

“Programming that specializes in the core audience, in other words, young people, has become widespread. They have narrowed down their plans to such a degree that nothing else will get through.

A producer at a key station cited the “openness of Nippon TV’s production team” as a reason for the success.

Producers of variety programs get along well with each other, so information can be shared and a joint front can be formed. Other stations may say that we’re pigeonholing them, but if they find Ringo-chan interesting, for example, they will all use her in Nippon TV’s variety shows at once.” The phenomenon of “hitting it big” has been going on for years, and the talent has been growing.

What happens when this happens? Entertainment production companies and broadcasters give top priority to Nippon TV in their marketing of promising talents. They think, “As long as we can sell at Nippon TV, Fuji and TBS will automatically use them. Although some people criticize the program as being in a rut, the existence of “24-Hour TV” is also significant. It is costly and time-consuming, but the entire production team shares the same major goal and broadcasts the program. The process of convergence of the various programs toward “24 Hour TV” also plays an important role in creating an open atmosphere.

This producer continues, “The connections among the production team are not limited to within the company.

Human Commentary Omo Umaiiten is produced by Chukyo Television, an affiliate of Chukyo Television. I admire the fact that they were able to turn a gourmet food project that felt like it had been done over and over into a hit show. Fuji, TBS, or TV Asahi would not have been able to do this.”

Another thing that is obvious from the ranking is that only four TV Asahi variety programs, including “Ametalk! and “Ametalk!

When Hiroshi Hayakawa (78), the current chairman of the board, became president in 2009, the focus was still on household viewership ratings. TV Asahi, believing that many elderly people were watching TV, adopted a strategy of going for household viewership ratings. This was a miscalculation. Although it won the triple crown in household viewer ratings (’21), the world had entered the age of core viewer ratings. However, the success experience got in the way, and the switchover has not gone well. For example, one of the most popular programs, “Potsun to Ichikenka,” received a household rating of 13% for the July 17 broadcast, but the core rating was 1.7%. They are good at making programs that attract households, but they are not reaching the core viewers,” said a commercial broadcaster executive.

TV Asahi is aware of this, and has created a late-night variety program slot called “Barabara Daisakusen. They have continued to try to pair up young directors and producers with high-profile talents to create their own programs.

Starting in October, programs incorporating the Metaverse and V-tubers will be strengthened. In fact, “Choujin Joshi Senshi Garibenga V,” featuring V-tubers and hosted by Eiji Kotoge (46), will be moved from late-night Thursdays to Saturdays at 6:00 p.m. The younger generation is doing their best. The young people are doing their best, but it is the programming that is discouraging them. They are sometimes airing challenging projects that young people are doing in the late-night slot in the prime time slot of ABEMA, an affiliate company. The morale of the terrestrial variety team is low. TV Asahi will broadcast the soccer World Cup with NHK and Fuji. ABEMA has announced that it will broadcast the soccer World Cup live for free, which is broadcast by Television Asahi with NHK and Fuji. TV Asahi’s production staff

While the various stations are divided in terms of brightness and darkness, music programs are performing equally well.

Johnny’s and K-pop are good examples. Fans want to know their favorite artists better than anyone else. When they appear on a singing show, they become the talk of the town on social networking sites, so you can’t miss them. Other artists who can get core ratings are, by all accounts, Aimiyoon (27). YOASOBI, Yonezu Genji (31), Yuuri (28), King Gnu, Ado (19), back number, DISH//, Hoshino Gen (41), ONE OK ROCK, and Utada Hikaru (39) also have numbers,” said a production company executive.

Fuji will launch seven late-night variety shows in the October season, including a program by the popular YouTube group “comdot. NHK, which did not rank a single program in this year’s list, also has a program that is not ranked in the list.

They say, “Competent people who retired early from Fuji are bringing in their projects. Experimental variety shows are being created and will grow in the future. On the other hand, defending champion Nippon TV is said to have too much power in the upper management, such as the general producer, and is not nurturing young talent. We can’t afford to sit idly by.

It will be interesting to see how the core viewership war will play out in a year’s time.

From the September 30 and October 7, 2022 issues of FRIDAY