“Kouhaku Uta Gassen” has the lowest viewership rating ever, with the first part dropping below the 30% mark for the first time at 29.0%

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The 74th annual “Kouhaku Uta Gassen” has the lowest viewership rating ever, with the first part dropping below the 30% mark for the first time at 29.0%.

The average audience rating (household) for the 74th NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen broadcast on NHK General on December 31, 2023 (from 7:20 p.m.) was 29.0% (Kanto area, according to Video Research) It was revealed on January 2nd that the second part (from 9:00 p.m.) was 31.9%.

The first part fell below the 30% mark for the first time, and the second part’s 31.9% was also lower than the 34.3% in 2021, which was the worst ever since 1989, when the two-part system was introduced.

The audience rating for Kohaku Uta Gassen was 81.4% in 1963, but it has fallen below 60% since 1986. Since 2004, it has been around 40%, and in the past five years, in 2018 it was 37.7% for the first part and 41.5% for the second part, in 2019 it was 34.7% for the first part, 37.3% for the second part, and in 2020 it was the first part. 34.2%, 40.3% for the second part, 31.5% for the first part, 34.3% for the second part in 2021, and 31.2% for the first part, 35.3% for the second part in 2022.

It’s important to note that while the last two years featured KPOP artist (which some may point to the fact that the recent Kouhaku had seven KPOP groups), this is not the reason why the ratings have dipped. It is widely known that there is far more competition than Kouhaku Uta Gassen had in the past (television, YouTube, online streaming, events) and viewership has been dropping every year.

There is no doubt that Kouhaku Uta Gassen is going towards a more younger audience and featuring less enka artists.  But suffice to say, NHK has been experimenting with different artist and seeing what works and what doesn’t work.

But personally, with the artist and groups they had in 2023, what would be a first if “Kouhaku Uta Gassen” broadcasted the event live on YouTube to the world, like other world events simultaneously.

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