is a Japanese variety television show, hosted by

Bananaman Bananaman is a fictional character appearing in British comic books. Bananaman is a parody of traditional superheroes, being portrayed as a schoolboy who is transformed into a muscled, caped adult man when he eats a banana. The character origin ...

and starring the girl group

Nogizaka46 is a Japanese female idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto, created as the of the group AKB48. They are the first group from the Sakamichi Series, which also includes sister groups Sakurazaka46 (formerly Keyakizaka46), Yoshimotozaka46, and ...

. It was first aired on April 21, 2015. It is produced by

TV Aichi JOCI-DTV, branded as , is a television station in Nagoya, Japan operated by the Aichi Television Broadcasting Company, Ltd. (TVA; ja, テレビ愛知株式会社, Terebi Aichi kabushiki gaisha) and is an affiliate of the TX Network. Broadcasti ...

and broadcast by member stations of the

TV Tokyo Network TX Network (TXN) is a commercial television network in Japan owned by Nikkei, Inc. The "TX" is taken from the callsign of its flagship station, TV Tokyo. It is also known as TV Tokyo Network. History Tokyo Channel 12 almost went into ban ...

Overview

''Nogizaka Kōjichū'' is the successor to Nogizaka46's first regular terrestrial television program, (October 3, 2011 – April 13, 2015), which was also hosted by Bananaman. The title of the show was created by

Yasushi Akimoto is a Japanese record producer, lyricist, and television writer, best known for creating and producing some of Japan's top idol groups, Onyanko Club and the AKB48 franchise. Total sales of the singles he has written exceed 100 million copies, maki ...

, the general producer of Nogizaka46. On December 30, 2016, the show's first one-hour special episode was aired, featuring a joint year-end party with

Keyakizaka46 , formerly , is a Japanese idol girl group produced by Yasushi Akimoto. The group was created on August 21, 2015, becoming Nogizaka46's first sister group under the Sakamichi Series. Following the resignation of group's center Yurina Hirate and ...

, whose television show ''

Keyakitte, Kakenai? is a Japanese late night variety show starring Japanese idol group Keyakizaka46. It was hosted by Yū Sawabe and Teruyuki Tsuchida and aired every Sunday at 12:35 AM JST on TV Tokyo. After the group was rebranded into Sakurazaka46 in 2020, th ...

'' aired after this show's timeslot on TV Tokyo at the time. Subsequent one-hour special episodes have been aired on December 26, 2017, January 9, 2018, and January 8, 2019. Starting with the May 17, 2021 episode, each episode has been made available after the terrestrial broadcast on the YouTube channel , which was newly established on May 6. ''

Nikkan Sports is the first-launched Japanese daily sports newspaper founded in 1946. It has a circulation of 1,661,000, and is an affiliate newspaper of the ''Asahi Shimbun''. Companies and regions ;Nikkan Sports News (Tokyo) :Tokyo HQ: 5-10, Tsukiji Sanc ...

'' reported that it is unusual for a terrestrial television program to be officially distributed for free on YouTube. Due to their good relationship in the show, the Bananaman duo have become known as the of Nogizaka46.

Yūki Himura is a Japanese comedian, actor and voice actor. He performs ''tsukkomi'' (basically he did not decided if either he perform ''boke'' or ''tsukkomi'', but can also perform ''boke'') in the comedy duo Bananaman. His partner is Osamu Shitara. Himura ...

has also taken the lead dancer position in Nogizaka46's live dance performances wearing replicas of the group's costumes as his female character , such as during the 2017 TV Tokyo Music Festival and the 2017 Midsummer National Tour at the

Meiji Jingu Stadium The is a baseball stadium in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. It opened in 1926 and holds 37,933 spectators. Property of the Meiji Shrine, it is the home field of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows professional baseball team. It also hosts college baseball, incl ...

. The preparation and performances were documented in the episodes aired on July 16 and 23, 2017.

Reception

''Business Journal'' reported in 2021 that while TV Tokyo generally has the lowest viewership ratings among

Kantō region The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Slight ...

broadcasters, its late Sunday night block, which airs three

Sakamichi Series refers to a Japanese idol group franchise that began with Nogizaka46, an "official" rival group of AKB48. It currently consists of four groups: Nogizaka46, Sakurazaka46, Hinatazaka46, and Yoshimotozaka46. Despite the name, the groups are not r ...

variety shows (''Nogizaka Kōjichū'', ''

Soko Magattara, Sakurazaka? is a Japanese late night variety show starring Japanese idol group Sakurazaka46. It is hosted by Yū Sawabe and Teruyuki Tsuchida and airs every Sunday at 12:35 AM JST on TV Tokyo. It is the direct continuation of ''Keyakitte, Kakenai?'', whic ...

'', and ''

Hinatazaka de Aimashō is a Japanese late night variety show starring idol group Hinatazaka46. It is the successor to ''Hiragana Oshi'' and also hosted by the comedy duo Audrey. The show airs every Monday at 1:05 AM JST on TV Tokyo. History On April 8, 2019, ''Hi ...

'') back-to-back, has "astonishingly high" household viewership ratings at around 1.5–2 percent comparable to larger stations such as

Nippon TV JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed su ...

. It also noted the high number of time shifted (recorded) viewing, which indicated that viewers were actively watching the shows.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Nogizaka46 Yasushi Akimoto Japanese variety television shows TV Tokyo original programming 2015 Japanese television series debuts 2010s Japanese television series 2020s Japanese television series Nogizaka46