(also known as CDTV) is a Japanese late-night music television program, broadcast on TBS since 1993. 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-animated hosts.

History

The show was created after a gap the broadcast of the long-run TBS countdown show

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(1978–1989). A top 100 music countdown show called (presented by

Kuniko Tamada Kuniko (written: , , , or ) is a feminine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: * (1209–1283), Empress of Japan * (born 1962), Japanese actress and television presenter *, Japanese swimmer * (born 1952), Japanese politician ...

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 A ringtone, ring tone or ring is the sound made by a telephone to indicate an incoming call. Originally referring to and made by the electromechanical striking of bells, the term now refers to any sound on any device alerting of a new incoming ...

chart countdowns. Since April 2020, Count Down TV was split into 2 different programs: CDTV! Saturday (Sundays 12:58am) and CDTV! LIVE LIVE (Mondays 9pm; Mondays 10pm from March 30, 2020 - March 29, 2021). The same CGI hosts presented the Saturday edition while TBS announcer Ai Eto presented the Monday edition. The Saturday edition ended on March 21, 2021. The ranking segment which has been part of the Saturday (original) edition was then carried over to the Monday edition.

Main Segments

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 (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 Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music i ...

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/

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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.

CDTV Top 100

''Count Down TV'' ranks its music video countdown on the ''CDTV Top 100'' chart. The chart is tallied by a combination of

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in N ...

'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: * Dohzi-T feat. Beni - (4 weeks early rank-in at #90) *

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- (album "Love Unlimited" album track) * Exile & Kumi Koda - "

Won't Be Long "Won't Be Long" (stylized all in capitals as ''WON'T BE LONG'') is a collaboration single by Japanese group Exile and singer-songwriter Koda Kumi. It debuted on No. 2 on Oricon and stayed there for the weekly ranking, bringing its monthly ran ...

" (1 week early rank-in at #94) * Glay - (2 weeks early rank-in at #97) * Greeeen - (2 weeks early rank-in at #76) * Kiyoshi Hikawa - (1 week early rank-in at #99) *Kiyoshi Hikawa - (1 week early rank-in at #92) * Hi-Standard - " Love Is a Battlefield" (considered an album by

, but a single by CDTV) * Sharam Q - (single "Īwake"'s B-side) *

George Tokoro , better known by the stage name , is a Japanese comedian, TV personality, singer-songwriter, and essayist. Born in Tokorozawa, Saitama, he attended Takushoku University's Commercial Science class. Works Film *''Madadayo'' (1993) - Amaki *''Po ...

- (considered an album by

, but a single by CDTV) *

Hikaru Utada , who is also known by the mononym Utada, is a Japanese-American pop singer, songwriter and producer. By 2010, Utada had become one of the most influential, and best-selling, musical artists in Japan. Born in the United States to Japanese paren ...

- " First Love" (1 week early rank-in at #99) *Hikaru Utada - " Prisoner of Love" (1 week early rank-in at #84) * Yui - "Laugh Away" (digital single) 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: *

Naomi Campbell Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model, actress, singer, and businesswoman. She began her career at the age of 15, and established herself amongst the most recognisable and in-demand models of the past four decades. Cam ...

("La La La Love Song" w/ Toshinobu Kubota) *

Céline Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...

( w/ Yuna Ito) * Melissa Manchester ("Stand in the Light" w/ Tatsuro Yamashita) *

Park Yong-ha Park Yong-ha (Korean: 박용하, August 12, 1977 – June 30, 2010) was a South Korean actor and singer. Career At seventeen, Park was noted for his acting and musical skills, as well as his good looks which earned him popularity with fans. A ...

(originally considered an overseas artist on his first single, "Kajimaseyo" (カジマセヨ)

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Maxi Priest Max Alfred "Maxi" Elliott (born 10 June 1961), known by his stage name Maxi Priest, is a British reggae vocalist of Jamaican descent. He is best known for singing reggae music with an R&B influence, otherwise known as reggae fusion. He was one ...

("Love Somebody" w/ Yūji Oda) *

Richie Sambora Richard Stephen Sambora (born July 11, 1959) is an American rock guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Bon Jovi from 1983 to 2013. He and lead singer Jon Bon Jovi formed the main songwri ...

("Forever" w/ Takashi Sorimachi) *

Ryu Si-won Ryu Si-won (; born 6 October 1972) is a South Korean actor and singer. After he made his debut in the KBS drama ''Feeling'' in 1994, Ryu pursued a singing career. He was convicted of stalking his wife (now ex wife) in 2013. Early life Ryu was ...

* Brian Setzer ("Back Streets of Tokyo" w/ Tomoyasu Hotei) * Roger Taylor ("Foreign Sand" w/ Yoshiki) * Twelve Girls Band (" Loulan" (楼蘭) w/ Sachiko Kobayashi) * Caron Wheeler ("Just the Two of Us" w/ Toshinobu Kubota) * Faye Wong (" Eyes on Me", " Separate Ways") ''Count Down TV'' also ranks albums and

downloads, but uses the raw data from

and Recochoku, respectively.

Annual Song Rank No.1

* These songs also won the Grand Prix of

Japan Record Award is a major music awards show, held annually in Japan that recognizes outstanding achievements in the Japan Composer's Association. Until 2005, the show aired on New Year's Eve, but has since aired every December 30 on TBS Japan at 6:30 P.M JST ...

. ** AKB48 keeps the record for the most No.1 of the year (7 times). *** The bold font indicates these songs are also the No.1 in Hot 100 of the year of Billboard Japan.

Specials

In addition to the main episodes, ''Count Down TV'' has aired various specials during its run including the year-end special

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Premier Live.

Presenters

The presenters of the show are computer-rendered animated characters. There are always three presenters: two (, voiced by Hiromi Ishikawa and , 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: * (voiced by Yumi Takada) * (voiced by Yumi Takada) * (voiced by

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) * (voiced by

Ikumi Kimura is a feminine Japanese given name. People with this name include: *, Japanese manga artist *, Japanese volleyball player *, Japanese volleyball player *, Japanese voice actress *, Japanese voice actress *, first Japanese woman to win the Miss I ...

) * (voiced by

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) * (voiced by Maki Arai)

Theme Songs

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.

CDTV in popular culture

*The

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popular

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" Gin Tama" episode's 2009 "Start the Countdown" featured a ''CD Gin Tama'' segment, in which all of the greatest quotes from the show were listed. A ''guest live'' was even included, in the form of Hitomi Takahashi (whose song " Wo Ai Ni" was the ending theme song at the time). A Gin Tama-styled animated Takahashi even gave a brief comment before her performance. The ''CD Gin Tama'' segment was repeated again in the episode "Screw Popularity Polls." *The

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network S ...

variety show " Mecha-Mecha Iketeru!" features a segment called ''ICDTV'' (Iketeru Count Down TV), in which two songs are picked by members, and the one voted on most is chosen to be parodied. *The segment of the Fuji TV variety show featured a countdown of their most popular moments on the show called ''CDDD'' (Count Down Dame Dame).

References

External links

TBS 'CDTV' Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Count Down Tv Japanese music chart television shows 1993 Japanese television series debuts TBS Television (Japan) original programming