Yukie Nakama

Yukie Nakama's new TV drama suffers low rating

Yukie Nakama, the 30-year-old “queen of viewer ratings”’ has been chosen again to host the annual NHK “Kohaku Utagassen” program this year. Yet despite the actress’ popularity, her new TV drama is not faring too well. The TV Asahi series titled “Untouchable,” which began airing this month, is suffering unbelievably low ratings for the queen.

In the series, Nakama plays a tabloid news reporter who does just about anything from trespassing and shooting undercover photos in search of a scoop, solving crimes and mysteries at the same time. The new TV drama was promoted at a media conference held in early October as a story with a “well thought out plot” and Nakama herself emphasized how excited she was to play the lead role.

In spite of the advertisement, the rating for the first show was 11.6%, falling to 9.7% and 6.2% by the third episode in the Kanto area. According to a source working at TV Asahi’s production department, “The ratings are so poor that ordinarily we would consider canceling it altogether, midseason or not. But it’s just not possible, considering Nakama’s contribution to the success of ‘TRICK’ (which aired in 2000), and while plans are under way for a third movie version of this story. Under the circumstances, there’s no way we can do anything that would offend her. In fact, any talk about TV viewer ratings is practically a taboo now.”

Thus, any mention of ratings has become the “untouchable” topic among the “Untouchable” staff. How ironic. TV Asahi’s public relations department stated they had nothing to say about measures to improve the ratings.

A program crew member says that Nakama’s commitment as the lead actress extends to memorizing all the lines in the script, including those of her co-actors. Let’s just hope that her effort will be rewarded.

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Latest 15 of 27 Total Comments Show All

gogogo at 11:06 AM JST - 16th November

Talento over actual story... happy to see story line winning.
thepro at 01:08 PM JST - 16th November

I don't know how any of these dramas can secure any viewers at all. They are always exactly the same 2 or 3 stories, just changing the main characters occupation
gogogo at 01:12 PM JST - 16th November

thepro: Yakuza control the talent in Japan, they control the media.
combinibento at 01:23 PM JST - 16th November

Nice pic, but could you go a little easier on the foundation next time?
chuckers at 01:41 PM JST - 16th November

You really don't want to see her without foundation...
blvtzpk at 01:50 PM JST - 16th November

As I've said many times, she's Ms Bland. What do you expect?
Richard_III at 02:38 PM JST - 16th November

Basically we're spoilt for choice here in Japan. There's always something interesting on the TV. It's a competitive market.
thepro at 02:47 PM JST - 16th November

Basically we're spoilt for choice here in Japan. There's always something interesting on the TV.

Hehe, good one
marushka at 06:39 PM JST - 16th November

Richard III: absolutely agree, very interesting TV programms, specially comparing to swiss tv:) I like Yukie, she is talented and cute. Hope they can do it better
gogogo at 10:15 PM JST - 16th November

marushka: I hope you're being sarcastic, Japanese TV stinks my house out everytime I turn it on with it's bad jokes and stupid stories.
Osakadaz at 11:05 PM JST - 16th November

Of all the Japanese actresses I have seen she is the WORST.If you like ham acting then she has the ham and the cheese to go with it.At least the likes of Hirosue Ryoko and Kikuchi Rinko can act and do it well enough to be admired world-wide.
marushka at 12:19 AM JST - 17th November

gogogo: have you ever seen swiss tv programm? i am just comparing these two:) Osakadaz: really? i liked her very much in "g@me"
hanadecaka at 11:22 AM JST - 17th November

Most Japanese women and actress move of mouth is very artificail when they talks with people.They think that it can impact to people.Check how they move mouth.So this actress also WORST.
kokuryu at 10:25 PM JST - 17th November

Has anyone actually watched "Untouchable"? The problem is not her acting - she does as superb job as usual, as does many of the other people in the drama. The real problem is the script itself - there is no DRAMA in the drama - thats why the rating are so low. Me, personally, I have liked everything else she has done since Itazura na Kiss onward - I have seen both the dramas and movies, and even the anime she had a voice roll in - nearly everything she has done. And quite frankly, this show here lacks drama and suspense. They gave away everything in the opening, had zero character development, very little action, no drama, no suspense. You cannot blame an actor or actress for bad script writing. I cannot believe the absolute venom that so many people are pouring out at her. Is this how the Japanese go about doing character assassinations of public figures they want to remove from the limelight? Blame them for the mistakes of others just because they are public? The should blame the production company that is making this series and demand the script writers go back to school.
nightvision at 01:02 AM JST - 19th November

Kokuryu:

A great majority of commenters here in JapanToday are not Japanese at all.

Most of the people here are disillusioned and cynical foreigners who are extremely talented in pointing out everything that they think is wrong with Japan, the Japanese people, and everything else that has to do with Japan.

-Please note as well that the article does not target Nakama as the reason for the show's low ratings; it instead states that despite her popularity among the Japanese public, the show has poor viewership due to, as you mentioned, poor script.

(Nakama memorizes the entire script--that is something professional theater actors learn and do as a habit.)

It's a global trend, this dearth of good scriptwriters.