Mei Nagano’s first leading role in the January season will cause even more stir…! The “real reason” for the string of first-time leading roles in Fuji’s January 9 dramas.

The average household rating for Fuji Television’s Gekkan 9 drama “ONE DAY – Seiyoru Yoru no Karafutsu -” starring Kazuya Ninomiya (40), Miki Nakatani (47), and Takao Osawa (55) of “Arashi” recorded 4.6%, the lowest rating for any episode aired so far on November 13.

Among all previous “Tsuki 9” episodes, the average household viewer rating per episode was the lowest, at 4.6%, which was on par with that of “An Enemy of the People: Isn’t the World Strange! ～In the seventh episode aired on January 20, the average for all episodes was 5.5%, surpassing the previous season’s “Cinderella in Midsummer,” which was the worst per-episode average.

One Day” was a novel project in which the triple stars starred in three stories happening simultaneously on Christmas Eve, but it did not seem to be accepted by the viewers. Ms. Nakatani and Mr. Osawa, who starred in Gekkinen for the first time this time, originally appeared in many movies, and I did not think they had much viewership” (TV magazine reporter).

While the Geki 9 series has been sluggish, it was announced that actress Mei Nagano (24) will play the lead in both Fuji and Geki 9 for the January season next year in “Kimi ga Kokoro ga Kurutta de” (Because You Gave Me Your Heart). She will be playing opposite Meiku in “Hakozume: Tatakau,” a NTV drama series in 2008! A beautiful and tearful fantasy love story set in Nagasaki is said to be depicted in the film.

The actor’s first starring role in a Gekijuku series has recently been a trend,” said Kikuchi. Except for Takuya Kimura (51) in “Kyobo” in the April season this year, the last time an actor did not play the lead role for the first time was Masataka Kubota (35) in “Radiation House II” in the October ’21 season.’ In the July ’22 season, Anne (37), who has starred in Gekkinen before, starred in a double role with Kentaro Sakaguchi (32). The purpose of the series seems to be to provide viewers with fresh stories starring seasonal actors, but to be honest, it has been a dismal failure, partly due to the outflow of talented in-house creators to outside companies. The “Tsuki 9” brand has already collapsed, and the upper management must be acutely aware of this.

Nagano, who received the offer, must be under a lot of pressure. Then, “Flash” reported in its November 14 issue that the fee would be about 1.5 million yen per episode, or 15 million yen for one season. The report put even more pressure on Nagano and his agency, and of course, it was tough for Fuji as well.

Even though the Gekijuku brand has already collapsed, even Ms. Kimura and Haruka Ayase (38) are accused of “bombing” if they do not get high ratings. As a result, it has become difficult for repeat actors and even new actors to receive offers.

Then, when the amount of Ms. Nagano’s salary was announced, the agencies with other actresses in their ranks were likely to be reluctant to accept offers, thinking, “Is that how much our actresses are rated? For younger actresses, it may be encouraging to think, “I didn’t know I was getting that much,” or “If I work hard, I should be able to get it, too. ……

In any case, even in the entertainment industry as a whole, there are probably no longer any agencies and actors who would gladly accept an offer to play the lead role in Tsuki 9. At this rate, the continued existence of the series is likely to be called into question.

Fuji has increased the number of drama broadcast slots since the beginning of this year, and has begun to emphasize “core ratings” among men and women aged 13 to 49 and the number of views on TVer, a free video streaming application for private TV stations. Perhaps this is because they wanted to turn away from the harsh reality of the continuing low ratings of Tsuki 9.

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