#61 Kouhaku Uta Gassen: SMAP delivers highest performer ratings
AKB48 at #61 Kouhaku Uta Gassen
The 61st Kouhaku Uta Gassen was hosted by Nao Matsushita and Arashi. The official lineup had only 22 artists on each team, for a record low of 44 artists. 785,836 votes were cast, and the White Team (male) emerged victorious by a margin of 418,191 to 367,645. This is the 6th consecutive win for the White Team, and the 33rd overall (compared to 28 for the Red Team).
The minute-by-minute breakdown of the viewership ratings (in the Kanto region) for the 61st NHK Kouhaku was released to news outlets on Tuesday.
Based on the data, the ratings peak of the 4-hour show came near the end, reaching 49.7% at 11:41pm as the artists waited on stage for the winning team to be announced. Among the performers, the highest ratings were achieved just before that by SMAP’s 2-song medley performance as the show’s “ootori” (the final artist), measured at a peak of 48.9%.
This is SMAP’s fifth time achieving the highest ratings at Kouhaku They previously did it in 2003, 2005, 2006, and 2007.
DREAMS COME TRUE, who performed last for the Red Team and took the stage just before SMAP, had the second highest ratings with 47.2%.
The second half of the show (after 9:30pm) averaged 41.7%, thanks to plenty of highly-rated performances. In fact, the last 15 performances of the show, starting with Yuzo Kayama and ending with SMAP, all rated 40.0% or higher. These included Masaharu Fukuyama (43.4%), Keisuke Kuwata (45.4%), Arashi (43.3%), Sachiko Kobayashi, and Ikimono Gakari.
A few other artists in the second half broke the 40.0% mark. During the first half, which only averaged 35.7%, AKB48 was the only artist to reach that threshold, with ratings of 40.3%.
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