| Count Down TV | |
|---|---|
Title screen used in 2009. |
|
| Format | Music Live Program, Music chart |
| Presented by | Hiromi Ishikawa (Abī-kun), Masami Kikuchi (Kikuchi-kun), Maki Arai (Mākī) |
| Country of origin | Japan |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Shinji Suzuki, Takayuki Ishibashi/Kō Serata, Shintarō Ōki |
| Running time | 30–45 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | TBS |
| Original airing | 7 April 1993 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
''Count Down TV'' (カウントダウン・ティーヴィー Kauntodaun Tīvī) (also known as CDTV) is a Japanese late night music television show, originally broadcast on TBS from 1993 onwards. The program is shown weekly, and features a Japanese music video hit chart countdown, live performances from musicians and music information. It is presented by three CGI hosts.
Contents |
On all but two of the 26 TBS broadcasting channels, the show is aired on Sundays at 12:58am–1:43am. On Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting, the show airs after a one hour delay (1:58am–2:43am), and on Ryukyu Broadcasting it airs later on Fridays at 12:56am–1:45am (due to a network exchange with Nippon Television and their variety show Enta no Kamisama (エンタの神様 The God of Entertainment)).
On areas without TBS programming, the program is shown at a delayed time on several NNS channels. On Akita Broadcasting, the show airs on Fridays from 1:13am–1:58am, on Fukui Broadcasting the show airs on Wednesdays from 12:59am–1:44am, and on Shikoku Broadcasting, the show airs on Wednesdays from 12:59am–1:44am.
The show was created after a gap the broadcast of the long-run TBS countdown show The Best Ten (1978–1989). A top 100 music countdown show called Totsuzen Baraetī Sokuhō!! Count Down 100 (突然バラエティー速報!!COUNT DOWN100 Sudden Variety Show Report!! Count Down 100) (presented by Kuniko Tamada and Masayuki Watanabe) begun airing on TBS networks from October 1992, however received low ratings in its targeted youth market (due to its early airing time, 8pm, and the at average 10pm returning home time of the target audience). The show finished airing in March 1993.
The show was re-branded, becoming Count Down TV and airing from April 1993 onwards. Some of the rebranding changes were later broadcast times, CGI hosts and imagery, along with only airing the top 40 chart rank-ins.
The format has remained basically the same over the years. Some changes have been extending the broadcast from 30 minutes to 40 (and extending the charts from top 40 to top 50) and introducing album/ringtone chart countdowns.
The show is split up into several chart segments, based around weekly or monthly sales. Weekly singles rankings are split into last week's top 10, #30-#21, #20-#11, #10-#4, and sequential sections for singles ranking #3, #2 and #1. The top 10 albums' chart is briefly broadcast (from April 2009, non-domestic albums also feature), along with the top 10/20 ringtones. Other than these charts, between 1-3 musical guests perform in weekly segments (generally songs popular on the charts at the time), along with an older clip from the 'CDTV library' and fortune telling for the week.
The monthly segments include Shinkyoku Express (新曲EXPRESS New Song Express) (generally shown in the first week), CDTV History/Album Library (previous #1 singles/albums from that month in history), the top 10 songs performed at karaoke for that month, the top albums/DVDs. The CDTV Award for the top single/album/ringtone/DVD that month is also announced.
Other segments include information segments for hyped music videos/film tie-up songs/dorama theme songs (potentially with sample clips from these music videos), and user submission polls for such questions as 'Which artist do you want as a lover?', 'What song do you want for your Wedding?', etc.
Count Down TV ranks its music video countdown on the CDTV Top 100 chart. The chart is tallied by a combination of Oricon's singles chart and cable broadcast requests. Due to this, songs not officially released as singles (such as album tracks, B-sides, digital download singles, or the single before its official release) occasionally rank in, if the song has a music video that has been submitted to the station. As of December 2009, only these 13 tracks have achieved this:
As the charts are formulated from only Japanese domestic artists, it is rare for an overseas artist to rank on the charts (usually this is done when a collaboration single with a Japanese artist is released). The non-Japanese artists to rank on the CDTV charts (non-domestically) are:
Count Down TV also ranks albums and ringtone downloads, but uses the raw data from Oricon and Recochoku, respectively.
The presenters of the show are computer rendered animated characters. There are always three presenters: two (Abī-kun (アビー君), voiced by Hiromi Ishikawa and Kikuchi-kun (菊池君), voiced by Masami Kikuchi) have been constant, while the third changed over time. The third is generally a famous program announcer on other TBS television shows. The six third animated announcers are:
Since the show's inception in June 1993, two popular music songs have been used as the show's opening and ending theme songs, changing monthly. For a complete list of these songs, see the list on the Japanese Wikipedia.