Drama Prime Time Report – January 20th~22nd

The two big highlights: ‘Renai NEET‘ and ‘Mousou Sousa‘ aired their first episodes.

Meanwhile, not many unexpected developments for the remaining dramas in terms of ratings. Only one drama managed to gain viewers with its second episode. Taiga drama ‘Taira no Kiyomori‘ aired its third episode and the ratings dropped again. How is it supposed to survive a whole year with such a weak start?

All the ratings and more details can be found below!

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01/20 – Friday

Nakama Yukie opened Friday in the TBS drama, ‘Renai NEET‘. It’s an original romantic comedy penned by Nagata Yuko (‘Uta no Oniisan’, ‘Yankee-kun to Megane-chan’) and tells the story of six men and women who haven’t really been in love for several years. The first episode of this lovely and fun drama appealed to 11.9% of the viewers. Last season’s ‘Sengyou Shufu Tantei‘ opened at 12.6%, but it didn’t have to go against such a strong competition from NTV and Fuji TV.

‘13-sai no Hello Work‘ (TV Asahi) dropped by 1.4% and is now last in its time slot (of the networks for which the ratings are known) with 7.9%. Especially the final ten minutes of ‘Always: Sunset on Third Street 2‘ (NTV) must have forced some people to record the drama or wait for the rerun instead of watching it live. Hopefully it won’t fall closer to the 5% mark next week.

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10:00 pm slot
01 – 21:00-23:24 – 17.0% Always: Sunset on Third Street 2
02 – 21:00-22:52 – 15.9% Watashi wa Haha ni Naritakatta
03 – 22:00-23:09 – 11.9% Renai NEET (01) *START*
04 – 21:54-23:10 – 09.1% Hodo Station

11:00 pm slot
01 – 21:00-23:24 – 17.0% Always: Sunset on Third Street 2
02 – 23:30-24:00 – 09.2% another sky
03 – 23:00-23:30 – 09.0% Hitoshi Matsumoto no OO na Hanashi
04 – 23:15-24:15 – 07.9% 13-sai no Hello Work (02)

midnight slot
?? – 24:12-24:53 – ??.?% Toranaide Kudasai!! (02)

late-night slot
?? – 24:53-25:23 – ??.?% Saba-dol (02)

Info:
>>> ‘Always: Sunset on Third Street 2‘
Cast: Yoshioka Hidetaka, Tsutsumi Shinichi, Yakushimaru Hiroko, Koyuki, Horikita Maki, and more

> ‘Renai NEET‘
Cast: Nakama Yukie, Sasaki Kuranosuke, Ichikawa Mikako, Nagayama Kento, and more

> ‘13-sai no Hello Work‘
Cast: Matsuoka Masahiro, Yokoyama Yu, Kiritani Mirei, Yamamoto Maika, and more

> ‘Toranaide Kudasai! ! Gravure Idol Ura Monogatari‘
Cast: 19 gravure idols…!!

> ‘Saba-dol‘ (featuring AKB48, Watarirouka Hashiritai 7 & Nogizaka46)
Cast: Watanabe Mayu, Takahashi Hitomi, Sakata Tadashi, Kaminaga Keisuke, Ando Tamae, and more

Caps:
Renai NEET

13-sai no Hello Work

Toranaide Kudasai!!

Saba-dol

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01/21 – Saturday

Not many dramas are airing on Saturdays due to various reasons. NTV is the only network, aside from the occasional NHK mini dramas, that still tries to compete in the prime time slot with a weekly drama.

‘Risou no Musuko‘ was off to a decent start with 13.9%, but with the second episode it had to deal with the usual loss of viewers that is expected with the second episode as well as competing with a stronger two-hour drama (TV movie) on TV Asahi. In the end the ratings dropped by 1.5% (now 12.4%) for this show. That’s still a nice rating, but doesn’t offer a lot of buffer when going against even more popular movies or drama specials.

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9:00 pm slot
01 – 21:00-22:51 – 14.6% Ihin no Koe wo Kiku Otoko 3
02 – 21:00-23:10 – 14.2% Happy Flight
03 – 21:00-21:54 – 12.4% Risou no Musuko (02)

late-night slot
?? – 25:55-26:10 – ??.?% Muse no Kagami (02)

Info:
>>> ‘Ihin no Koe wo Kiku Otoko‘
Cast: Okuda Eiji, Sato Megumi, Arai Moe, Watanabe Eri, and more

>>> ‘Happy Flight‘
Cast: Tanabe Seiichi, Tokito Saburo, Ayase Haruka, Fukiishi Kazue, and more

> ‘Risou no Musuko‘
Cast: Yamada Ryosuke, Suzuki Kyoka, Fujigaya Taisuke, Nakajima Yuto, Sawamura Ikki, and more

> ‘Muse no Kagami‘
Cast: Sashihara Rino, Ikeda Narushi, Hirano Aya, Mizusawa Nako, and more

Caps:
Risou no Musuko

Muse no Kagami

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01/22 – Sunday

The ratings for the taiga drama ‘Taira no Kiyomori‘ (NHK) dropped again, but fortunately it wasn’t by more than 0.6% (now 17.2%). Regardless, it better pick up the pace soon or it will become difficult to even beat last year’s taiga drama, ‘Gou‘, which only ended with an average rating of 17.7%. After the first three episodes, ‘Taira no Kiyomori’ is already below that figure, although the first episodes tend to be strongest for taiga dramas; definitely not a good sign. You can only hope the ratings will actually improve throughout the year this time.

At 9:00 pm, the regular ‘Gyoretsu no Dekiru Horitsu Sodanjo‘ (NTV) returned after the holidays and a special episode last week. However, even with a normal runtime of 60 minutes, the variety show has proven with a rating of 21.1% to be quite an eyesore for the other networks.

The TBS drama ‘Unmei no Hito‘ wasn’t able to maintain its level from the first episode any longer and already dropped by 1.7% (now 11.3%) with the second episode. Meanwhile, Fuji TV was able to celebrate an improvement of 0.3% for their drama ‘Hayami-san to Yobareru Hi‘, which means that it at least reached the double-digit ratings (10.1%).

Later that night, TV Asahi premiered another new drama with the title ‘Mousou Sousa‘. The quirky drama is starring Sato Ryuta and successfully concluded the Sunday evening for 5.7% of the viewers, which is well within the average of its time slot. Fans of Sato will love it, since he’s pretty much turning it into a one-man show, despite being surrounded by a handful of actresses.

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8:00 pm slot
01 – 20:00-20:45 – 17.2% Taira no Kiyomori (03)
02 – 19:58-20:54 – 15.5% Sekai no Hate made ItteQ!
03 – 19:00-20:54 – 13.6% Bakusho! Dainippon Akan Keisatsu SP
04 – 19:58-20:54 – 12.2% Daikaizo! Gekiteki Before-After SEASON II

9:00 pm slot
01 – 21:00-21:54 – 21.1% Gyoretsu no Dekiru Horitsu Sodanjo
02 – 21:00-23:10 – 12.5% Resident Evil
03 – 21:00-21:54 – 11.3% Unmei no Hito (02)
04 – 21:00-22:04 – 10.1% Hayami-san to Yobareru Hi (02)

11:00 pm slot
01 – 22:10-23:25 – 09.4% Mr.Sunday
02 – 23:25-23:55 – 09.0% Shin Domoto Kyodai
03 – 22:56-23:26 – 08.7% Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!
04 – 23:15-24:10 – 05.7% Mousou Sousa (01) *START*

Info:
> ‘Taira no Kiyomori‘
Cast: Matsuyama Kenichi, Mikami Hiroshi, Toyohara Kosuke, Matsuda Seiko, and many more

> ‘Unmei no Hito‘
Cast: Motoki Masahiro, Matsu Takako, Maki Yoko, Omori Nao, and more

> ‘Hayami-san to Yobareru Hi‘
Cast: Matsushita Nao, Inohara Yoshihiko, Nakamaru Yuichi, Kaname Jun, and more

> ‘Mousou Sousa‘
Cast: Sato Ryuta, Sakuraba Nanami, Kurashina Kana, Baisho Mitsuko, and more

Caps:
Taira no Kiyomori

Hayami-san to Yobareru Hi

Mousou Sousa

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NHK, TBS and TV Tokyo usually don’t disclose the ratings for their shows on a regular basis, therefore they won’t be included in the list below. Certain dramas or drama specials that aired on those channels and might lack ratings are still included with a ??.?% rating. This doesn’t mean that the ratings were too low to recorded.

Improvements and declines will be illustrated with the use of several icons. The colors and the numbers indicate how much the ratings have changed.

An orange color means almost no change, while a red color means the ratings dropped, and a green color means the ratings improved.

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Drama Overview (Winter 2012):

Previous: [Spring 2011] [Summer 2011] [Fall 2011]

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Average Ratings (Winter 2012):

16.85% – Strawberry Night
16.60% – Lucky Seven
16.41% – Aibou 10
14.75% – Hungry!
13.45% – Dirty Mama
13.15% – Risou no Musuko (-0.75%)
13.15% – Saikou no Jinsei no Owarikata
12.93% – Kasouken no Onna 11
12.45% – Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi
12.15% – Unmei no Hito (-0.85%)
11.90% – Renai NEET
10.80% – Seinaru Kaibutsutachi
09.95% – Hayami-san to Yobareru Hi (+0.15%)
09.50% – Stepfather Step
08.60% – 13-sai no Hello Work [11:00 pm drama] (-0.70%)
08.10% – Tonbi *finished*
05.70% – Mousou Sousa [11:00 pm drama]
04.70% – Deka Kurokawa Suzuki [midnight drama]
04.05% – Honjitsu wa Taian Nari [11:00 pm drama]
02.90% – Teen Court [midnight drama]
01.65% – Konna no Idol Janai!? [latenight drama]
01.65% – Suugaku Joshi Gakuen [latenight drama]
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17.43% – Taira no Kiyomori [taiga drama] (-0.12%)