was a Japanese music chart television program broadcast on TBS Television from 1978 to 1989. The weekly shows were broadcast live on Thursdays. During its broadcast history, the air time and day changed only once. Each episode had one male and one female presenter. From 1978 to 1989, there were a total of four male presenters. The female presenter was always Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. The program is also colloquially known as .
During its broadcast time since 1978, numerous other music television programs, including Fuji TV's music program , which was first broadcast ten years earlier in 1968, were already popular and well known all over Japan. The popularity and audience rating increased very quickly and reached 41.9%.
When Oricon Style published the results of the national survey of "Music programs that I would like to see revived" in May 2010, The Best Ten achieved first place. When news website Shunkan Josei Prime published the same survey in November 2023, The Best Ten was again in first place, regaining the same place as in the 2010 survey charts. The surveyors answered the reason behind revival for "excitement of the weekly new charts, its original ranking system, entertaining presenters and memorable outdoor performances".
The program has been re-broadcast on the cable television channel TBS Channel 2 in 2020 and 2022. The order of broadcasting was chosen based on the high view ranting and popularity. According to the article published on news website Sponichi in 2020, one of the reasons for the re-broadcast decision was for the younger generation having interest in kayōkyoku music, referring to the Japanese phenomenon . Partial reason was the Kayōkyoku special episode of Matsuko no Shiranai Sekai hosted by Matsuko Deluxe, which broadcast on the same year.
"The Best Ten Theme" was performed during the 62nd Japan Record Awards to commemorate and show respect for the original composer of the song, Katsuhisa Hattori, who died earlier that year.
History The Best Ten was a weekly 54 minutes (in later years 55 minutes) music program. The music chart program was successor of the previous music program , which broadcast in years 1965-1967 and in general music program . Many Japanese musical acts made their television performance debut on The Best Ten, but the show has also hosted many artists from all around the world. In the span of 11 years, over 630 episodes were broadcast and more than 400 artists performed.
The show was always notable for the ranking boards clattering away before the announcement by presenter, as they went up to show The Best Ten's top 10 singles of the week. In the case if the artist could not appear, they would jump immediately to announce the next chart position. For the rankings from 11 to 20, they were given 5 seconds screen time for video-sound introduction with the chart performance for the last 4 weeks. In the case if it was the first week, only the one position would be displayed. In 2016, in magazine "Pen", the producer and the director of the program Shuji Yamada revealed, that board construction and idea comes from airport's tables of departures and arrival.
The guests always came through the shiny wall panel, to greet with presenters and have a one-two minute short interview about song or recent events before the stage performance. Every week, the staff would build sets for each artist to enhance the song's atmosphere and performance. Inspired by Yoru no Hit Studio, solo artists were accompanied by TBS' studio orchestra until 1985, when the show began to use pre-recorded backing tracks. Artists were also shown performing on location, such as an entrance of temple or inside train. Unlike Yoru no Hit Studio, which allowed artist to perform in full chorus, The Best Ten it was always one and half chorus. Sometimes before the start of artist's performance, the presenters would read a randomly chosen postcard letter during the song's intro. After the end of performance, they would sit on the large sofa. During the program's end credits, a memorial group photo was shown.
In cases where artists couldn't appear on the program due to scheduling conflicts, or otherwise refused to appear on TV, the presenters would conduct a phone interview, and in later years, long-distance camera interviews.
The series' ratings began declining in 1985. Factors included the departureof the series' first male presenter, Hiroshi Kume, along with the increasing number of featured artists who declined to appear on the program, and the use of backing tracks during live performances.
In July 1989, the cancelation of the program has been announced during the broadcast. As for the cancelation reason, Kuroyanagi expressed "difficulty to have 10 artist performance within the short amount of broadcast time and blaming the lengthened performance time from the half-chorus to full"; claiming later that one of presenters priorities "was to always give small interview with the artist".
By the end of The Best Ten, it has been replaced by music news program , which aired on the same day and time as The Best Ten and shared same female presenter, Kuroyanagi.
Ranking system The Best Best includes its own music ranking chart, which was equally recognized to the music industry and music association.
The point system has been based on the four important factors: record sales (using rankings from three companies: Oricon, Music Lab, and Music Research) cable broadcast requests (using data from the national cable music broadcasting association) radio broadcast request charts (using the rankings of 25 radio stations for this program) postcard requests by the fans
The scoring point ratio at the start of the program were: "30 points for record", "10 points for cable", "20 points for radio" and "40 points for postcard". During the time, the postcards had the highest points. However, in February 1979, TBS announced that the scoring ratio would be changed from 20 points to 30 points for radio and from 40 to 30 points for postcards (record points and cable points remained unchanged). The reason for the change was, that "many postcards with clearly the same handwriting but different names were found, borrowed other people's names without permission.
The scoring ratio was subsequently revised, and from 1981 it became: "45 points for records", "10 points for cable", "21 points for radio" and "23 points for postcard", and from 1986 until the end, it became "60 points for records", "10 points for cable", "10 points for radio" and "20 points for postcards".
By the end of a year, special has been published and by the order from 10 to 1. The artists, who've charted performed on the year's final broadcast.
Presenters Throughout its history, The Best Ten was hosted by 4 male presenters and 1 female presenter. Tetsuko Kuroyanagi was the series' longest-running host. In October 2023, Hiroshi Kume published a book about his 17 years of experience and emotions during hosting the program.
Year Main Male Main Female 1978–1985 1985–1986 1986–1989 1989
Revival Specials After the series' 1989 cancelation, various specials were broadcast from 1991 to 2019, some up to 3 hours long. Certain specials featured the current hosts discussing the show's history and playing archived clips of some of its more notable performances.
"Omoide no Best Ten" - 1 April 1991 – 8 March 1992 "Konya Dake! Gohonka Fukkatsu The Best Ten Special" - 3 October 1991 "The Best Ten 1991 Nenmatsu Special" - 28 December 1991 "The Best Ten Dousoukai" - 26 December 1993 "The Best Ten Dousoukai II" - 29 March 1994 "The Best Ten Fukkatsu Ban" - 4 April 1995 "The Best Ten Konya Dake no Goukaban '97" - 28 December 1997 "The Best Ten Fukkouban Special" - 2000–2004 annual broadcast, which always aired on 31 December "Fukkatsu! The Best Ten" - 12 July 2019
Releases Beginning in 2009, numerous branded CD and DVD box sets were released due to high demand from the artists' fans.
The DVDs include full footage of the performances, however in some occasions, the interviews shown before the performances were not included.
Albums Compilation albums Release Title Label Serial No. Reference22 April 2009 The Best Ten 1978-1979 GT Music MHCL-1500 The Best Ten 1980-1991 USMTVM UICZ-805 The Best Ten 1982-1983 Victor VICL-63297 The Best Ten 1984-1985 Pony Canyon PCCA-02894 The Best Ten Kayoukyoku Hen 1978-1985Nippon Columbia COCP-35547 The Best Ten Kayoukyoku Hen II 1978-1989 COCP-36227 The Best Ten Spotlight Hen 1978-1985 GT Music MHCL-1501 23 June 2010 The Best Ten 1986-1987 Pony Canyon PCCA-03049 The Best Ten 1988-1989 USMTVM UICZ-8071 The Best Ten Spotlight Hen II 1978-1985 GT Music MHCL-1619 The Best Ten Request Hen II 1978-1989 Victor VICL-63405
DVD set-boxes Release Title Format Label Serial No. Reference 16 December 2009 The Best Ten Momoe Yamaguchi 5-DVD TBS Television TCED-689 16 March 2011 The Best Ten The Checkers 6-DVD Pony Canyon PCBE-63405 28 March 2012 The Best Ten Akina Nakamori 5-DVD Warner Music Japan POBD-22043 28 March 2024 The Best Ten Yoko Minamino 3-Blu-ray CBS-Sony MHXL 138~40 19 March 2025 Miho Nakayama 40th Anniversary: The Best Ten 5-Blu-ray King Records KIXM611
Other DVD set-boxes Release Title Note Label Serial No. Reference 4 November 2015 Candies Memories For Freedom Disc 3 includes 2 video footages from The Best Ten Sony Records DQBX-1222 23 December 2020 Naoko Eternal Songs Disc 1 and Disc 2 are from The Best Ten Nippon Columbia COBA-7211 28 April 2021 Kenji Sawada TBS Premium Collection Disc 4 and Disc 5 are from The Best Ten Nippon Columbia COBA-7211 25 March 2022 The 50 Hideki Saijo song of memories Disc 3 and Disc 4 are from The Best Ten Sony Records DQBX-1241
Home video DVD Other home video DVD Release Title Artist Label Note Reference 26 October 2010 Golden Days Minako Honda Warner Music Japan Disc 3 (DVD Disc 1) includes 15 video footages from The Best Ten
Publications Books TitleAuthorReleasePublisherISBN Shuji Yamada 29 March 2012 Shinchousha
Magazine feat. TitleAuthorReleasePublisherISBN collective author 20 April 2004 Kadokawa
See also Yoru no Hit Studio
References
External links The Best Ten on TBS Official Website