Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Update to the Autumn 2012 ratings race - 31 Oct 2012

First of all, here's the ranking so far based on average ratings:

1) Doctor X - 18.10%
2) Aibou Series 11 - 17.90%
3) PRICELESS - 17.85%
4) MONSTERS - 13.60%
5) Osozaki no Himawari - 13.50%
6) Akumu-chan 12.40%
7) Kekkon Shinai 12.30%
8) Tokumei Tantei 11.03%
9) Going My Home - 10.95%
10) Tokyo Airport - 10.90%
11) Ooku - 10.03%

12) Tokyo Zenryoku Shoujo - 8.37%
13) Perfect Blue - 8.25%
14) Resident - 7.30%
15) Koukou Nyuushu 6.48%
16) Poison 3.38%
17) PIECE 2.43%
18) Girls Talk - 2.28%
19) Sugarless - 1.60%

This season, it doesn't seem like weekday dramas are the clear winners because the weekend competition is also doing fairly OK, no doubt still quite a bit of distance from the leaders. I must admit that I didn't think Doctor X would do so well and since it only dropped 1% from its first OA, it looks like the viewers liked what they saw in the first episode and stayed on for the second or new curious viewers joined in to help prevent the second OA's figures from dropping too much. Meanwhile, Aibou fell another 0.8% in its 3rd episode but the figure of 16.5% is still extremely high compared to what other dramas are getting.

KimuTaku gets to redeem himself a little bit because the 2nd episode of PRICELESS climbed up to 18.8% which was 1.9% higher than its first episode. However, it needs to get high ratings consistently for the rest of the season to grab the top spot or hope that Doctor X and Aibou would falter later on. MONSTERS featuring Katori Shingo and Yamashita Tomohisa also suffered a dip but 0.4% is nothing to be worried about yet. It may be tough for it to get a high average rating like the Top 3 but it's still early to write them off. Osozaki no Himawari is only into its first episode so I can't judge now whether that figure is considered a success.

Akumu-chan and Kekkon Shinai are very close in terms of average figures but I'm quite worried for the latter which dropped 3.3% in its 3rd episode and it's precariously close to that horrific 10% mark. Akumu-chan saw an opposite trend when its 3rd episode increased by 2.2% to 12.9%. For those who've seen it, is it due to Kitagawa Keiko, Gackt or the story?

Tokumei Tantei, despite being a midnight slot drama, is doing rather well against the primetime competition but things look worrying for Going My Home which sunk to 8.9% in its 2nd episode. That's a huge drop of 4.1% and it's seriously looking like a potential disaster because the media will probably have a field day about Yamaguchi Tomoko who returns to dramaland but with such a lacklustre result. Of course, whether the drama flops or succeeds is not entirely her fault but as initial PR efforts focused on her comeback, she would likely attract more flak when the drama does not do well. TOKYO Airport seems to have done quite well in the first episode but suddenly goes into below-10% by the 2nd and 3rd OA. It's kinda worrying that they are following the footsteps of the "Kazoku no Uta" curse especially if MONSTERS take away a chunk of their potential viewers. Ooku is so close to the under-10% group especially after its 2.7% dip in the 3rd episode so it won't surprise me if it goes under after this week's OA.

As for the under-10s, I feel bad for Takei Emi because she's been working so hard (3 consecutive seasons as a drama lead) and they all happen to be in the under-10s category. I think her acting is OK for a newbie but she probably needs a break to reenergise herself and come up with new ways of playing her roles or else viewers will get sick of her and she will fall ill at the rate she's working. 

The media's having a field day talking about her low ratings and how it affects people around her but to be frank, I can point out many things I hated about "Iki mo dekinai natsu" and none of them are related to her. It's really not entirely her fault that ratings are low but everyone looks for the easiest target to blame. That's how the environment is because even KimuTaku is struggling to hit 20%. Being a lead is no longer as easy as in the past and making a hit drama is like striking lottery and even a strong cast with a great story can still do badly in ratings. "Kaseifu no Mita" probably wasn't expected to be a mega hit but it just sort of happened. Sad to say, the figures are still the only benchmark to measure a drama's success so as long as the actors and actresses are still in this industry, this becomes their sole KPI.

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