Why Variety TV Is Looking Beyond “M-1” Champions for Comedians Who Can Break Through

The King of Conte (TBS), which determines Japan’s top conte comedy act, will introduce a last-chance repechage round for the first time this year.

“With so many comedy competitions springing up, the value of winning has declined, and it has become difficult to achieve a major breakthrough unless you are an M-1 Grand Prix champion. Conte comedians often struggle with free-form talk, making it even harder for them to become popular. They likely decided to revamp the competition to generate buzz and strengthen the significance of King of Conte,” said a producer at a major television network.

The killer phrase “Comedy isn’t popular,” coined by Sho Hasumi (29) of Dow 90000, who reached the King of Conte finals for the first time this year, is reportedly becoming a reality.

“In the Reiwa era, with short videos and online news firmly established, topics are consumed at an incredibly fast pace. The number of live comedy competitions, special comedy programs, and specials that compete with unique approaches continues to increase every year. However, regular variety shows are typically recorded one to two months before broadcast. Even if they poke fun at current events, the material is no longer timely by the time it airs. Producing regular variety shows has become increasingly difficult. The fact that Ariyoshi’s Wall (Nippon TV) will end its regular broadcast this fall is symbolic of this trend,” said a television scriptwriter.

Fuji TV has followed its own theory that a comedy boom occurs once every eight years, producing Atarashii Nami, a program designed to discover and nurture young comedians. It gave rise to popular variety shows such as Mecha-Mecha Iketeru! and Haneru no Tobira. However, Hachimitsu!!, the successor to this tradition, quietly launched in a late-night time slot in 2023 and ended after just two years without producing any breakout comedians.

“When it comes to Fuji TV’s variety programming, The New Key has shifted toward location-based segments such as ‘School Hide-and-Seek’ and found success. Conte shows require considerable budgets and production time, yet they fail to attract sufficient ratings. On the other hand, having only young comedians do location shoots or talk segments simply makes their inexperience stand out. Back when Fuji TV was thriving, the network had the luxury of waiting for variety shows featuring young comedians to mature into fully fledged programs. But now, with the network’s foundation shaken by a series of controversies, the reality is that it has neither the personnel nor the financial resources to devote to nurturing new talent,” said a director at a production company.

Given these circumstances, the aforementioned producer says that although comedy competitions have undeniably become repetitive, they are among the few types of content worth continuing, even if they require a revamp.

“They are among the few platforms where someone has the chance to become a star overnight. People say that when comedy competitions and regular broadcasts of Wednesday Downtown (TBS) and God Tongue (TV Tokyo) come to an end, that will mark the arrival of an era in which comedy really isn’t popular.”

The aforementioned scriptwriter points out that “the emergence of a one-hit-wonder comedian is necessary” for variety shows to regain the momentum they once had.

“The last time a comedian’s catchphrase won the grand prize at the U-Can New Words and Buzzwords Award was in 2014, when Nippon Elekitel Rengo won with ‘Dame yo~ Dame Dame’ (‘No, no, absolutely not’). There are increasingly more years when comedy-related phrases aren’t even nominated. If a catchphrase emerged that became widely used by everyone, from children to office workers, it would surely create excitement.”

It seems that what the comedy industry in the Reiwa era needs is not a competition champion, but a comedian capable of creating a social phenomenon.