How will Sasuke compensate for the loss of Nagano?

[GlobalNinjaFan]

I'm just wondering, because Sasuke has only had a tiny sliver of an increase in ratings throughout the whole Rising era, and now they've lost one of the most recognisable stars in the history of the show? Will they try and add more celebs, which in my opinion is the worst possible route of action, or will they try some other, new approach. I'm asking for your opinion on this, because honestly I'm worried. Now with only 2 out of 6 All-Stars left, what the hell will they do?

[OwlRTA]

They could try to promote Yusuke as the new face of Sasuke, and hype up his return after missing a tournament.

[Amber]

I mean, they have a shot at survival if they survived losing Kane.

[BobbyG11]

Jul 18, 2016 16:26:36 GMT -5 OwlRTA said:

They could try to promote Yusuke as the new face of Sasuke, and hype up his return after missing a tournament.

This. I think they will really hype of the return of the reigning champion with all the bells and whistles. "The Champ is Here!!"

[notamulti]

Jul 18, 2016 16:37:22 GMT -5 Amber said:

I mean, they have a shot at survival if they survived losing Kane.

You're forgetting that with Kane they were getting a freaking 26% in ratings, and in Sasuke 9 (the first tournament without him) ratings skydived down to 19.8%, and continued to drop. Kane was that adored by viewers. Without the formation of the allstars the ensuring drop over the next 5 years would have been even faster, no doubt.

But the point is, even with the Allstars, Sasuke was never the same after Kane left. 20% of viewers watched the show just for him.

With Nagano I imagine a similar scenario, where 10-20% of viewers will tune out now he's not there.

Considering the ratings are already at a dreadful 10%, we can't afford to drop down to sasuke 25 ratings.

But that's whats going yo happen.
So no.
They have no shot

[Amber]

Jul 18, 2016 19:11:51 GMT -5 notamulti said:

Jul 18, 2016 16:37:22 GMT -5 Amber said:

I mean, they have a shot at survival if they survived losing Kane.

You're forgetting that with Kane they were getting a freaking 26% in ratings, and in Sasuke 9 (the first tournament without him) ratings skydived down to 19.8%, and continued to drop. Kane was that adored by viewers. Without the formation of the allstars the ensuring drop over the next 5 years would have been even faster, no doubt.

But the point is, even with the Allstars, Sasuke was never the same after Kane left. 20% of viewers watched the show just for him.

With Nagano I imagine a similar scenario, where 10-20% of viewers will tune out now he's not there.

Considering the ratings are already at a dreadful 10%, we can't afford to drop down to sasuke 25 ratings.

But that's whats going yo happen.
So no.
They have no shot

But the show could have easily DIED without Kane after Sasuke 8, also, Sasuke 2,3, and 5 would like a word with you.

Regardless, there is still hope that goes by the name of Yusuke Morimoto

[PsychoDelusion]

Monster9 and TBS didn't do a good job on promoting Urushihara, their 2-freaking-time Grand Champion. They've backed up Morimoto since SASUKE 29 but I still don't think that he will change anything. He'll never reach the height of popularity the All-Stars or other competitors had. He'll probably share the fate of Yuuji as far as I can tell. The ratings will drop quite a bit (I expect a 7-8% for SASUKE 33) and this will seal the grave for the show. TBS only bought the show so they could advertise their shows and several celebrities (At least that's the image I see). Morimoto wasn't that liked by the crowd anyways as they felt he was overrated but this seems to have changed. Only time will tell, but the future doesn't look that bright.

P.S.: I can see Shingo competing for several tournaments to come (if they come) but I expect Takeda to leave as well. He was never too hot on competing after 25 and with his best friend leaving, I can only see him competing one more time.

[notamulti]

Jul 18, 2016 19:20:52 GMT -5 Amber said:

Jul 18, 2016 19:11:51 GMT -5 notamulti said:

You're forgetting that with Kane they were getting a freaking 26% in ratings, and in Sasuke 9 (the first tournament without him) ratings skydived down to 19.8%, and continued to drop. Kane was that adored by viewers. Without the formation of the allstars the ensuring drop over the next 5 years would have been even faster, no doubt.

But the point is, even with the Allstars, Sasuke was never the same after Kane left. 20% of viewers watched the show just for him.

With Nagano I imagine a similar scenario, where 10-20% of viewers will tune out now he's not there.

Considering the ratings are already at a dreadful 10%, we can't afford to drop down to sasuke 25 ratings.

But that's whats going yo happen.
So no.
They have no shot

But the show could have easily DIED without Kane after Sasuke 8, also, Sasuke 2,3, and 5 would like a word with you.

Regardless, there is still hope that goes by the name of Yusuke Morimoto

Lmao, 2,3,4 and 5 have viewing figures which steadily climbed, from SEVENTEEN PERCENT upwards.

Today we're in a whole different ballgame. The only reason sasuke is still here is because TBS have nothing better to replace it with.

And Yuusuke won't will the gap left by Nagano in my eyes. Nagano was an old favourite, the classic, and he had a special, infectious smiling quality about him. Yuusuke is just a timid kid. But that part is just my opinion.

[arsenette]

Nagano is impossible to replace - especially in a post G4 world. Everyone in the west grew up watching Nagano - not Kane. Yes Kane's departure was catastrophic to ratings and it limped but it survived without him. The show at that point hadn't even been sold worldwide yet but when it did, Nagano was it's face. Even now people believe that he is still quite capable of clearing the show and people hung on to see him compete even if it was to fail. His decision to leave rocked Sasuke down to it's core. That hung over 32 like a dark cloud. The vets were happy to see it because that signaled to everyone else it was time to go and the ones left behind are panicking because they have no presence in anyone's mind the way the All-Stars did. Morimoto wasn't even there and he's not sure what is going to happen. I'm sure right now people are trying to figure out wtf is going to happen as well.

Inui's made his decision and already told everyone in Japan that he's chasing ANW - even in print so it's not my imagination. Inui still is the owner of the image of Sasuke. He doesn't own the franchise but part of his contract to get him back is that he has creative control on what it looks like on television. ANW is king now and he's admitted to it and has officially named them the global standard. He already announced that he is going to push Sasuke in that direction since they have a bigger worldwide footprint than Sasuke. You guys obviously know my position on it that it's a horrible mistake. Japan doesn't have the money, marketing or even regionals to build the empire that NBC has built. And more importantly - they are different shows. With him signaling that it is the direction he's going.. losing Nagano is the LEAST of their problems right now. They are in full on crisis mode. We'll see what happens. I honestly don't see them getting past 2018. It's already unrecognizable now in my eyes.

[AussiePete]

No idea of the culture in Japan re TV consumption but what worked nicely in the G4 edits was the feeling of progression from 1st Stage to later stages. ANW mirrors this somewhat by having regionals. It allows a build towards the later episodes. So Sasuke could have 1st Stage as 4 episodes over a month leading up to a 1-2 hour final (recap Stage 1, then show Stages 2 and up). They could maybe even film it over the same 2 (or 3) days and just release it differently.

(That introduces issues of 'leaks' of the results, though, and one obvious way to mitigate that risk is not to allow public audiences they way they used to. I don't love that idea.)

[arsenette]

Jul 20, 2016 20:27:38 GMT -5 AussiePete said:

No idea of the culture in Japan re TV consumption but what worked nicely in the G4 edits was the feeling of progression from 1st Stage to later stages. ANW mirrors this somewhat by having regionals. It allows a build towards the later episodes. So Sasuke could have 1st Stage as 4 episodes over a month leading up to a 1-2 hour final (recap Stage 1, then show Stages 2 and up). They could maybe even film it over the same 2 (or 3) days and just release it differently.

(That introduces issues of 'leaks' of the results, though, and one obvious way to mitigate that risk is not to allow public audiences they way they used to. I don't love that idea.)

Are you suggesting changing the format completely to further fit the ANW style which was part of the argument of changing Sasuke away from the original format?

And more importantly.. how would this compensate for losing Nagano?

[AussiePete]

If it helps ratings, yes. (I'm not suggesting making the 'event' different, just how it is presented on TV.) I was introduced to Sasuke via the G4 edits and it's only in recent years I've seen full Japanese broadcasts. So I guess I'm suggesting more towards the M9/G4 format. 30 minute episodes x 6 or 7 or whatever it was. But do 4 x 30 minutes and then a longer finale.

To me it's unusual to see a ~3 hour broadcast of what seems to be more a gameshow than a sporting event. But, as I said, I come at this from a non-Japanese (Australian) background and I have no idea whether this will work for a Japanese audience. I don't know what the norm is there.

ANW aside, this is how other sport broadcasts and competitions tend to work. Heats then finals. It allows time for people to get to know the competitors. (Not sure if the Icelandic men's soccer team journey in the Euro2016 cup was a worldwide hit, but it made big waves here and brought a lot of attention to them.) You can release YouTube bits in between, get people excited about the people who they'll see again in the final. We know the All Stars and New Stars from lots of exposure -- this format would give more time for people to be exposed to the competitors. Not JUST the celebs.

[arsenette]

Jul 20, 2016 21:13:36 GMT -5 AussiePete said:

If it helps ratings, yes. (I'm not suggesting making the 'event' different, just how it is presented on TV.) I was introduced to Sasuke via the G4 edits and it's only in recent years I've seen full Japanese broadcasts. So I guess I'm suggesting more towards the M9/G4 format. 30 minute episodes x 6 or 7 or whatever it was. But do 4 x 30 minutes and then a longer finale.

To me it's unusual to see a ~3 hour broadcast of what seems to be more a gameshow than a sporting event. But, as I said, I come at this from a non-Japanese (Australian) background and I have no idea whether this will work for a Japanese audience. I don't know what the norm is there.

ANW aside, this is how other sport broadcasts and competitions tend to work. Heats then finals. It allows time for people to get to know the competitors. (Not sure if the Icelandic men's soccer team journey in the Euro2016 cup was a worldwide hit, but it made big waves here and brought a lot of attention to them.) You can release YouTube bits in between, get people excited about the people who they'll see again in the final. We know the All Stars and New Stars from lots of exposure -- this format would give more time for people to be exposed to the competitors. Not JUST the celebs.

The ratings took a hit because they hated how Japan is changing Sasuke into ANW.. you are suggesting that they go even further and outright butcher the format by removing more than half the broadcast (that is what the G4 version did) and segment it into the drama season. Sasuke fits as a 1 time special for a reason. It doesn't fit any other place. The show has existed in this format for almost 20 years. Knowing the landscape more would help understand why your suggestion is part of the problem. You simply don't understand why the ratings are as bad as they are in JAPAN. And again you are not answering the question of this thread. None of what you suggested represents the problem of losing the face of Sasuke - Nagano. As it is now, with what they had the Japanese hated how it was edited and what they did to Nagano's "retirement ceremony". Now you are saying none of that matters because the best received format outside of Japan is a bastardization of their format totally ignoring that Sasuke as a franchise worked better as a special. You are missing the point entirely.

[Messup434]

I agrew with everyone who says they should hype Yusuke's return. He's a rising star and may well achieve kanzenseiha again!