57th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen

Broadcast stations

Events leading up to broadcast date

September 20: Theme of the 57th event announced. "Ai. Kazoku. ~Sedai wo Koeru Uta ga Aru~", literally meaning "Love and Family: Songs that Last for Generations".

November 17: Yukie Nakama will be hostess of the Red Team. Previously, Monta Mino was supposed to be an emcee of the event, but was not offered the position in the 57th event due to a conflict of being both singer and emcee (Monta released a CD earlier in 2006.)

November 29: List of singers and groups announced, as well as the remainder of the program's team hosts and mediators. Participants include (note that the songs listed are as of the announcement. Song selections may change leading up to the event):

Singers/groups who received invitations to the 57th event but declined include:

December 27: Order of the performances and song assignments are announced.

Restriction of viewing audience participation

Audience participants at NHK Hall were restricted to those who's subscription fees with Hōsō Hō (Japan's Broadcasting Act) were in good standing. Whether or not this restriction was placed on previous events is unknown. NHK used this criterion as an indicator, to see if the scandals at NHK had an effect on whether or not people were paying the fee. Based on NHK statistics, 365,970 applications for tickets to the NHK Hall event were received, down from 503,721 in 2005.

Chairpersons

Judges

Special guest

Performing guests

Using the ball system

With the 57th event, the judging by balls was revived (balls were not used in the 56th event.) One ball represents one point. No one knows how many points each team earned until the very end of the event. To announce the winner, balls are used as visual props. Two buckets are used to hold the balls, one colored red and the other colored white. At the end of the event, the number of balls in each bucket will equal the total number of points for each team.

First, each of the two balls representing the first-half voting are placed in the bucket of the winning teams. The buckets are then placed in a box with a hole on top - large enough for an arm to reach in.

Next, the ten judges are each handed a ball. They then leave their seats and walk up to the box. Each judge places his/her ball secretly into either the white or red bucket, indicating the team they prefer, and without anyone else seeing. Once the ten balls have been placed in the buckets, the buckets are taken out of the box and then handed to two women. The two women then walk up on stage with the buckets. A third woman follows the buckets while holding a basket containing six additional balls - representing the remaining points to be earned.

Next, everyone witnesses the total number of votes for all the 2nd-half categories (see the distribution table below.) The woman with the basket of balls then place the balls into each of the two buckets, based on the points earned by the 2nd-half voting.

From here, the baskets are given to the team hosts. And then while counting up in ascending order, the team hosts throw each ball into the audience at the same time. Once a team host runs out of balls, everyone knows who the winning team is - as the winning team host continues to throw balls.

Winner and distribution

The 57th event was won by the White Team with a total of 13 points. This win breaks the tie of wins overall between the Red and White teams, as the White Team now leads with 29 victories (Red Team has 28). The table below documents the voting and points distribution:

DJ Ozma performance controversy

Days prior to the 57th event, DJ Ozma told the media his performance on Kōhaku would be something special. He performed his hit song, "Age Age Every Knight" live at approximately 22:22 JST. After the performance, NHK received 252 complaints within about one hour, prompting Tamio Miyake to read an official bulletin later at 23:45 JST, explaining what happened during the performance. The bulletin sent giggles throughout NHK Hall.

During DJ Ozma's performance, several of the women performers removed pieces of clothing, revealing what appeared to be naked breasts. In the NHK bulletin, Tamio explained that the women were actually wearing flesh-colored bodysuits with drawn-on breasts, and assured the audience that no nudity occurred. Further inspection via recordings show flaws in the bodysuits, such as wrinkling of the skin and the breasts on all the women looking identical.

Despite the stunt being completely fake, viewers considered the performance to be distasteful and inappropriate for children. The performance was shown after family time, however it is tradition that the Kōhaku is a family event - as children would stay up with their families and watch Kōhaku while celebrating New Year's Eve. NHK is also a Japanese government-run TV network, and viewers hold the network to a high level of quality in their programming.

Before the performance on December 31, DJ Ozma announced he would be on the TBS show CDTV Special, putting on the same performance he would be performing on Kōhaku. It is unknown whether or not TBS received complaints about the up-coming performance.

January 1: NHK posted on their web site the following message:

To loosely translate, NHK mentions that the background dancers were wearing bodysuits and therefore were not naked. The network did not know such an act would happen in the NHK broadcast. During rehearsal, the dancers were not wearing clothes like they did in the live performance. The performance did not meet the program's theme. We are sorry for the unpleasant events presented to you, our viewers.

Contrary to NHK's explanation, sports newspapers reported on December 30 - one day before the event - to expect the performance to be done in a bodysuit.

750 complaints were called in leading up to January 1 23:00 JST. On January 4, NHK president Genichi Hashimoto formally apologized about the event on-air.

January 10: Hashimoto Genichi appeared in an interview regarding the DJ Ozma event:

January 14: DJ Ozma expresses his apologies. But at the same time, he pointed out that NHK was evading responsibility, and mentioned the Kōhaku's producer by name.

On tape-delayed broadcasts via NHK World Premium, the video portion of DJ Ozma's performance was replaced with coastal scenery. On United States-based TV stations, the entire performance of DJ Ozma was completely removed. Viewers suspect this is in response to Janet Jackson's infamous wardrobe malfunction incident in 2004. Interesting enough, Tamio Miyake's bulletin later in the event was left in, causing viewers to wonder exactly what they missed. This caused Internet savvy users scurrying to on-line video sites such as YouTube to view the censored segment.

Competition

All viewership ratings are from Video Research, Ltd., and they represent only the Kantō region.