[INFO] Kohaku ratings bounce back with White Team win

The audience ratings for NHK's 59th Kohaku Uta Gassen have been announced. Ratings were up from last year, reaching 35.7% for the first half and 42.1% for the second half.

The news was a welcome change, as the past two years had dipped below the 40% mark. The second half of the show had ratings of 39.8% in 2006 and 39.5% in 2007, which are the 3rd and 2nd worst performances in the show's history.

The first half ratings were also an improvement, climbing up from 30.6% in 2006 and 32.8% in 2007.

This Kohaku Uta Gassen was the fourth consecutive victory for the White Team (male artists), bringing their overall total record to 31 wins and 28 losses. It was a convincing win, as the White Team received nearly 206,000 votes compared to the Red Team's 112,000.

The boys actually received the second highest ratings during the first part of the show with 38.6% ratings. Ohashi Nozomi singing Gake no Ue Ponyo got the highest in the first part with 41.1%. The boys performing after her might have helped a little since her song is one of the year's most popular. Meanwhile, SMAP's performance drew the most rating with 47.9%.

Source: TOKYOGRAPH

Credits: asianpopguru @ dbsg LJ comm

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Ratings from Speed is Back:

First Part Ratings

1 Ayumi Hamasaki 33.8
2 Akira Fuse 34.4
3 GIRL NEXT DOOR 36.2
4 Kenichi Mikawa 35.5
5 Natsuko Godai 34.2
6 Takeshi Kitayama 33
7 Fujioka Fujimaki & Nozomi Ohashi 41.1
8 Tohoshinki 38.6
9 Kaori Mizumori 35.4
10 Aqua Timez 34.5
11 Yusaku Kiyama 33.8
12 Junko Akimoto 34.6
13 Kimaguren 35.6
14 Ikimono Gakari 37.2
15 Kiyoshi Maekawa 34.2
16 Miyuki Kawanaka 32.4
17 Ayako Fuji 33.3
18 WaT 34.2
19 Mitsuko Nakamura 32.6
20 Porno Graffiti 34.3
21 Ai Otsuka 36.4
22 Ken Hirai 38.1
23 Fuyumi Sakamoto 36.2
24 Masafumi Akikawa 37.2

Second part ratings

1 Perfume 39,3
2 Jero 41,9
3 SPEED 43,0
4 TOKIO 41,2
5 Thelma Aoyama feat.SoulJa 40,7
6 Mizutani Yutaka 43,3
7 Ayaka 41,8
8 Hideaki Tokunaga 42,0
9 Kumi Koda 40,5
10 Hiroshi Itsuki 37,3
11 Angela Aki 38,4
12 Moriyama Naotaro 38,4
13 aiko 38,1
14 Shuchishin with Pabo 43,8
15 Kobukuro 43,0
16 Ayaka Hirahara 40,6
17 EXILE 42,4
18 Yukiko Kobayashi 43,8
19 Saburo Kitajima 42,7
20 Hitoto Yo 41,5
21 Mika Nakashima 42,6
22 Mr.Children 45,8
23 Sayuri Ishikawa 46,4
24 SMAP 47,9
25 Yoshimi Tendo 45,6
26 Shinichi Mori 46,6
27 Akiko Wada 46,3
28 Kiyoshi Hikawa 47,0


With 1% being the equivalent of approximately 1 million viewers, approximately 38.6 million viewers were watching Tohoshinki.