The tide turned at the beginning of the new year.” A number of dramas starring former Johnny’s celebrities have been confirmed, and there are fears of a “resurgence of the honeymoon relationship.
The issue of sexual assault by the former Johnny’s (now SMILE-UP.) office still casts a large shadow over the entertainment industry. Compensation is still being paid to the victims, but the number of damage reports coming in to the office is only increasing, and there is no end in sight to the process.
On the other hand, TV stations that had close relationships with the victims were also forced to deal with the situation. Some programs were not able to change their casting in time. For example, the talent from the former Johnny’s office, which had been in existence for 44 years, no longer appeared in the “Kohaku Uta Gassen” (Red and White Singing Contest), and their presence was diminished on television. However, the situation is said to be changing after the year-end and New Year holidays.
NHK took a hard-line approach, and in the subsequent programming revamps, there was a series of moves to forgo the casting of Johnny’s talent. The most talked-about was the postponement of the filming of “Kyobo” (Fuji TV), a drama series starring Takuya Kimura that was scheduled to air this year. Ostensibly this was due to production problems with the show, but since filming has not resumed, it is said to have been affected by problems at his office.
Initially, it was even said that the Johnny’s talent would disappear from TV during this year’s spring reshuffle, but the tide is turning. One of the reasons for this is the ratings for the year-end and New Year’s special programs. The Kohaku Uta Gassen, which had “no appearances by Johnny’s,” saw viewer ratings fall below 30% for the first time since the current two-part format was introduced. Furthermore, Fuji Television, which has broadcast a countdown concert every year, ended the year with the popular variety show “Getaway,” but the average household rating was only 3.4%. Although there is no direct link between the absence of Johnny’s and the decline in viewer ratings, the results are grim.
On the other hand, the seven popular groups from the former Johnny’s office delivered their energy to their fans through their own YouTube channels and official SNSs, etc. Snow Man delivered a free live performance on their official YouTube channel. In addition to their surprise Instagram live broadcast, SixTONES also held a live New Year’s Eve broadcast on YouTube, which had been viewed 1.93 million times including archives as of January 10. also streamed the event for free on YouTube, and the number of views exceeded 1.29 million.
