entertainment

Ratings for NHK's year-end 'Kohaku' music show hit record low

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I wish they would give the age break down of the viewers.

Did anyone under, say, 40 watch it?

16 ( +17 / -1 )

Is that still going?

8 ( +12 / -4 )

Cable television is dead. Why would anyone watch it when you can stream anything at the click of a button?

5 ( +10 / -5 )

The bit I caught had an enka singer leading a group of kendama enthusiasts trying to set a Guinness record. If they keep challenging the kendama record every year, plus karuta and rock-paper-scissors, the songs will be relegated to BGM status.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

They present the exact same show for 70 years without even attempting to evolve it because they couldn’t possibly be daring enough to think outside the box and break the formula. Yeah, everybody’s seen it and it doesn’t translate to the people of today’s Japan.

11 ( +15 / -4 )

The Showa Era will never die!

14 ( +17 / -3 )

Well, it's not 1962 any more is it. There are multiple additional sources of entertainment, and they will each take a slice of the cake. 'Kohaku' bashing appears to have become an annual media event. Given how many people are glued to their smartphones for most of their waking hours, 34% may be quite good.

-Why would anyone watch [TV] when you can stream anything at the click of a button?

Because a lot of people do not subscribe to streaming, do not have a fast enough net connection for it, or find internet/smartphone use difficult. Not everyone is just like you, Gaijinjland. The world is a diverse place.

5 ( +11 / -6 )

Lots of bad songs and lyrics… not sure what they really wanted to mean. Eras of beautiful enkas and tunes are over. But to be fair those folks singing recent songs must be quite talented coz they can remember and perform to those concoction of sounds/noise.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

“They present the exact same show for 70 years without even attempting to evolve it because they couldn’t possibly be daring enough to think outside the box and break the formula.”

No, I think otherwise. They have changed too much and broke what worked. The music quality now is terrible but am probably too old to like recent genres.

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

I wonder how many minutes you have to watch it to qualify as a viewer. If 34% "watched" it, I wouldn't be surprised if its only five minutes. Note also that it was down 6% in share (or 20% of the people who watch it) in the first year without the "waratte ikenai" comedy show on the other side. I would imagine many people would normally flick between the two if both were on, such as putting kohaku on during commercial breaks in the comedy.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Almost 80% or more of the singers can't even sing! Who wants to watch it? Worse than karaoke, my gosh!

4 ( +7 / -3 )

“As for us, we didn't for an xx-amount of years.

Every year the same anyways!

BORING!!”

if you didn’t watch it for years, how could you know the show was the same every year?

FYI, the show quality went down every year, it’s not the same.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

I watched portions of it which I thought were actually pretty good.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

One of Japan's many many traditions that is no longer relevant in today's society.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

GBR48Today  10:24 am JST

Well, it's not 1962 any more is it. There are multiple additional sources of entertainment, and they will each take a slice of the cake. '

Just like here in America with 'Dick cCark's Rockin' New Years Eve'. Dick Clark is dead and it hasn't been 'ROCKING' for many years. And even when I was growing up in the 80s the show often had talentless dingbat cohosts and lousy music acts.

Anymore when midnight January 1 comes I do what some radio stations do now - put on 'New Years Day' by U2 and be done with it.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

They should have gotten more popular singers on the show.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

@starpunk

"Anymore when midnight January 1 comes I do what some radio stations do now - put on 'New Years Day' by U2 and be done with it."

Best I've read all year!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

They want us to pay a license fee for this unadulterated garbage.

No wonder the kids are addicted to their devices.

NHK is trying to put its Showa-era idiot box programs onto the internet in order to get the government to make non-viewers pay for the pleasure of not watching its programs.

Once the baby boomers have died out NHK will be dead in the water.......or will it?

It still serves as the LDP's mouthpiece in spite of being 'neutral'.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

I watched bits here and there. While I was doing other things.

Lot of Johnny’s or Johnny’s wannabes. Which is always a terrible sell for any show.

I knew of the akb/nogizaka 69 team NAME, yet couldn’t recognize any faces or names of the members.

Other than Perfume and the horrible yelling duo Yuzu, the actual moments I did paid attention, I often found myself thinking, who’s this clown?

In years past, they’ve had some great acts, but those times have come and gone.

Shut it down and rebrand already.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Current population of over 65 here is 36.8% that explains the viewership of only 34.3%

8 ( +8 / -0 )

The show has become stale, old. The public tastes have changed while those in charge have not been able to adapt for it, streaming and new ways to consume entertainment have made it close to obsolete.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

The old men high up at NHK have no idea what the modern audience is. I think the Kohaku is a good tradition gone stale and getting more stale year by year. It is a shame, I enjoyed it the first two years but after that pretty hard to watch and enjoy. Bit of a shame really, with a bit of inspiration and collective ideas, it could be good again. But wont happen at NHK. They believe they have the winning formula for NYE. Even my wifes parents thought it was very uninspired.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Video killed the radio star!

Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime and Tik Tok killed the Kohaku star!

4 ( +5 / -1 )

The new New Year’s Eve tradition is scrambling to complete one’s “furusato nozei” donations before the midnight deadline.

Sheena Ringo is the only act I cared to watch, but by the time she and band came on I was well ensconced in my furusato nozei web surfing…

1 ( +1 / -0 )

It’s one of those non confrontational things you can watch when multiple generations are at home at once.

other than that, not much left to it.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

As much as we dislike them, groups like SMAP and Arashi are gone and ratings have been going down ever since. Seiko Matsuda cancelled for obvious reasons and she draws ratings. Even the Demon Slayer singer was on there but that show's boom has come and gone. I watched boxing then switched over to Rizin. That was much more entertaining I'm sure.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

All media is more fragmented than ever before. The days of a single program obtaining dominant market share no longer exists, especially measured across a broad demographic. The numbers definitely skew towards an older profile, so no surprise here.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I’m pretty sure anyone, even on a part time salary, can afford an unlimited data plan and an extra 1000 yen a month for Netflix. And I can’t believe there are still people stupid enough to actually pay the NHK collectors haha

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The show itself doesn't have any problems, it is the method of delivery.

If it continues to remain an NHK exclusive it will most definitely fall in ratings every year.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

ETHAN1001Jan. 3  08:07 pm JST

Video killed the radio star!

Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime and Tik Tok killed the Kohaku star!

Absolutely. I just saw some classic music videos by great acts like RUSH and Adam Ant. And right now as I'm writing this I'm hearing a silly but delighful hit from when I was in elementary school, 'Chick-a-Boom (Don'cha jes Luv It) by a 'Daddy Dewdrop', whoever or whatever that is.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Just before Christmas, the Head of NHK did write that he was thinking of cutting this show.

Time to do more than think!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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