SixTONES Grit and Growth: The Key to Their New Show’s Success Starting in April

The Reason Fans Rejoiced Makes Perfect Sense!

Starting in April, SixTONES will launch their first-ever regular primetime show, Golden SixTONES (Nippon TV). The announcement was made during The! Tetsuwan DASH!! (Nippon TV), a long-running program featuring their senior group, TOKIO.

Shintaro Morimoto (27), known as the physically active member of SixTONES, had been appearing regularly on DASH. However, on the February 23rd broadcast, all six members participated in a segment where they attempted to catch invasive fish species in a river. During the segment, Taiga Kyomoto (30) unrolled a message hidden inside a toy fish he had caught, revealing the words: “Congratulations on SixTONES’ regular primetime show!”

“Apart from Morimoto, many of TOKIO’s junior colleagues have appeared on DASH over the years, but this was the first time a regular show announcement was made during the program. It wasn’t just about supporting their juniors; the timing was strategic—since SixTONES’ new show will air on Sundays at 9 PM, just two hours after DASH in the same primetime lineup.

Golden SixTONES will take over the Sunday 9 PM slot previously occupied by Gyoretsu no Dekiru Horitsu Soudansho (also known as Gyoretsu no Dekiru Soudansho), which had run for 23 years since 2002. A pilot version, Game of SixTONES, aired in September last year and again this January, and even then, rumors were already circulating in and outside the network that SixTONES would take over the time slot,” said a variety show production staff member.

Fans were thrilled by this smooth progression and the prestigious Sunday 9 PM time slot. Social media was abuzz with comments like, “Finally, SixTONES can catch up to Snow Man!” and “It’s about time their turn came!”

This excitement stems from the fact that Snow Man, who debuted alongside SixTONES on January 22, 2020, had already secured a regular primetime show, Sore Snow Man ni Yarasete Kudasai (TBS), which started as a one-off special in March 2020 before becoming a full-fledged series in April 2021. The show has since become a high-rated program, often aired as a special.

Additionally, Snow Man has consistently dominated CD, DVD, and Blu-ray sales. In last year’s Oricon Annual Rankings, they topped every sales category, also claiming the No.1 spot in the “Total Artist Sales” ranking.

“Since their Johnny’s Jr. days, SixTONES and Snow Man have been rivals, often referred to as ‘SunoSuto’ (a mix of their names) or ‘Ani-gumi’ (older group). However, when Snow Man expanded to a nine-member group by adding Raul (21), Ren Meguro (28), and Koji Mukai (30) before their debut, they attracted a surge of new fans, boosting their popularity and sales. This left SixTONES fans feeling frustrated.

As both groups celebrate their 5th debut anniversary this year, SixTONES securing a major regular show is a significant milestone. Their fans must be relieved to finally see them step into the spotlight,” commented a sports newspaper reporter covering STARTO ENTERTAINMENT.