Preview of "Oi, Dazai" - Spring 2025

Title: Oi, Dazai / おい、太宰

Official website: here

O.A. Start Date: 29 June 2025

Timeslot: Sundays at 10pm

Broadcast by: WOWOW

Cast: Tanaka Kei, Koike Eiko, Miyazawa Ema, Kajihara Zen & Matsuyama Kenichi

When holding your horses may be better than trying to outsmart the competition - The strategic game of setting drama broadcast timeslots

Much has been said about how viewing habits have changed in recent years due to the increasing popularity of OTT platforms and on-demand viewing services which offer flexibility to viewers in watching what they want at a convenient time. This has inevitably led to lower real-time ratings across the board as TV stations struggle to pull in the audiences needed to sell commercial slots to sponsors and advertisers. Despite so, the TV stations still spend much time and effort in playing the strategy game of setting drama broadcast timeslots against their fellow competitors and other forms of entertainment, albeit with varying degrees of success.

This article examines the positioning of and strategies deployed in planning drama broadcast timeslots by the main TV stations. While this may not be so relevant to us outside of Japan who usually do not get to watch the dramas in real-time since we tend to rely on OTT platforms or delayed broadcasts, it is interesting to see the logic and justification behind these decisions.

TV Asahi

• Their core/signature timeslots are Wednesdays 9pm and Thursdays 9pm which are usually the ones with the highest real-time ratings.
• Signature offerings in the Wednesdays timeslot include the long-running series "Aibou" which entered its 23rd season last year.
• Other timeslots include Tuesdays 9pm and the late-night Fridays 11pm timeslot. 
• For dramas with lower real-time ratings such as those in late-night slots, the criteria to determine if the drama is doing well is also dependent on the number of views via on-demand platforms. For example, "Munou no taka" achieved the highest first-episode views to date for the Fridays 11pm timeslot with 2.13 million views.

FujiTV

• Its signature timeslot is the Mondays 9pm timeslot which used to be well-known as the leader for "trendy dramas" in the 90s along with three other timeslots i.e. Tuesdays 9pm, Wednesdays 10pm and Thursdays 10pm.
• Other offerings from affiliated TV stations in the same network include Kansai TV's Mondays 10pm timeslot and Tokai TV's Saturdays late-night timeslot.
• Movements in recent years include the establishment of the Fridays 9pm timeslot in autumn 2023 which was moved to Tuesdays 9pm in the following year.
• There have been a number of examples in recent years where some dramas perform very well on on-demand platforms such as "silent" which achieved record-breaking views despite relatively low real-time ratings and being in the Thursdays timeslot. However, "Umi no hajimari" which was made by the same team and featured the same lead actor Meguro Ren, was aired in the signature Mondays timeslot so the criteria for success and expectations were naturally higher as compared to the other timeslots.
• The Thursdays timeslot has a tendency to feature controversial or more adult themes such as extramarital affairs and adult romance which some viewers may not feel comfortable watching with others and family so the on-demand views typically see rather high numbers.
• The Tuesdays timeslot usually features workplace-related stories or those focusing on specific occupations such as "Jinji no Hitomi" in the Spring 2025 season.
• The Wednesdays season tends to feature edgy, unconventional and adventurous works such as "Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu" in Autumn 2024 and "Shinjuku Yasen Byouin" in Summer 2024. A lot of effort is put into collaborations with OTT platforms so these works are also put onto Netflix to target the international audiences.
• They are also experimenting with putting the next episode of their dramas onto their own on-demand platform FOD ahead of the live broadcast schedule since "Paripi Koumei" in Autumn 2023. This is said to be effective in attracting part of the viewers who watch on FOD to flow back to real-time viewing.

NTV

• Up till 2023, there were three 1-hr timeslots i.e. Wednesdays 10pm, Saturdays 10pm and Sundays 10.30pm.
• Since then, there were new 30-min late-night timeslots introduced i.e. Mondays 12.30am (produced by a local TV station in the Kanto region) and Fridays 12.30am. The Fridays slot has been shifted to Tuesdays from autumn 2024 while the original Fridays slot is no longer reserved for dramas only.
• Yomiuri TV in the same network produces the Thursdays 12 midnight drama.
• At one time, the Wednesdays timeslot was shifted to Saturdays 9pm i.e. two dramas back-to-back on Saturdays for a year but the Wednesdays timeslot was restored in April this year.
• As for the Sundays timeslot, the drama offerings tend to be those light enough for people to watch before starting a brand new week the following day.
• Compared to the past when most, if not all of its dramas were exclusively reserved for release on its own Hulu platform, there have been some which made it onto international platforms like Netflix e.g. "Houkago karute".
• In order to boost awareness of the drama before its release, the TV station is also experimenting with releasing a short clip of the first episode on TVer and YouTube before the first OA.
• One parameter for assessing whether viewers' interest and if they will be staying on for the long-term to watch a drama is the number of users who add the drama to their favourites list on platforms like TVer prior to the first OA.
• In the late-night timeslots, they tend to be dramas which female viewers prefer to watch on their own rather in the company of others thus this explains the high on-demand views on streaming platforms.

TBS

• The key timeslots are its signature Sundays 9pm along with Tuesdays 10pm and Fridays 10pm.
• The Tuesdays timeslot is targeted at female viewers in their 30s and 40s and had quite a number of romantic love stories or comedies to date. However, the trend has shifted to include other forms of love such as family love in recent years.
• The Fridays timeslot has a slightly higher target market in terms of age i.e. women from their 30s to 50s.
• As for the Sundays timeslot, it is meant to capture the attention of a wide range of viewers thus explaining the variety of offerings and not being bound to a specific genre.

TV Tokyo

• Its Mondays and Fridays late-night dramas are making waves on on-demand platforms such as its Monday offering in Summer 2024 i.e. "Otto no katei wo kowasu made" which generated total views above 30 million thus breaking TV Tokyo's record to date. This type of "affair-horror" or edgy stories are usually not meant to be watched together with family members thus explaining why the on-demand views are so high.
• In order to promote their dramas, signature scenes are made into short clips and released on platforms like TikTok which in turn generates more interest. Those who watch the drama are also drawn to these short clips and they even have one video which has registered as many as 116 million views to date.
• As for the Thursdays timeslot, one signature offering is the long-running series "Kodoku no Gurume" which had humble roots but grew to become so successful that it even had its own movie released in January 2025.
• Until three years ago, TV Tokyo didn't have a department handling the drama content streaming business since it was only focused on the rights business for anime series. As they believe that affair stories with a suspense angle and revenge stories go very well with online streaming platforms, they intend to go big on these while still tapping on their expertise in doing gourmet and horror dramas.
• It is also entering the short drama genre with its streaming app "BUMP" which releases dramas with 10 to 30 episodes of no more than 3 minutes long each and charges apply to each episode watched. These new content ideas are proposed by their younger employees and aimed at capturing new users and viewers.

　

What can be observed from the above:

• Some TV stations hardly change their timeslots while some are adopting a bit of a "trial-and-error" approach to see what works for them.
• Some TV stations are a lot more adventurous in trying new forms of PR and increasing access routes to their content rather than sticking to the usual.
• Parameters for judging success seems to be expanded beyond real-time ratings to include views on streaming platforms and user interest. However, real-time ratings haven't been ignored completely since this is still critical for securing advertising income.
• Some timeslots have a clearly defined target audience which shapes the nature of the content offerings while some have a defined type of genre instead.

The thing is, the decision of whether to hold the horses, create, cancel or move timeslots does come with a risk of failure, or at the very least embarrassment/ridicule by rivals and the industry insiders for the private networks. This article examines the rationale behind the strategy of drama timeslot planning and how the TV stations have fared in this game over the years.

When NTV resurrected its Wednesdays 10pm timeslot this spring after shifting it to Saturdays for one short year, it was inevitable that people would see this as a failure of its decision to move its long-running and considerably successful Wednesdays timeslot. Although the official reason given by NTV was to attract the female viewers who would already be tuning in to the variety show "Ueda to onna ga hoeru yoru" that airs before the drama to continue watching, the other side of the story was that the variety show "Sekai Itadaki Gurume" which was put into the original Wednesdays timeslot last year, isn't doing well and having two dramas back-to-back on Saturdays did not work out as planned. This type of change is often viewed as a blow to the morale of the staff and cast members of the shows/dramas involved and will affect the confidence of sponsors. On the other hand though, NTV has always been known to make decisions decisively when the going gets tough so being able to cut losses at such an early stage is also seen as beneficial to its long-term interests.

Actually, when NTV made the decision to shift its Wednesdays drama timeslot which had been around for 38.5 years, this was met with skepticism and dismay by the industry which failed to comprehend their reasons for doing so. One reason cited for NTV's decision back then was FujiTV creating a new drama timeslot which overlapped with NTV's since Spring 2022 but the performance of NTV's traditional drama timeslot was seen as still being able to hold its own against the new contender. Despite so, NTV probably felt that any small gains it had over FujiTV in this timeslot were not going to be enough to help it secure the top spot in the ratings race as a whole. Besides, seeing how FujiTV seemed to be able to achieve success with its back-to-back drama strategy on Mondays since autumn 2021, this was probably what tempted NTV to try doing the same on Saturdays by moving the Wednesdays drama to the weekend.

In FujiTV's case, it has probably seen even more missteps compared to NTV when playing around with its drama timeslots.

While NTV unexpectedly gave up the fight on Wednesdays last year and led to FujiTV hogging the drama timeslot, FujiTV actually had another short-lived fight against TBS' signature Sundays 9pm timeslot twice. From autumn 2010 to winter 2013 (2.5 years) and from spring 2016 to summer 2017 (1.5 years), FujiTV failed to break TBS' monopoly in this timeslot. FujiTV also created the Fridays 9pm timeslot to fight against TBS which barely lasted a year from autumn 2023 to summer 2024 until it was moved to the Tuesdays 9pm timeslot last autumn. 

Another classic example was FujiTV's Tuesdays 10pm timeslot which started in spring 1996 but was axed in summer 2016 despite seeing many past hits like "GTO" and "Kekkon dekinai otoko". A reason for the withdrawal from this timeslot was said to be NHK and TBS setting up new drama timeslots in spring 2010 and spring 2014 respectively. The result was that TBS managed to build the love story branding for this timeslot very quickly starting with the hit "Nigeru wa haji daga yaku ni tatsu".

These movements by FujiTV coincide with its slip from the No.1 position in the ratings race since 2010 and its desperate desire to improve its situation by doing something. However, it turned out that things got progressively worse for them no matter what they tried to do. 

While TV Asahi may have been seen as generating consistent hits through its reliance on long-running series like "Aibou" and "Kasouken no onna" which targets the middle-aged and elderly market segments, its willingness to change things around recently seems to suggest that it is also feeling the heat from the competition. For example, the end of its 23-year-old Thursdays 8pm mystery drama timeslot in summer 2022 and airing dramas in the Tuesdays 9pm timeslot were meant to capture viewers in the core market of teens to 40s but it seems like things aren't looking too rosy for them too.

TBS may be the odd one out in the field as it seems to be churning out consistent results while not making any changes to its primetime drama timeslots i.e. Sundays 9pm and Fridays 10pm. However, this is probably a chicken-and-egg issue where you risk being seen as a loser if you move your timeslot easily when faced with competition but if you don't, you might not be able to get the desired ratings which the TV station business focuses on. This has led to the phenomenon where any movement or changes typically last for just 1 to 3 years before things go back to how it is originally.

The unique nature of dramas as compared to other types of TV programmes like news, variety, infotainment and sports is also a key factor to consider. These programmes tend to rely on timeliness, how eye-catching they are and whether they are interesting so it's not so easy to record and watch/stream them later as compared to dramas. As such, many TV stations focus more on luring viewers to watch their dramas in real-time rather than work on quality instead thus creating the situation where some offerings are often mocked for being exaggerated, childish or silly e.g. NTV's Saturday dramas but very much talked-about, be it in the positive or negative sense.

It takes time to build up a viewing habit and for viewers to remember these timeslots. These constant changes to the programming schedule actually have a detrimental effect to cultivating the viewing habits needed to shore up the real-time viewing figures which the TV stations are seeking. Even for those who do not wish to view the dramas in real-time, having a grasp on the schedule helps in keeping track of when new episodes are uploaded to platforms like TVer which tends to erase episodes after 1 week or so (except the first three and last episodes). Speaking from personal experience, there were quite a number of instances to date when I dropped a drama because I missed an episode or did not manage to watch it in time on TVer before it got deleted, not because I lost interest and gave up voluntarily.

One other thing that gets in the way of cultivating real-time viewing habits is the disruption caused by variety show specials. Often, these ad-hoc shows tend to last for 2 to 3 hours at one go and inevitably eat into the timeslots usually meant for dramas. When that happens too often, viewers lose track of what is considered regular programming so this is especially problematic when a longtime drama timeslot gets shifted into a timing which has all along shown something else.

In comparison, NHK can do its own thing without being affected by what the private networks are doing because it has a different modus operandi. It is not bound by the seasonal cycle of new dramas shown every three months - its dramas have a variety of lengths and start/end dates can be anytime. From the perspective of the private networks, NHK is a competitor that "doesn't play by the rules" and thus is able to snatch away viewers at unexpected junctures, often without prior notice and giving the TV stations little room and time to react to the national broadcaster's moves. For example, just as FujiTV had to shift its Tuesdays 10pm timeslot to avoid a heads-on clash with NHK, NTV also had to bring forward its Saturday drama from 10pm to 9pm nowadays to prevent fighting with NHK. Besides, NHK has no need to consider ratings or sponsors due to its business model so it can afford to produce dramas with varied themes which often cannot be found on the private networks.

Even though this game of setting drama broadcast timeslots is hard to win, TV stations are unlikely and unable to give up on making dramas. This is because in this age of changing viewing habits, dramas and anime are actually the best intellectual property/content that can bring it the most money now compared to other TV shows. While it would be silly to keep banking on real-time ratings only to bring in the dough in the form of advertisement income, dramas can lead to an enormous amount of income through other channels such as:

• releasing the dramas on OTT platforms (both domestic and international)
• doing installments of successful series which can include spin-offs, movies, anime, stage plays, games, events, music and character goods
• corporate collaborations such as special menus and goods

As such, despite the low return on investment in terms of the real-time ratings as compared to the costs involved in drama production, dramas are still going to take up the golden and primetime slots as compared to variety shows which tend to see better ratings. Besides, each of the private TV networks have their own OTT platforms so the growth of such channels in the form of paid users can be sustained as long as they have a decent archive of their past and current dramas. 

Preview of "Teruko to Rui" - Spring 2025

Title: Teruko to Rui / 照子と瑠衣

Official website: here

O.A. Start Date: 22 June 2025

Timeslot: Sundays at 10pm

Broadcast by: NHK

Total number of episodes: 8

Original novel by: Inoue Areno

Cast: Fubuki Jun, Natsuki Mari, Fukuchi Momoko, Miura Ryota, Toudou Hinata, Okano Yoichi, Anzai Hajime, Yamaguchi Tomomitsu, Yuki Saori & Owada Shinya

Quick Review #131: Mukashi no otoko - Spring 2001

Title: Mukashi no otoko / 昔の男　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Rating: 4 / 10

Recommended for: 

For those who want to watch an erotic/adult story about people who go crazy for love and/or like stories about people having affairs but masked as pure love

AND/OR

Those who want to see the key cast members i.e. Fujiwara Norika, Oosawa Takao, Abe Hiroshi and Tomita Yasuko from 24 years ago in a messy romance story

* Potential spoilers ahead!

* I had actually watched this before a long time ago but didn't remember the details.

Liked:

- Oosawa Takao + Abe Hiroshi exuding a lot of sexy charm from 24 years ago is probably going to be a huge draw for the female viewers. As for the guys, there is Fujiwara Norika looking hot and gorgeous and Tomita Yasuko with a demure and beautiful look (not when her character goes crazy though).

- This being an adult love story and that there was quite a fair bit of attention on the physical attraction and desire between the characters, it was no wonder that there were a lot of intimate scenes. While I thought that there were too many at some point because it got so repetitive, I guess the sole saving grace was that they didn't go too big on the nudity so it didn't feel like a porn flick.

- Tomita's acting definitely outshone everyone else in the cast. Not an easy role to play because it would feel fake if she went too overboard so I thought that she did very well with maintaining a fine balance between the different facades of her character.

Disliked: 

- You might arrive at different conclusions and views on this drama depending on at which age or life stage when you watched this and/or in which era. Back then when this first aired, although I don't quite remember how I came across this drama and the details of the story, I do have a vague impression that I was pretty shocked by this. Not sure if it was due to the scriptwriter Uchidate Makiko's style of storytelling but I think I had a similar shocking experience when I watched another drama from her i.e. "Kegareta shita" in 2005. That was even more extreme than this drama, if I must say.

I was not an adult yet when this drama aired so I think my interpretation of the storyline and the characters naturally differed from how I look it at it now. There were probably many like me at that time who might wanted the lead characters to be together happily ever after despite the mess they created in the process. However, the me in 2025 just cannot see the lead couple in the same light anymore because the tinted glasses which I saw them through due to the way the story was crafted are gone. Perhaps it's due to having seen so many fictional and real-life affair stories in the Japanese entertainment scene over the past two decades that it has "opened up my eyes" to the problematic, immoral and sometimes evil behaviour which many of the characters engaged in. As such, it was difficult for me to feel for the characters, much less rooting for them.

I failed to comprehend how the lead couple could be having an affair so openly and selfishly while the people around them somehow facilitated or egged them or sort of turned a blind eye to what was going on. The mother-in-law who didn't blame her son for having an affair but directed criticism at the daughter-in-law? And what's with the boyfriend and the ex-boyfriend sitting together to have drinks in a pub talking about the same woman they were sleeping with?! A woman feeling like she got spurned but actually the man had never even expressed any interest in her before and it was one-sided on her part all along? And the current boyfriend helping the girlfriend go to taunt the ex-boyfriend so that the latter could be seduced by her again? All these things made it rather impossible for me to like this drama and instead, I found myself shaking my head at how ridiculous and nonsensical some of these developments were.

While I might have thought in the past that Tomita's character as the cheated on wife was largely at fault for "indirectly" causing her husband's infidelity, I think that the other side of the story which might not have been apparent to my younger self had become more obvious and understandable to me now. If I was writing this review after the first time I watched this drama, I might have kinder words for it though.

Preview of "Hitori de shinitai" - Spring 2025

Title: Hitori de shinitai / ひとりでしにたい

Official website: here

O.A. Start Date: 21 June 2025

Timeslot: Saturdays at 10pm

Broadcast by: NHK

Original manga by: Curry Zawa Kaoru

Theme Song: "Bounitsuki" by Shiina Ringo

Cast: Ayase Haruka, Sano Hayato, Yamaguchi Sayaka, Koseki Yuuta, Tsunematsu Yuri, Mitsushima Shinnosuke, Maro Akaji, Kishimoto Ayuka, Fujima Sawako, Kominami Mayuko, Koume Dayu, Kunimura Jun & Matsuzaka Keiko

Quick Review #130: Sunset Sunrise (movie)

Title: Sunset Sunrise / サンセット・サンライズ　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Rating: 8 / 10

Recommended for: 

For those who want to watch a feel-good story with serious topics embedded within amid some funny elements and/or are fans of Suda Masaki and Inoue Mao

* Potential spoilers ahead!

* I have not read the original novel.

Liked:

- While this movie was longer than 2 hours, it surprisingly didn't feel draggy nor rushed. Although I was a bit worried that this story might be big on senseless humour because it's a Kudo Kankuro script or go the other way to be a serious and dark story given the location in Tohoku (will inevitably talk about the aftermath of the 3.11 earthquake and tsunami crisis), I'm glad that there was a fine balance struck to make the movie quite palatable.

The story was pretty straightforward as it depicted how a company employee from Tokyo came to a fictitious town in the Tohoku region to rent a large house at an unbelievably low price after seeing the ad online. Since that was during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and that the virus hadn't actually spread in the countryside yet, an outsider from a place which was already seeing shutdowns and people working from home full time to curb the spread of the infection would naturally be viewed with increased scrutiny and skepticism. Even if the locals realised that his choice was largely influenced by the fact that he was a fishing enthusiast, had no ulterior motives and could make use of the fact that he could work remotely outside of Tokyo to pursue his interest, it still took them some time to warm up to this stranger. The journey which the lead character went through was predictable and there wasn't a lot of "drama" in that sense. However, I thought that the story provided quite a lot of food for thought on various issues. 

One line which I thought was quite memorable and impactful goes something like this - "We in the Tohoku region have always looked to Tokyo as the capital for things like the hottest TV shows to watch and the songs we listen to. However, how many people in Tokyo actually pay the same kind of attention to us? You people can't even name the 6 prefectures in the Tohoku region, for heaven's sake. And then after the tsunami crisis, you people just came to volunteer for a while, take off after that and conveniently forgot about us." Wow, very blunt but I think really impactful message which KudoKan was trying to convey here.

- Suda Masaki was definitely the star of the show as an endearing and funny stranger in this countryside as he learned how to live among the locals. I really liked his pairing with Inoue Mao and the ending was a tad unconventional i.e. that flying hug but very sweet. You would probably like this movie a lot if you are a fan of them.

Disliked: 

- Although the movie as a whole had a nice vibe, I thought that there were some parts where the humour got a bit stale. Perhaps by making the pace a bit faster in the second half of the story and cutting out the fluff might make this even more enjoyable to watch.