Nippon Television and Fuji Television each broadcast their "Wednesday 10pm Dramas" "Winter Something, Spring Something" and "Ramune Monkey" at the same time on January 8th. The "Wednesday 10pm Drama Showdown," which resumed after a one-year hiatus, has now entered its fourth season. A new trend is emerging.
Nippon Television's "Winter Something, Spring Something" is an original love story starring Hana Sugisaki and written by director Rikiya Imaizumi. The dialogue, which lasts for several tens of minutes and feels "realistic," is already generating buzz.
Fuji TV's "Ramune Monkey," which started at the same time, is a human comedy starring Takashi Sorimachi, Nao Omori, and Kenjiro Tsuda, and written by Ryota Kosawa. While it may seem like a coming-of-age drama about older men, incorporating 1980s culture into the dialogue, the mystery element seems to have captured the hearts of viewers.
The average viewership ratings for the first episode of "Winter Something" was 3.8% of households, and "Ramune Monkey" was 4.8% of households (both in the Kanto region, according to Video Research), so there isn't much difference between them.
Looking back at the history of the "Wednesday 10pm Dramas," although there were some hiatuses from the 1980s, Wednesday 10pm on Nippon Television was always a time slot for dramas. It was a rock-solid drama slot that produced a number of hits, including "Star's Gold Coin," "14-Year-Old Mother," "Haken no Hinkaku," "Kaseifu no Mita," and "Hotaru no Hikari."
Meanwhile, Fuji TV has a history of trying its hand at Wednesday 10pm dramas. Starting with "Shomuni" and "Omizu no Hanamichi" in the 1990s, and "Kazoku Game" in the 2010s, the drama slot was revived for the first time in six years with "Namba MG5" in 2022.
Fuji TV has attempted to challenge the "yokozuna" Nippon TV several times over the past 30 years, but this was interrupted in 2024 when Nippon TV decided to broadcast variety shows for the first time in about 50 years. There was a one-year period when Fuji TV was the only network to broadcast dramas at 10pm on Wednesdays, but then Nippon TV revived its drama slot in 2025, meaning that two drama series will once again be broadcast side by side in the same time slot.
Nippon TV, which revived Wednesday 10pm dramas in April this year, began its stint with the romantic mystery "Murderous Encounter," while Fuji TV, competing with them, lined up the medical drama "Dr. Ashura." In July, Nippon TV began the sports-themed "Chihayafuru: Meguri," while Fuji TV began the science mystery "The Last Appraiser." In October, Nippon TV began the human suspense drama "ESCAPE: It Was Supposed to be Kidnapping," while Fuji began the 1980s youth drama "Pray Speak What Has Happened?". While the number of such dramas is still small, both stations currently have a strong lineup of mystery and suspense dramas.
The "Wednesday 10pm drama showdown" between Nippon TV and Fuji TV is an easy-to-understand formula, and has been a frequent topic of discussion for some time. However, while peak household viewer ratings sometimes exceeded 30% in the past, thanks to the spread of catch-up streaming services such as TVer, it is now common for household viewer ratings to fall below 5% while catch-up views reach several million. It is unfair and almost meaningless to judge the winner of a drama based on a single piece of data, especially when it comes to dramas where tastes tend to vary greatly among people.
However, after this one-year "hiatus," one thing has definitely changed. It's becoming harder to predict what will become a hit. Previously, safe shows with popular casts and staff were more likely to garner attention and higher ratings. However, looking at the 2025 season, there are many cases where this theory doesn't apply, and when you actually watch the dramas on both networks, you can see that they've gone through a lot of trial and error and put a lot of effort into creating them.
However, looking at the Wednesday 10pm time slot as a whole, TBS's "Wednesday Downtown" currently reigns as the "absolute champion." We have entered an era where it is no longer possible to measure with a single yardstick such as viewer ratings, and the "Wednesday 10pm Drama Showdown" is becoming more of a testing ground for both stations to demonstrate their respective thoughts and resolve, rather than a place to compete for victory or defeat. It seems that this time slot will be one in which the question beyond the numbers, "What kind of story do they want to deliver?" will be asked more than ever before. (MANTAN/Tateyama Natsuyuki)
