The individual artist ratings for the “61st Kohaku Uta Gassen“ was revealed on January 4th, and it was discovered that SMAP were the performers who pulled in the highest ratings among all artists during Kohaku. SMAP attended this year’s Kohaku as the ootori (the last performer of the whole show), and while they were performing at 11:33 PM, the rating reached an impressive 48.9%. This is the sixth time that SMAP has managed to pull the highest rating (by singer) during Kohaku, and they demonstrated the power of SMAP to the nation once again. SMAP commented, “We are glad to hear that many people watched our performance. We hope that the year of 2011 will be bright year. Please continue to support us this year as well.” Second to SMAP was the group DREAMS COME TRUE, who also pulled high rating of 47.2%. Following them were Kuwata Keisuke (45.4%), Fukuyama Masaharu (43.4%), and AKB48, who was the only artist who pulled 40% during the first half. The highest rated moment during the show was the ending segment when the summary video of the show was airing, and it clocked in at 49.7%.
