Sports grab top spots in Nippon TV
Olympics, baseball help spur overall ratings boost
Six of the top 10 spots were held by sporting events in 2000, compared with only one the previous year. With a 42.3% rating, the Olympic soccer match between Japan and the U.S. was the top-rated sports show and second overall for the year, ratings agency Video Research said in its annual survey.
The No. 1 show for the year was pubcaster NHK's "Kohaku Red and White Singing Contest," with a 48.4% rating. But the show, which is usually tops in Japan, dipped below the 50% mark for only the second time in its decades-long history.
The No. 3 show was the final episode of the TBS series "Beautiful Life," which was the first drama in 17 years to cross the 40% ratings line.
The hit series about a young hairdresser and his wheelchair-bound, deathly ill girlfriend scored a 41.3% rating for its final episode.
TV Asahi, which typically finds itself out of the top 10, scored big with a broadcast of the Sydney Olympics women's marathon, won by Japan's Naoko Takahashi. That broadcast was No. 4 for the year with a 40.6% rating.
Three of the games in the Japan Series baseball championship made it into the top 10 for the year. Japanese TV saw an overall ratings boost for its top shows of the year as 16 scored ratings of over 30%. In 1999, only six shows topped the 30% line.
