The “Spring Champion” revealed by the “Prime Time Top 50 Core Viewership Ratings” of Commercial TV Stations

Core viewership ratings are now a more important indicator than household viewership ratings, both from the sponsor’s and the station’s point of view.

The core viewership ratings (ratings among men and women aged 13-49) have proved to be widespread among the entertainment industry’s biggest personalities, as Hitoshi Matsumoto (59) has often tweeted about. Following last summer and the year-end and New Year holidays, this magazine conducted research on core viewer ratings after the major spring reshuffle.

The survey was conducted during the month of April. The table below shows the 50 best monthly core viewer ratings for prime time (7:00-11:00 p.m.), which has the highest viewer ratings in a day.

What is obvious at a glance is the large number of NTV programs.

NTV showed overwhelming strength, accounting for 28 of the 50 programs, including “Itte Q to the Ends of the World,” which continues to lead the list. A producer at a key station lamented, “Nippon TV has been the dominant TV station for a long time now.

In 2004, NTV was one of the first to adopt core viewership ratings as a guideline for program creation, and it has paid off. Fuji Television, TBS, and TV Asahi are all making efforts to break their strongholds, but they still have no teeth. Nippon TV’s greatest strength is that its variety, animation, and news programs on its belt are supported by young people. Moreover, they regularly add animated programs such as “Ghibli” and “Lupin” that appeal to the core demographic.

The only thing is that dramas are struggling in the spring, and that may be where Fuji and TBS can do their best. TV Asahi is getting household viewer ratings, but has few programs that are supported by young people. This will hurt sales. Looking at this season’s dramas, they brought “unknown,” a drama starring Mitsuki Takahata (31) and Kei Tanaka (38) W, to the slot where Yasuko Sawaguchi’s (57) popular series “Forensic Woman” was running, and they seem determined to approach the younger generation, but… …”

Trailing Nippon TV is Fuji, with 12 programs in the top 50. Among them, “Matsumo to Nakai,” a new program, showed its destructive power by suddenly making it to the third place.

Reaffirmation of “SMAP

The show’s two top hosts, Matsumoto and Masahiro Nakai (50), were the MCs, and with Shingo Katori (46) as the first guest, the show was highly topical and received a lot of news beforehand, which led to high viewer ratings. The streaming of the program also marked 2.45 million views, an all-time record for a TVer variety show,” said a staff member at the production company.

In fact, the program received a lot of positive feedback from younger viewers, such as “I didn’t know Shingo Katori was such a person” and “I didn’t know he sings,” leading to “the younger generation being reminded of SMAP,” according to a commercial TV executive.

The first episode was wonderful because it was content that the parents’ generation and the children’s generation, who were familiar with SMAP, could look forward to watching together. However, the second episode, in which Keiko Kitagawa (36) and Emiko Uenuma (68) were guests, saw its core viewership drop by half. The program’s weakness in being dependent on the guests became apparent, so the question will be whether the quality of the guests can be maintained and what kind of guests can be matched with the two major celebrities.

(A producer at a key station) “Will they be bold enough to call Takuya Kimura (50), whose “Kazama Kochin – Kyobo 0-” was ranked in the top 10, as a guest?

TBS had 10 programs in the top 50, including “The Last Man – The Blind Investigator,” which ranked 14th (first among dramas) in the drama category, which “other stations are trying their best,” but an employee of the station lamented, “The gap between TBS and Nippon TV is huge.

The reality is that it is the power of strong individuals, such as director Katsuo Fukuzawa of “Naoki Hanzawa” and producer Kentaro Fujii of “Wednesday’s Downtown,” who are getting the numbers at TBS. The difference in ability is especially keenly felt in the “programming” department. In contrast to Nittele, which analyzes other stations and the market to create projects, TBS programming tends to favor projects that are somewhat similar to Nippon TV programs and appear to be second-runs. Many employees feel that projects are decided based on “gut feelings” that are not based on data, even though they say “core” and “core”.

TV Asahi, the triple crown winner in viewership, has “0”

Take a look at the table below. The table below shows the top 10 household viewership ratings in prime time during the month of April.

While none of TV Asahi’s programs made it into the top 50 in core viewer ratings, three of its programs were seen by households, including “Potsun to Ichikenka” (No. 2) and “Zawatsuku: Friday” (No. 4)! Friday” (No. 4) and three others.

The station had been crowned the triple crown winner in household viewer ratings for all-day, golden (7:00-10:00 p.m.), and prime programs for one year from April 2010, and the station was excited that this was the first time since its founding in 1959, but looking at this core disaster, can we say that the station is “winning in viewer ratings”? I am not sure.

Chairman Hiroshi Hayakawa has publicly stated that he is “going to capture households,” and there is a mindset within the station that “if we capture household viewer ratings, the core will follow. The fact that “Last Man” is not getting the core viewership may be a sign that they are targeting the wrong audience. For example, Nippon TV may be using a double-targeting method, such as targeting teens and 40s, because you can’t get the core audience by making a program full of Johnny’s for teens,” said a TV Asahi insider.

Turning to the list of performers, one notices two names that keep popping up again and again: “Bananaman” and Matsuko. The names “Bananaman,” Matsuko Deluxe, and Hiroyuki Ariyoshi (48) are the ones that appear again and again. Since this magazine began its research last summer, these three groups have been regulars at the top of the list of programs with the highest core viewer ratings.

I don’t think it’s so much that they are strong in the core ratings, but rather that they have a good match with their projects. They are not the main focus of “Sekkarakuran Gourmet,” “Matsuko no Shiranai Sekai,” and “Ariyoshi no Kabe” either. There is always a plan. Downtown’ and ‘Mizudow,’ which focuses on planning, are the most popular among the core generation,” says a staff member at a production company.

A producer at a key station adds, “Matsuko and Ariyoshi’s ‘Downtown’ is not a main program.

The special characteristics of Matsuko and Ariyoshi are that they are close to the viewers, whether it be “tongue-in-cheek” or “saying what the viewers are thinking. Both “Monday Night Live” and “Ariyoshi Zemi” are programs that are created with the wisdom of TV people, and I think the two are a great match for them. Conversely, they are strong at their core because TV people with planning ability are eager to use them. Bananaman” is not only mature as a comedian, but is actually popular among young people on the radio and has a high approval rating. Audrey” and Ryota Yamasato (46) are both popular on the radio, but “Bananaman” has the safety and dexterity to be accepted in prime time. I believe that these qualities and others have stuck with the core audience.

A music program that is both core and cost-effective

The news program most watched by young people who are said to have stopped watching the news was, as expected, Nippon TV’s “news zero.

Since many viewers watch news programs based on the flow of previous programs, it is not surprising that Nippon TV’s program, which had taken measures for core viewer ratings early on, was the most watched program. It is also significant that they continued to cast people whom young people want to listen to, such as Sho Sakurai (41) in an assistant role since the days when Nobunao Murao (67) was the main anchor. I think the core generation also likes the fact that we continue to have a culture section, which other news programs stopped doing a long time ago, and we are able to get close to the people and introduce culture that is hot at the time,” said a director of a key station.

This time, the music program was “CDTV Live! Live! but a senior executive of a commercial broadcaster said, “Music programs depend on the guests. Live!” was the only music program this time, but a commercial broadcaster executive said, “Music programs depend on the guests.

The CDTV program in question had a splendid lineup, including Snow Man, Naniwa Boys, and J SOUL BROTHERS III,” said a commercial executive. Music programs can use nostalgic footage of past appearances and benefit from the current Heisei retro boom, making it easy to appeal to men and women of all ages. The production cost is also very reasonable, so it will continue to contribute to the acquisition of core viewer ratings in the future.

Recently, the number of views of missed broadcasts has been widely reported, and some have questioned its importance as an indicator of core viewership ratings.

However, “core viewership ratings indicate the viewing trends of young people. In other words, it is a reflection of the future of television.

What is certain is that major dramas that require a lot of production cost and time, special programs featuring rare guests, and variety shows with interesting plans are interesting to both young viewers and adults, and are reflected in the core viewer ratings.

From the June 9, 2023 issue of FRIDAY