A Star-Studded Cast and Still a Spectacular Flop? TV Dramas Are Turning into the Yomiuri Giants

Big-name actors, a famous screenwriter, and an enormous production budget.

One drama received a massive publicity campaign before it aired, only to debut with low ratings. There are reportedly already rumors that it may be canceled early.

Given how much money the network spent on it, the people in charge must have quite a headache.

We often hear these days that people no longer watch television dramas.

It is true that viewers now have incomparably more entertainment options than they did in the past, including Netflix, YouTube, and social media.

Sitting down in front of the television at a scheduled time and spending an hour watching a drama interrupted by commercials—the habit itself is becoming outdated.

But is that the only reason?

Just Like the Yomiuri Giants of Old

Recently, I heard a critic compare this television drama to the Yomiuri Giants during a certain period in the team’s history.

It was a rather interesting comparison.

The Giants, Japan’s best-known professional baseball team, once kept acquiring cleanup hitters from rival teams.

But filling a lineup with cleanup hitters does not necessarily create a strong team.

Baseball also requires defense and baserunning. The players need to work well together. No matter how many home run hitters a team collects, it cannot win if the team as a whole is poorly balanced.

The critic’s point was that this drama was not the only one: many recent prime-time dramas may be making the same mistake.

They assemble popular actors, hire a famous screenwriter, and build lavish sets.

Each of those people may indeed be at the very top of their field.

But that does not guarantee an entertaining drama.

What viewers want, after all, is not a list of famous actors but an interesting story.

They may look at the cast and think, “Wow, that is impressive.” But if the story itself is boring, they will not return the following week.

A drama is not a popularity contest for actors.

Even Losing to Korean Dramas?

I am not particularly trying to praise Korean dramas.

But recently, I heard something intriguing.

Even conservative middle-aged and older men who are hardly favorably disposed toward South Korea have reportedly started watching Korean dramas.

I find this a fascinating phenomenon.

The Korean actors’ names and faces are almost entirely unfamiliar. Nor is it clear how famous they are in Japan.

Viewers cannot tell how large the production budget was, and they do not care.

Yet once they start watching, they find the drama entertaining. So they keep watching.

Is that not what a drama is supposed to be?

People do not watch because they like the country or because a famous actor appears in it.

If it is entertaining, it is entertaining. That is all there is to it.

Of course, Japan still produces good dramas. But Japan once led Asian entertainment. Why are its dramas now compared with Korean productions and found wanting?

Have Japanese actors become less talented? Have screenwriters lost their ability?

I do not think so.

I suspect the problem lies instead in television networks’ production systems and the way they select projects.

They secure famous actors expected to draw ratings, choose concepts that are easy to explain to sponsors, and repeat formulas that succeeded in the past.

A system designed to prevent failure ends up preventing the creation of interesting work.

It somehow feels like a reflection of Japanese society as a whole today.

Spending More Does Not Make a Drama More Entertaining

When you think about it, a television drama is a strange kind of product.

A major production costing billions of yen—tens of millions of dollars—can fail, while a relatively low-budget show can become a word-of-mouth sensation.

In the end, entertainment value is not proportional to the production budget.

With a large budget, you can create more lavish visuals and hire famous actors.

But if you film a boring script on an extravagant set, what you end up with is “a lavishly boring drama.”

And viewers are busy now.

In the past, people might have turned on the television simply because there was nothing else to watch.

Now, open a smartphone and an endless stream of interesting-looking videos appears.

If a drama is boring, no one has to endure it.

In other words, perhaps this is less about people abandoning television and more about an era in which people can easily abandon boring programs.

What Dramas Need Is an Interesting Concept, Not Star Players

There are still entertaining television dramas today.

Popular shows generate excitement on social media and attract new viewers through streaming services.

The television drama as a format is not dead.

The problem may be an excessive reliance on the old formula that a lavish cast and a famous screenwriter will produce a hit.

I would watch unknown actors if the script were interesting.

Conversely, no matter how famous the actors are, I do not want to watch if the story is boring.

That should be obvious.

Even so, perhaps television networks continue gathering star players because an actor’s name recognition is easier to explain in a meeting than the quality of an idea.

“The lead is that major star” will probably persuade a boss more easily than “This concept is definitely going to be entertaining.”

And so the impressive cast is assembled.

It would be wonderful if viewers watched after that, but unfortunately, that is the one thing a meeting cannot decide.

The Giants of old were mocked for collecting too many cleanup hitters and still failing to win. Today’s television networks collect cleanup hitters, but cannot even persuade people to watch the game.

Meanwhile, those spectators are now absorbed in games featuring Korean players whose names they do not even know.

For Japanese television networks, it would be hard to imagine a greater irony.