“Goodbye Generation Z” Trend by NTV to Attract Senior Viewers

Johnny’s (now known as SMILE-UP.), which has sent numerous talents to singing shows, TV dramas, and variety shows, has come to the end of its more than half-century history, and the TV production scene is now at a major turning point.

The casting of TV stations has been drastically changing, as the Japanese talents who have long supported TV as “main players” are no longer being used one after another.

Another major policy change is taking place. This is a review of the “core ratings” (ratings for men and women aged 13-49), which have become an established guideline for programming, not only among TV people but also among the viewing public.

 

“For the past two to three years, commercial broadcasters, led by NTV, have been making great efforts to attract younger viewers. But this year, they have shifted their focus in the opposite direction. This year, however, the direction has shifted in the opposite direction, to ‘Good-bye Generation Z.'” says a producer at a production company.

Generation Z was born between the late 1990s and 2012, and was the first generation to have access to the Internet at birth. TV stations aim to attract sponsors by tapping into the young viewers of Generation Z, who will have strong purchasing power in the future.

“The TV stations have tried to attract young viewers by inviting YouTube stars and influencers to appear on their programs as guests who are popular with Generation Z. They have also tried various methods to attract young viewers, such as using TikTok, Korean sweets, vending machines and gacha (toy vending machines), but this has not resulted in any increase in viewer ratings,” according to the producer mentioned earlier. 

 

Instead, the trend since this summer has been to “bring in senior viewers once again,” according to the producer with a wry smile.

“I’ve been told by upper management, ‘Cast the talent that seniors like for their aunts and uncles!’ The hottest talents are Ammika (51) and Tomio Umezawa (72). Don’t you think you’ve been seeing them on TV a lot lately?”

The other two celebrities that are favored by seniors are Yoshizumi Ishihara (61) and Kazushige Nagashima (57). Anamika is said to be the newcomer to the “outspoken, strong, mature women” category where Mrs. Devi (83) used to reign supreme.

The “good-bye Generation Z” trend has also spread to the topics that the programs cover. In the information programs, the old “hornet extermination” and “foreign tourists flooding into Japan” are said to be back in the spotlight. 

 

There is one more reason why TV has turned the helm toward “getting rid of core viewership ratings.”

It is the rise of TVer.

TV operators are now thinking, “Let’s attract young viewers to TVer’s missed programs.”

Not long ago, the quickest way to increase TVer viewers was to cast Japanese celebrities. As long as there was at least one Japanese celebrity in the cast, fans who were accustomed to turning to YouTube for their “favorites” would work hard to increase the number of views. “Passion for Punchlines” (Nippon TV), starring Kaito Takahashi (24) of King & Prince and Shintaro Morimoto (26) of SixTONES, did not do well in terms of viewer ratings, but its TVer view count exceeded 1 million, and the total number of views of the promotional video on YouTube was the highest in Nippon TV’s.

The director of the production company laughs bitterly.

“The collapse of Johnny’s has made it impossible to use that technique. So now our policy has changed: “Instead of creating programs for Generation Z, we cast a Generation Z talent who can increase the number of views on TVer. Instead of replacing Japanese talents, “JO1” and “Nogizaka46” are being pulled in to replace Japanese talents.”

 

Osamu Suzuki, a broadcaster who created many popular variety shows such as “SMAP x SMAP” (Fuji TV) and established a new era, announced his retirement at this time. It is said that at the same time as Mr. Suzuki’s retirement, production companies that have produced national variety shows have been acquired one after another.

“In the past few years, each station has been increasing the number of drama slots, which are easy to monetize, but starting this fall, the number of drama slots has increased further. In the future, animation slots are scheduled to be expanded. This has taken a toll on variety shows. Viewer demand itself has declined sharply, and the number of slots will only decrease in the future. Production companies that used to specialize in variety programs are struggling to survive.”

The Japanese TV industry is undergoing unprecedented changes.