First episode date 11 January 1998 Genre Reality television | Original network Nihon TV Final episode date 29 September 2002 | |
Original release January 11, 1998 – September 29, 2002 Similar Man vs Beast, All My Babies' Mamas, Star Tanjō! |
Susunu! Denpa Shōnen (進ぬ!電波少年) is a Japanese reality TV show which aired from January 11, 1998 to September 29, 2002 on the Nihon TV network, and online from October 2009.
Contents
Susunu denpa sh nen
Description
The title is a pun. The predecessor of the show was called Susume Denpa Shōnen (lit. Forward! Signal Youth). To depict that the show indeed moved forward, one of the characters of the title was made longer by changing the "me" (め) to "nu" (ぬ), approximately meaning Do not advance! Signal Youth.
The show is known for the extreme situations the participants were placed in. It gained high ratings, and spawned a sister show, Raiha Shōnen (雷波少年), and was controversial due to the sadistic challenges and rule changes made by the television producers if they felt the participants were doing too well. The show also received criticism for some of the show segments being staged
The participants were usually unknown comedians who were ready to do anything to get famous. Upon application, they were chosen randomly, and were not told what the objective of their challenge was. Some of the challengers became more or less famous, while some remained relatively unknown.
The initial discontinuation of the program was due to governmental measures against shows with themes of "torture." However, it experienced a resurgence on the internet, beginning in October 2009, through its availability on the streaming platform Number Two Nihon Television (第2日本テレビ). The first new participant in the webcast version was comedian Yoshio Kojima.
Major challenges
In the four-year course of the original program, participants completed about 20 challenges.
Amongst the best known are