A phone call the day after the broadcast… A former TV TOKYO P who appeared in “N Supe” talks about a trend that is becoming more and more noticeable in the TV station field.

The reason for the poor performance of “Omusubi”?

What TV can be proud of in its struggle against distribution is its honeymoon relationship with entertainment agencies cultivated over its long history of broadcasting, which “cannot be severed under any circumstances.

I think we have all come to realize that with the lifting of the ban on NHK’s former Johnny’s (hereafter abbreviated as “old J”). This is also the reason for the poor performance of the morning drama “Omusubi” —-.

Toshihiko Tabuchi, a former TV Tokyo producer and professor of arts and culture at J. F. Oberlin University, whose appearance in the “NHK Special,” which examined the issue of sexual assault by Johnny’s, attracted much attention, says that the intensification of “two trends at TV stations” is confusing the “Omusubi” scene.

Also from his actual experience and discussion in “N-Speak”: ……

Previously, I published a discussion of NHK’s morning drama “Omusubi” in this issue of FRIDAY Digital. In that article, I pointed out the merits and demerits of trying to differentiate between the Tokyo bureau (A system) and the Osaka bureau (B system), which are in charge of morning dramas. We also focused on the “main character” of morning dramas and compared the past 10 years, highlighting the characteristics of both the A- and B-systems.

This time, I would like to look at the morning drama “Omusubi” from a different perspective.

The reason for the poor performance of “Omusubi” is an analysis of a certain trend that has become more and more prominent among TV stations in recent years. These tendencies can be read from my own experiences and observations in “NHK Special (hereafter abbreviated as “N-Spe”): The Realities of Janie Kitagawa’s “Idol Empire”,” in which I appeared. He also generously provides examples of his own experiences.

What is the “certain trend” that is becoming more and more noticeable in TV stations?

What is the cause of the poor performance of “Omusubi” and what are the “certain tendencies of TV stations”? There are two.

(1) More and more opinions are being given from the top down within the station.
(2) Talent agencies have become more powerful.

First, let us start with (1), the trend of “more and more opinions being expressed from the top down within the station.

The November 5 edition of the Tokyo Shimbun quoted Kozo Nagata, a professor at Musashi University who worked on documentaries at NHK, as commenting on the “N-Spé” program: “At NHK, program production proceeds regardless of the wishes of management,” and “In principle, documentary programs are not made at the direction of upper management, as awareness of issues in the field takes precedence. I would like to point out that this is not the case.

I would like to point out that this is not the case. The fact that interviews with people who knew about the time were not aired even though the program examined the major issue of sexual assault, and the fact that Yuichiro Nakagawa, the director of the program, wanted to do so but was unable to do so.

Given these circumstances, there is a possibility that some sort of directive from the upper management was given to the site. Readers may think, “If that were the case, it would be very difficult for the frontlines. However, I myself have experienced and realized that this is the way NHK is organized.

Production companies, affiliated organizations, and NHK itself……3 producers

I worked on a number of documentaries for NHK, including “Kosen Robocon,” while on loan from TV TOKYO (hereafter, “TV TOKYO”) to its affiliate, TV TOKYO Productions, Inc. In such cases, the production company, the related organization, and the production company are involved in the production. In such cases, there are three producers (hereafter abbreviated as “P”): the production company, the affiliated organization, and NHK itself. What happens when this happens?

First, a preview of the editing process, or check, is conducted between the P of the production company and the P of the related organization, and the P of the related organization gives instructions for corrections. Next, when the P of the main production company checks the work, the P of the affiliate often reverses his/her instructions.

This is a common pattern in the production stage. The problem begins here. Since the P of the affiliate is usually seconded from the main company, if the P of the affiliate is more senior than the P of the main company, the P of the affiliate may turn over the instructions of the P of the main company again. What happens when this happens?

The rework instructions would go round and round, from “A => B => A => B” each time the preview was repeated, and the situation would become like a “gag” situation. Naturally, the field was confused, and the work was done left and right.

As this example shows, the nature of the NHK organization sometimes causes a breakdown in communication with the field. The mainframe Ps who are disciplined by upper management may convey the intentions and instructions of upper management as their own ideas. In NHK, where many people are involved in program production in a huge organization, a dysfunctional situation has begun to emerge in which it is difficult to reach a unified consensus. Or perhaps it is already spreading.

Even in public broadcasting, such “disconnection between the top management and the front line” and “a tendency for the top to speak up for the bottom” have become increasingly common, and these tendencies are becoming even more pronounced in commercial broadcasting. I felt this keenly after my appearance on “N SPE” this time. I have already reported the following story in my blog, but I would like to point out again its relevance to the issue at hand.

A phone call I received the day after “N-Speak” aired: ……

It all started with a phone call I received on my cell phone the day after the broadcast.

The caller was a TV TOKYO PR executive. The person, a junior staff member, began by saying, “It’s been a while,” and then proceeded to tell me something surprising.

He said, “We are troubled by the calls to our switchboard from many viewers after yesterday’s broadcast,” “There is a lot of unrest in the production department (the department that makes the programs),” “So, please do not use the title ‘former TV TOKYO’ in the future,” and “In addition, please do not talk or write about what you experienced while you were at TV TOKYO. These were my four main requests.

As I listened to what the other party had to say, I felt a certain thought begin to creep into my mind.

Wait a minute, isn’t this a violation of my basic human rights?

For a detailed discussion, please read my blog, but as you can see from this example, people in positions of authority “give orders” to those who have resigned, skipping over what would have been considered “bad from a corporate governance standpoint” in the past.

This may be due to the deterioration of human resources at TV stations, but there is also a situation where “we can’t say so,” or “we can’t just pretend to be something we’re not.

TV stations are now very concerned about negative feedback on SNS and the Internet. , a drama series that aired on TBS in January, 2012, , featured a P who checked social networking sites throughout the broadcast and was happy or sad, but that was a real-life situation.

With the growing momentum of compliance, they are afraid that bad publicity will damage the company’s credibility and brand value and bring reputational risks to the surface. As a result, there is an increasing amount of interference in the field and with those below them.

However, if they are so concerned about reputational risk that they are caught up in “human rights DD,” as in the case of the recent incident, they may be losing their original purpose.

A decade ago, station management respected the wishes of the field and followed the unspoken rule of “protecting each other’s territory. Today, however, all of them put their own self-preservation first and foremost. They are afraid that if something goes wrong, they will be blamed. They do not dare to take responsibility. In other words, the number of people who are “far removed” from the field and from the creators has increased.

This tendency was also revealed at NHK Chairman Nobuo Inaba’s regular press conference held on October 16. Inaba explained that he “did not make the decision to produce Kohaku,” but stated that “contracts can be made at the discretion of the production site. This statement is not acceptable. It is because it seems to place the responsibility on the production site, saying, “If the site makes a decision, it can’t be helped.”

Opinions from the top “I feel that there are more now than before.”

Please carefully interpret Mr. Nagata’s comment in the November 5 Tokyo Shimbun article mentioned above. Mr. Nagata states, “In principle, documentary programs are not made under the direction of higher-ups, as the awareness of issues on the ground takes precedence.

In principle, this means that there are exceptions. Of course, not all programs are subject to detailed instructions. It would take too much time and effort. However, “NHK Special” and “Close-Up Today” in the case of documentaries, and “Taiga Drama” and “Morning Drama” in the case of dramas, are “out of principle” because they carry the “NHK signboard”.

In order to confirm the actual situation inside the company regarding this matter, we interviewed a person who has worked on a number of “N-Speak” programs. They responded that they “feel that opinions from the top about the program have increased compared to the past. And these opinions had a certain characteristic. What are they?

There were almost no mandatory “orders” or “instructions. They do not go as far as to give instructions responsibly, but rather, they give “ideas” to the staff.

What happens at the site as a result? The work site becomes confused because various people express their opinions as they please from different perspectives. This is exactly the kind of testimony that supports the aforementioned case of the slow progress of work due to the editorial structure going round and round in circles, as the instructions for re-editing changed every time.

From the above discussion, it is not difficult to imagine that the “Omusubi” site must have received a variety of opinions from the upper management.

The program has been the subject of criticism on various websites and articles in terms of content. In terms of performance, if the situation continues as it is, the show could set a record for the worst viewer rating in the history of morning dramas.

Naturally, the top-down approach of “expressing opinions but not enforcing them or taking responsibility for them” is flying like an arrow.

This is a situation that confuses and misleads the field. The fact that “Omusubi” has become a social drama, a human drama about a family, or a drama about a woman’s success in life, and it is difficult to know what to make of it, is due to the tendency of the TV industry to give advice from the top down.

In the second part of this report, we will examine (2), “The power of talent agencies has grown stronger.

For the second part, a former TV TOKYO P who appeared in “N Supe” talks about the reality of “the ‘power’ of talent agencies to which broadcasters must conform.