Starring dramas fall to zero! Can the break-up between the television drama world and Johnny's be stopped!?
Having come into July, many new television dramas have started, but dramas starring Johnny's talent are creeping towards zero.
"Monday at 9 golden drama 『Zenkai Girl』(Fuji TV) stars NEWS's Nishikido Ryo, 『Bull Doctor』 (NTV) stars SMAP's Inagaki Goro and there are many others in supporting roles, but right now there are no cool protaganists played by Johnny's. Specifically, Inagaki Goro gained recognition as a supporting role in the movie,『13 Assassins』and seems to have since switched strategies toward supporting roles, with him gaining attention in 『Bull Doctor』," (Sport Journalist) .
This year's hot spring dramas had three starring members of Johnny's: Monday at 9 golden drama 『Shiawase ni narou yo』 (Fuji TV) starring SMAP's Katori Shingo, Nishikido Ryo's 『Inu wo kau to iu koto』 (Asahi TV), and 『Koukousei Restaurant』 (NTV) starring TOKIO's Matsuoka Masahiro, but none of these achieved high viewership ratings.
"Katori's drama is the second Monday at 9 golden time drama in history to receive single-digit ratings, with an average viewership rating of 11.7% (Video Research/Kanto Region). Nishikido's dog drama was originally supposed to include child actor prodigy Ashida Mana, but she was offered the second alternative to star in Fuji TV's 『Marumo no Okite』 and backed out at the last minute, leaving them with an average rating of 8.5%. Most likely if Ashida had starred in the Asahi TV drama, she would not have received her big break. Matsuoka's drama was based off a true story, but the story was too plain and ended off with single ratings and an average rating of 10.7%", (Television Magazine Writer).
It seems that TV stations are moving from being "Johnny's dependent" to "Johnny's break-up", and apparently the turning point was last year's summer dramas.
Because typically drama casting schedules are decided a year in advance, this year's summer drama casts should have been decided in the autumn of last year. Thus the casting reflects the results of last year's summer dramas. Dramas starring Johnny's talent were three, including Arashi's Matsumoto Jun in Monday at 9 golden drama 『Natsu no koi wa nijiiro ni kagayaku』 (Fuji TV), TOKIO's Nagase Tomoya in 『Unubore Deka』 (TBS), Shonentai's Higashiyama Noriyuki in 『GM Odore Doctor』. Although there were no dramas starring members of SMAP, expetations were high with the combined power of Arashi, TOKIO and Shonentai. However, despite Arashi being at the peak of their popularity, Matsumoto's drama only received an average rating of 12.3%. Nagase's drama had great expectations with a script written by Kudou Kankurou, but all but the first episode failed to go beyond single digits, earning an average rating of 8.0%. Higashiyama, at the time, was gaining lots of attention with his marriage to actress Kimura Yoshino but the weak second half was barraged by single digit ratings and ended with an average rating of 10.0%. This result caused the stations to apparently realize that "we can't get ratings just by using Johnny's". It used to be that when Johnny's drama ratings received bad ratings, the production team would furiously blame the agency. This became troublesome, so they apparently decided that it would be more sensible to have them star in an important role rather than the starring one", (Television Official).
Because typically drama casting schedules are decided a year in advance, this year's summer drama casts should have been decided in the autumn of last year. Thus the casting reflects the results of last year's summer dramas. Dramas starring Johnny's talent were three, including Arashi's Matsumoto Jun in Monday at 9 golden drama 『Natsu no koi wa nijiiro ni kagayaku』 (Fuji TV), TOKIO's Nagase Tomoya in 『Unubore Deka』 (TBS), Shonentai's Higashiyama Noriyuki in 『GM Odore Doctor』. Although there were no dramas starring members of SMAP, expetations were high with the combined power of Arashi, TOKIO and Shonentai. However, despite Arashi being at the peak of their popularity, Matsumoto's drama only received an average rating of 12.3%. Nagase's drama had great expectations with a script written by Kudou Kankurou, but all but the first episode failed to go beyond single digits, earning an average rating of 8.0%. Higashiyama, at the time, was gaining lots of attention with his marriage to actress Kimura Yoshino but the weak second half was barraged by single digit ratings and ended with an average rating of 10.0%. This result caused the stations to apparently realize that "we can't get ratings just by using Johnny's". It used to be that when Johnny's drama ratings received bad ratings, the production team would furiously blame the agency. This became troublesome, so they apparently decided that it would be more sensible to have them star in an important role rather than the starring one", (Television Official).
Starting in October, TBS will celebrate its 60th anniversary by airing the drama 『Nankyoku Tairiku ~Kami no ryouiki ni idonda otoko to inu no monogatari~』[Antarctica ~The story of the man and dogs who challenged God's territory~] starring KimuTaku but "ratings are expected to reach over 30%. Though nothing is being heard about the future for drama's starring anyone other than KimuTaku" (Same as above) only to say that, it seems likely that future Johnny's starring roles may come to only include KimuTaku.
P.P.S. K8 fans, don't brick me for the fact that the article listed Ryo-kun as only a member of NewS, not Kanjani 8. I'm innocent. *runs*
