Struggling Shows “Johnson” and “All Night Fujiko” Find Hope in Revival of Classic Popular Shows

Sports Nippon Annex reported that the variety show “Johnson” (TBS) will end this fall, touching on the reduction in the number of broadcast episodes mentioned in this series.

 

“The show started as a successor to the legendary variety program ‘Lincoln,’ which featured ‘Downtown’ and ‘Sumas.’ With high expectations due to the involvement of popular comedians like ‘Kamaitachi,’ ‘Moguraider,’ ‘Mitorizu,’ and ‘New York,’ it began with great promise. However, it quickly fell into a low viewership.

 

Industry insiders whisper that raising the bar by invoking the name ‘Lincoln’ may have been the reason for its failure.” (said a television writer)

 

The program’s underperformance is reportedly affecting the evaluation of the participating comedians, who are now competing for schedules. 

“Two popular television writers who were responsible for the successful ‘Atarashii Kagi’ (Fuji TV), which was praised during ’27-Hour TV,’ were also involved in ‘Johnson,’ but there was a significant difference in outcome. While each duo was entertaining individually, combining four groups did not add value but instead diminished their strengths.

‘Lincoln’ had an absolute leader in ‘Downtown,’ but placing that role on ‘Kamaitachi’ was considered ‘premature,’ according to some voices within the industry.” (production company director)

In the Reiwa era, revived popular shows like ‘Fuun! Takeshi’s Castle’ (Amazon Prime Video) and the modern version of ‘All-Night Fuji,’ ‘All-Night Fujiko’ (Fuji TV) have all struggled.

“The recent trend of nostalgic programming, combined with TV executives’ desire to revive shows they watched in real-time, led to this movement. However, the perspective of compliance was missing.

Ideas and productions that were acceptable in the Showa and Heisei eras cannot be carried over to Reiwa, leading to a lack of authenticity and failure to resonate with both past viewers and Generation Z. The drama ‘Inappropriately Out of Line!’ (TBS), which directly played with Showa era themes, became a topic of discussion for this reason.” (said the aforementioned television writer)

Despite this, key network producers believe that the revival of popular shows will continue.

“The segment ‘Minority Opinions’ from the revived ‘School Goes to School!’ on ‘Let Snow Man Do It’ (TBS) was well received. It became clear that student-participation projects like ‘School Hide and Seek’ on ‘New Key’ are popular.

As long as compliance issues are cleared, it has been proven that there are formats that can be used even in the Reiwa era. Young staff who did not watch in real-time frequently suggest remakes of past popular shows in project meetings.”

The aforementioned ‘All Night Fujiko’ also has ‘the potential to transform depending on the development,’ says the director from the production company.

“Having overcome the major autumn programming changes, it has been decided that it will continue beyond October. Projects that tickle the ribs of female performers, known as ‘Reiwa’s Waterwheel,’ have surpassed 2 million views of illegal edited videos. ‘New Key’ has also become a representative popular show of Fuji TV, overcoming the cancellation rumors. You can feel the station’s expectations.”

Will the wisdom from when TV was the king of entertainment save terrestrial TV in the Reiwa era?

 

From the August 16, 2024 issue of ‘FRIDAY’.